Chinese mayor suggests entire judicial system is out of order, recommends judges watch more Western legal dramas and action films
In a report that we’re 99.9 percent certain isn’t the work of hackers, the mayor of Chinese mega-city Chongqing has offered up an unorthodox source of expertise to officials of the nation’s judicial system: action flicks and legal dramas. After presumably earning a raised eyebrow and a skeptical “I’ll allow it…” from the entire People’s Republic, Mayor Huang Qifan proceeded to make his case, probably hooking his thumbs under his suspenders and spinning folksy wisdom about how Chinese judges could learn a thing or two from the loose-cannon, cool-headed tactics of Western action heroes and onscreen juries who refuse to be swayed by lawyerly cunning. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Huang—a man who oversees a city of nearly 29 million but is mostly concerned with 12 Angry Men—didn’t cite any specific titles during his address; though if pressed, it’s likely he has an idea for a sixth Die Hard movie in which John McClane prevails against gridlocked and corrupt Chinese courts with the help of a wily sidekick who’s also a mayor. “Yippie ki-yay, mother justice,” Huang did not say—though that may have been lost in the translation.