Overall, it's not really a horror movie. It starts like one, with all the suspense, dark corners and those special asian girls crawling on the floor, all wet hair and moving strangely. At some point I thought it was something like 'A Tale of Two Sisters', but it's not.
But the turn in the middle of the story was quite a surprise and left me less anxious. I was more relaxed while watching but it was nevertheless still exciting. In fact I enjoyed it even more. The beginning was a bit too calm and maybe a bit boring. I guess the producers were trying to create a really oppressive atmosphere but that didn't work out that well. Therefore the second half of the movie was more interesting (although a little more suspense couldn't have hurt).
Focusing on the little details... The scenery/setting was quite nice. I enjoyed looking at the places and the school. Also the make-up. It didn't show much but it was effective, well placed and did add to the atmosphere.
The acting of the girls was also a plus (not the principal though - too hollow). I'm starting to recognize Park Bo Young's skills. I already saw her in 'Oh My Ghostess' and 'Don't Click' and I liked her acting so far. And since I didn't watch 'A Werewolf Boy' yet, I guess I have to continue with that one.
Don't mind my rewatch value. It was a good movie but I don't think I will watch it again.
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Fairytale quality with disappointing reveal.
I have to say, I enjoyed the whole movie quite a bit, up until the end. Love the mysterious aura the movie had, the complex and hard to grasp relationships and interactions between the ladies, the obvious ominous undertones. And yet, the ending was disappointing.What started as an atmospheric drama with horror elements that could potentially evolve into a fantasy dread, ended up underwhelmingly cheap. It’s like eating in a fancy restaurant, but for dessert they give you plain bread.
Saying it gives a censored romance vibe would be correct. Whatever was going on between Joo Ran and Yeon Deok definitely was more than just friendship - be it romantic feelings or just codependency.
The moment they started to explain all the “behind the scenes” and the cause of all the unexplained events, the movie started to get worse. When the villain has to almost spell their motivation with the dialogue, it means you did a poor job with showing the viewers what they want in a natural and gradual way.
I still enjoyed it though. The performances were truly strong. Not the last time Park Bo Young played a timid character - she gets the roles for a reason, she aced them.
Overall - beautiful visuals, decent scares, though number could be higher, great performance and well built characters. Sadly - weak ending.
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This review may contain spoilers
My remaining one braincell didn't handle the twist I had to rewatch it.
This contains spoilers but I just have to air my thoughts. Initially, I would've scored this a 7 but after watching it again, somethings made full sense. So I'm scoring it an 8.5I didn't realize that the epilogue was from the further past. Probably the ones where they just really discovered the basement. This is all a repetition. They have been subjects of the experimentation for quite some time now. This is why Juran seems to be really detached with her family because it's not her real family at all. When Shizuko and Kazue accidentally watched the film, it is revealed that they were part of the very first test groups and their memories are just wiped out. This is further proven when the girls embroidered the life teacher and one of the students were suddenly surprised about what happened the next day.
The superhero strength of Juran didn't happen all at once. It was a fruit of her being years in their. She probably needed to be sent out the last time because of health complications, but now that she is back to the program, she is again exhibiting the same numbness and super strength.
I love and hate that this is an intelligent movie. It was just a lil jarring when you think about the build up as horror, but I enjoyed it during my rewatch.
Boyoung and Sodam are exceptional. They say this is subtly a lesbian film but I fully believe that Juran, Kazue and Yuka were friends ever since and they are always leaning towards each other despite the memory loss.
Will probably watch again after a few years.
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This review may contain spoilers
This movie is something else.First off the story is very interesting. The setting is set in the beautiful Korean woods. The scenery adds to that creepy feeling of no escape. It's also set in 1938 which is interesting as it's set in the time Japan ruled over Korea. Even before the movie starts you get this feeling of powerlessness.
The acting is very well done. In horror movies from any country, acting is always the most important as it sets the mood. The acting these ladies had to do was very believable. Not to spoiler anything, there are scenes where you just can't believe they pulled it off.
You don't really get to hear much of the OST for this movie as it's normally not what you're focusing on. Yet the music and sound effects add to the effect of every scene.
Now, into the nitty gritty (without having to spoiler anything). After the ending, you are left with nothing, but questions. There is also a really of a relationship building with Joo Ran and Yeon Deok yet this isn't really explored which felt like nothing, but a tease. A personal added note a found this movie on Netflix and the bio says nothing about the time period and Japanese ruling. So when they kept switching from Japanese to Korean it caught me off guard and it made me very confused, but this of course is a mistake on Netflix's end. Still be prepared for bilingualism.
The rewatch value isn't very good as it's a horror movie. The scares aren't really anything in this film in the first place. Seeing them again would have even less of an effect. The main plot force starts to get good yet is stopped abruptly when the movie ends. Also this movie has quite a slow start as the first time the plot becomes interesting it's 30 minutes in. It also doesn't help that the entire is already 1 hour and 39 minutes.
In the end, I would say give this movie a try. I feel like it will be a big yes or no for people. I wouldn't really this film any priority, but if you have the extra time, why not. It's not really good, but it definitely isn't horrible. It gets my award of 'Being Okay'.
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Clueless girls being oppressed, thus silenced
Started slow with steady mystery build-up that ended on an abrupt screenplay shift. This is primarily this movie's substance.Joo-ran/Shizuko (Park Bo-young) was sent to an all-girl's boarding school outside of Seoul but was actually a sanatorium, and the sudden change of her environment made her into a quiet and shy student. Her adjustment was slow but expected, which also made the story slow. The plot really picked up its pace when mysterious events are now happening and she was always the witness and her body now somewhat feels stronger, which was unusual since she has tuberculosis when she first arrived.
The horror and thriller parts could've been made more suspenseful and even with the "terrifying" background music plus "chilling" camerawork on scenes where jumpscares were almost certain, it failed to scare me even a bit which was odd for someone that is easily spooked. Furthermore, the pacing of the story could've been made more tense by adding more scenes that would've made me anxious even at the beginning of the story, since as what I mentioned earlier, it was not really mysterious and I didn't know that this was a mystery horror movie. But still, there was a steady build-up of mystery on the unusual events that occured on said school/sanatorium.
This movie's highlight would probably be the "sismance" between Joo-ran/Shizuko and Yeon-deok/Kazue (Park So-dam). Their relationship was portrayed to be just close friends but their chemistry was too strong to think that maybe they were more than friends. It was Yeon-deok/Kazue that really helped Joo-ran/Shizuko adjust to the school life as well as rediscover her old bubbly self. I was more emotionally-invested in them than the plot itself.
The mystery itself was not a mystery anymore, as I knew already what it is based on the context clues scattered in several scenes. However, I was shocked more on the basis of said mystery which was correlated to the time setting of the movie, and I was now able to get the relevance why it was set during the Japanese occupation of Korea. This was not only really a tragedy-in-the-making for the clueless and innocent students of the school, particularly to Joo-ran who had now experienced something strange in her body but also eerie since the school's headmistress Kato Sanae (Uhm Ji-won) has no remorse on what she has done, and will do everything just to be recognized as a loyal citizen of the Japanese empire, even at the expense of her Joseon compatriots.
After watching this movie, I was confused as to why is it called "The Silenced" when it wasn't really explained throughout its run? My interpretation would be based on its premise of having clueless girls being oppressed, thus silenced.
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The cinematography and casts are exceptional and the story is something unexpected
Regarding the plot, at first I was just pure confused where the story is heading but it was fine. I felt like the story is starting to build up from there. Then the girls started disappearing and I was like, 'are they turning into ghost or something?' and that's when it started getting clearer where it's heading. I admit it was unexpected but maybe I was disappointed as well that it headed that way. If you wanna understand what I'm saying, I'll suggest you to watch the movie. It's worth the time.Although I got confusions at the first half, I find this movie worth it because the main leads were able to show their good acting skill specially Park Bo Young when midway she became somehow superhuman strong which reminds me of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon but on this movie she's just fierce. The cinematography is excellent by the way, I'm so hooked in it.
This is also extraordinary since it was set on Japanese era something so it's unique. This is a great movie but of course once you clarified the confusions, watching it again is less fun.
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This review may contain spoilers
Welcome to the Korean Matrix
This movie tries to incorporate multiple genre into one single movie. It had elements of historical Korea that was under Japan, underlying suspense, horror elements and school drama. The majority of the cast used Japanese and Korean to underline the historical situation. The big reveal for the underlying suspense was underwhelming. I was expecting a big gang or organization controlling everything behind the curtains but was disappointed and it didn't seem grave enough.The horror/spooky elements felt unnecessary and fell flat. Lots of repetitive scenes that didn't add much value to the story nor did they help move the plot forward. It felt like a drag a lot of the time. The entire movie can be portrayed in a matter of 45 minutes to an hour at best. Many plot holes didn't help either.
Many of the young cast including the FL looked a lot like each other and many a times it ended up confusing me. Especially, when they were using two sets of names (Korean and Japanese). The uniforms and hairstyles made it worse. The girls were at the dormitory due to being sick but apart from FL and Kirra, I didn't see any of the other cast display any symptoms or being under IV/Medication. The FL had IV drips for half of the movie - repetitive for no particular reason.
Some of the most inane scenes in the movie were the school drama between the girls. The rivalry and bullying for the top two "healthiest" girls in the class was uninteresting. Lots of "slice of life" type of scenes between the FL and her friend including the one at the lake, with the diary, in the basement, in the dorm, etc. only contributed in increasing the screen time of the movie. I really wanted to increase the playback speed to 2.5x.
The action scenes during the climax were childish, maybe funny(?). It felt like I was watching the Korean matrix. Half expected Keanu to show up.
Some mysteries were left unanswered. Like what the hell was that sticky liquid that the older Shizuko or whatever dropped all over the place?
Overall, interesting premise. Bad execution. Worthless dragging. Pointless drama. Lots of confusion. No Keanu.
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