A screen capture of 12 citizens.[Photo/Mtime]

Not since Zhang Yimou played the male lead in 1986's Old Well has an ace director trumped actors of his profession with such on-screen and off-screen poignancy.

Xu Haofeng's The Master seems to be a scaled-down version of The Grandmaster, which he co-wrote. It is certainly different from the norm, but his familiarity with the material could be holding him back from a full filmic vision.

While I applaud his innovation, I was not emotionally involved or thematically curious.

12 Citizens, a Chinese remake of 12 Angry Men, resolved the biggest conundrum－that China does not employ a jury system－with a stroke of genius. But it was marred by several clumsy touches, such as the eventual certainty of the suspect's innocence and the secret identity of the Henry Fonda character, here played by stage veteran He Bing.

The moral of the story, in my opinion, should be: There is not enough evidence to convict the guy, not that he was the wrong target.

Other art-house offerings that I have missed but may be worthy of mentioning include: Wang Xiaoshuai's Red Amnesia, a revisit to the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), Li Ruijun's River Road, Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden's Tharlo, and the work of a possible whiz kid, 26-year-old Bi Gai's Kaili Blues, which won several cineaste-circle awards.

Not a single one of the aforementioned output grossed more than 100 million yuan at the box office. Their cumulative takings may not have reached this figure either. Which makes this year's blockbusters all the more astounding.