Year: 2011
Plot: "Gang In-ho, who is working to earn money for his daughter's surgery, is appointed to a school for hearing-impaired children in Gwangju. But what he discovers there is an ugly truth: the children are being physically and sexually abused by their teachers. When he decides to fight for the children's rights and expose the crimes being committed at the school, In-ho teams up with human rights activist Seo Yu-jin. But he and Yu-jin soon realize the school's principal and teachers, and even the police, prosecutors and churches in the community are actually trying to cover up the truth."
I know I have been slacking as far as Asian movie reviews go. I have watched a bunch, but haven't had the time to actually get a review done. As far as Silenced goes, I had to find the time to review. I know it is a subject that many might try to avoid watching, I know my sister is. I ended up watching the movie alone in my room because she refused to watch a movie involving child abuse and molestation. As I see it though, this movie isn't about the bad, but about the good that came out of this case.
This movie was stunning to watch and i could see it from the beginning. I was sold about this movie even after the first 20 minutes. The fact that the abuse and molestation wasn't shied away from like many other movies might have made the movie all that more impactful. One person suggested that people fast forward through the scenes on Netflix and I think that is horrible. I am a person who laughs at blood and gore, but I had to look away quite a few times while watching the abuse scenes, still I never skipped over these scenes. It just seems wrong to me to actually skip over these scenes when the point was for them to be disturbing. If you simply skip over them, I don't know that the impact would be the same.
I also found another response posted about this movie that said how horrible the people were for being a part of making this movie. The person was upset because of how the movie ended, and that the teacher was a coward for not helping the children. The problem is that this movie wasn't meant as a feel good movie. This was meant as a statement about the atrocities that went on at a school for the deaf and limitations that were faced when trying to punish those at fault. The fact is that you should be upset after watching this movie. To think that the government had so many faults that the ending happened as it did is outrageous.
I have to say the person was completely wrong about the teacher though. He wasn't a coward, he was just conflicted for the most part. It was really hard for him to go against what he needed to do for his own family to help out the children. I can only imagine what kind of stress he must have felt knowing that he was doing the right thing, but in doing so was going against his duties to his family.
This is definitely a movie to watch. It is sad and disturbing, but it definitely strikes a nerve in a positive way. The acting in this movie was great, some felt that Yoo Gong (played In-ho) was rather emotionless, but I have to disagree. I simply felt that he was conflicted and wasn't sure what the best course was.
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