Movie Review: Silenced
Silenced is a 2011 film released by Gong Yoo. Based on Hong Ji-young's novel The Crucible (Silent is the title where the film adaptation is released internationally). So the plot of the film was centered on a new teacher and students of a school for the deaf or hard of hearing, as well as for crimes committed there. The new teacher committed a crime as he discovered that the students were strange and seemed to be far away from him.
Although this situation will be very difficult for him, given the fact that he also has a daughter to take care of, he is fighting the heartless criminals who are abusing these children legally. Those criminals who bully students through principals, teachers, and others just ignore them. I am sad and I cry really many times I look. It annoys me the way things are and the pain will not go away because I know the film is based on a real story.
As mentioned, I researched the facts about the movie and tried to learn more because I could not really go on easily. While researching, I discovered that the novel / film was based on an incident that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for deaf students, where (similar to the film portrayed) deaf students were victims of sexual harassment by school principals and teachers as a result of sexual harassment. for a period of five years, this happened repeatedly in the early 2000s.
Based on a 2005 survey, six teachers (including the principal) sexually assaulted at least nine deaf (mute) students from 2000 to 20003 (or between those years). As a new teacher made an effort to expose their crimes by gaining the attention of a human rights organization in 2005, he was fired from his job. Afterwards, 9 victims spoke out but it is believed that many victims were too scared to leave. After some former students revealed this to national television, police were forced to investigate a few months after the victims were identified. Parents and students all demand justice, even living outside Gwangju city government offices and school for eight months. The case did not attract much attention from the media and, unfortunately, not all perpetrators were imprisoned and punished. 4 out of six abusers received prison sentences and the other two were released because the decision to limit their crimes had expired. Also, the arrested criminals were released less than a year after their suspension. Did the victims receive justice? In my opinion it is not enough.
What I love about this movie is that it has shed light on changes in South Korean law. It has become clear that there is a lot of justice in many areas (the police department and the law itself), bad things are still happening and they need action.
The film received high ratings and became a hit song in the two months after the release of the film and the controversy that erupted, the town of Gwangju officially closed the school (Gwangju Inwha School).