Silenced (2011)

Depressing. Tear-jerking.This injustice. Tore my heart. mountain of questions seemed stuck with me along the movie

Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers.Silenced (aka the Crucible) is a South Korean film that is not really an easy watch. It's quite good for the most part, but it will leave a bad taste in your mouth for sure. I do recommend watching it, but with the caveat that it will pretty much spoil your evening afterwards…So, you've been warned!I have a number of general rules that I try to live by, which allow me to go about my life in a civilized society with a clear conscience. These rules include simple mundane courtesies like saying thank you or opening the door for little old ladies or not flipping the bird to that idiot who doesn't know how to drive, to more serious matters like not disrupting someone else's marriage or abusing animals for kicks or cheating someone out of their life savings (which would, incidentally, be quite easy to do in my line of work). My list of rules escalate to not raping, torturing, murdering people…but, the list has always topped out with the following: DO NOT PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY, OR SEXUALLY ABUSE CHILDREN!If you don't know already, this movie is all about breaking my "golden rule" stated above. A school chock full of deviant teachers, principals, and employees, which has been systematically and repeatedly raping, beating, and torturing the child students there on a wide scale. To make matters worse (if that's possible), is the fact that this is a school for the deaf & mute, and, that many of these children are from broken homes, are orphaned, poor, etc… To top it off, this movie is based on a true story (a thought, which frankly, I could not get out of my head while watching the thing)…Now, I'm not privy as to what was depicted in the movie is actually factual, or what amount of dramatic license was invoked, or what have you…but, even if the tiniest bit of any of this is even remotely true, then, I am utterly disgusted…sadly however, I am no longer surprised by hearing stories like this in the world I live in.As for the movie itself, it basically revolves around a new teacher who comes to the school and soon uncovers the abuses within. He and a human rights activist he gets to know begin to work to help the children in harm's way, and, to punish those involved with the crimes. It's a straight up drama storyline and courtroom procedural for the most part…there's little to no action or vengeance involved, and, it's as un-exploitative and not anywhere near as graphic as it might have been (considering the subject matter) if this were part of some other type of film genre.Production, pacing, and story are all solid enough. Acting is pretty strong throughout (particularly from the children, which had to be bit uncomfortable performance wise for them). There's a side story involving the new teacher's child, which quickly takes a back seat to the primary plot point, along with the hinting of a budding relationship between said teacher and the activist. Aside from that, this film focuses almost exclusively on the evil deed at hand, what will be done about it once uncovered, and what efforts the community will go to in order to just make this all go away as quickly & quietly as possible. Oh, and this IS a Korean production, so (SUPER SPOILER), you might not want to get your hopes up for the happiest of endings. Bottom line: It's in the 7-8 out of 10 stars range for me…I'll give it an 8, because it is stuck in my brain (at least for now) after watching it, and, it was well done overall. And, after all, isn't that what watching cinema is all about?...If you want any type of a remotely "feel good/good time flick", watch something else!...but, if you're in the right mood to watch a solid and effecting drama about a sad and horrible topic, than this film comes fairly well recommended by yours truly!

"Silenced..." as the title suggests, is a powerful film about a mute and deaf school in Gwangju (South Korea).In 2005 Kang In-ho arrives at a school where children are deaf, but quickly realizes that something is wrong, as children were cloistered in a kind of autism. The reason is simple; they are suffering from pain through twin-principals and other teachers. Kang In-ho, first was blind towards the horrible acts, however, he wakes up very quickly and puts his life in the background to devote him entirely to these children in the deepest distress.Written and directed by filmmaker Dong-hyuk Hwang, who runs his second coil after My Father (2007), based on the novel by Jee-young Cong taking Novel in one hand and camera in the other, Hwang Dong-hyuk takes us into a hell where cruelty is watchword. Men who abuse children are already a disgrace, but when equipped with a handicap that prevents them to express them while we pass this stage to speak only to be demonic. Moreover, work is in addition to killing these demons, exposing South Korea where levels of justice are rotten to the point that despite overwhelming evidence, everyone comes out innocent or at worst a slight slap on the wrist. Such injustice deserved to talk about it, and if the literature does not always express them on a large scale, the cinema can more easily, and in 2011 the film has been a blow, pushing the government to close the school and start a new trial.Hwang Dong-hyuk, who directs his cast with strength and power, conveys a strong message with an eye opener. We can feel the players involved, everyone is in the place and nobody is ever too much, especially children, crying for truth, despite their silence, but the look says a lot about the work of management. No melodramatic pathos, not only the accuracy enhanced by fluid narration and exciting, equally divided between face to face with the horror and the trial, or rather mock trial. The director also quite unsettling talent to film scenes touching, working the image at the point of giving an atmosphere of morbid poetry returning the stomach (although almost everything is hidden), to the Unlike scenes about bullying that they go into bestiality at the lowest.Silenced is a work that takes you to the gut, but also a masterpiece at all levels, sad, very sad, because during filming (like writing a book) hopelessness was most certainly in the spirit all, nobody is expecting that the film can shake rotten legal foundation at this point to the bone. The arrival of this film is welcome, but it remains a work paradoxically awful cinematic should play a social role, rape, torture, and death stories of children who have so far had very little impact. We think Hwang Dong-hyuk has done considerable work, but we also think these children whose childhood or life, were stolen. The story is very centered and never leaves its intention, as I said earlier it is based on the true story, we can feel the sufferings of the characters.This is a take on the human with animal instinct and the actions will shake the base of humanity.Recommended to everyone who can digest the kinky truth.9/10

Gang In-ho takes a job working at a school for the hearing impaired in Gwangju. The movie opens with him driving to the school (and having an accident) about the same time as a young boy from the school commits suicide by walking in front of a train. From almost the beginning of his time at the school, he notices that something seems out of kilter. The school seems almost dark and unfeeling. The students not particularly friendly and one teacher is just damned mean. The movie focuses on two sisters, one of whom is especially stand-offish and the other, unfriendly and with issues about eating and their brother who seems to be bloodied and bruised worse every time he comes to class. We eventually learn that the two girls are being abused physically and sexually by the Principal and the Asst Principal with the knowledge of one female teacher, the security guard, a local police officer and at least one staff member (who is abusing the boy both physically and sexually) The teacher enlists the help of Seo Yu-jin, a human rights activist to help the children (and him) Initially they find little support for their cause. The police are totally disinterested in what Yu-jin tells them. Partially because here in Korea making the establishment look bad is not something people do readily and partially because the police officer is a fairly high ranking figure within the department. Finally, they turn to YTN News. And a reporter does an interview with the children that is seen on TV throughout Korea. The police reluctantly spring into action and arrest the principal, asst principal and the teacher -- no one else. The movie then moves onto the second trial. The children are 'raped' again, this time by members of the establishment. The Superintendent for Public Instruction and the defense lawyer try to bribe the teacher into ending the case. When he refuses, they pay off the aged and mentally feeble grandmother of the children. The local evangelical community rallies to the defense of the principal. The prosecutor seems to be on the side of justice, but in the end, it appears he left the children hanging out to dry. The movie is extremely graphic and painful. The rape scenes are not glossed over and the physical abuse of the oldest brother is difficult to watch. But more painful, is the end of the trial where the audience is left frustrated, angry and saddened by the way these three children (and their dead brother) are left with nothing even remotely resembling justice. What makes this hard to take is that, while the movie is based on the events, the events still happened and they were as horrid as the movie describes. And were it not for the book and this movie some of these people would have continued with their lives as if nothing had happened. A definite 10.