The troupe finally hit it big in 1991 with their remake of the Reginald Rose work "Twelve Angry Men". It was rewritten into a comedy (since there is no such jury system in Japan) called "12 Gentle Japanese" (Japanese title: "Juuni-nin no Yasashii Nihonjin"). The success of this play eventually encouraged the production of a movie directed by Nakahara Shun. However, since the play was registered as created by "Mitani Koki" as opposed to "The Sunshine Boys", the producers took over and held auditions for the cast. Only three of the then 13 Tokyo Sunshine Boys made it onto the cast: Aijima Kazuyuki, Kajiwara Zen, and Kondo Yoshimasa.