Silenced (2011)

Might I suggest that if you choose to watch this you bring a pillow and Kleenex, the tissues are for the amount of tears you will shed and the pillow is to beat it to death when you watch the violent scenes.

Due to the maturity of the nature of this movie I would say you need to be over 21 years old. It is graphic and extremely violent though I know that this movie was tamed down because it was a horrendous event that took place.

It is worth watching not only for the acting but for the story itself.

Painful and excruciating to sit through the entire movie and not feel a thing but numbness to the kind of cruel world this really is.

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Someone pass the tissues

This is quite a disturbing film, made worse with the knowledge that it is a true story!
It is incredibly heart-wrenching and I feel like it just sticks to you, even after it has ended; it is almost cemented in my memory.
Some scenes seemed too real/almost unnecessary for me though. Thinking about how the child actors must've felt whilst filming somewhat graphic scenes... This leads me to something I truly commend. The child actors in this movie were incredible! They yanked at your heartstrings and showed true pain, fear, and anger. I cannot get over how well they played their roles, especially having not only to play abused children but deaf children as well. I feel like they all portrayed their characters well.
Similarly, you do boil with anger at the main culprits' sick, twisted views and actions. Obviously, they too played their roles well, considering how rage-inducing it was to watch them. To think that they represented people who actually did these things to children.... and how they looked down on the kids and saw them as less than human, simply because of a disability..... disgusting!

All in all, it truly is a gut-punching sad and uncomfortable film.

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Speechless

I knew what this movie was about and yet still I chose to watch it because of my favourite actor Gong Yoo.

Although I knew what this movie was going to be about, I wasn’t aware of what the ending would be.

Throughout the movie I had to take several pauses especially once they started showing scenes of the kids being sexually assaulted.

I think at some point I had trouble with breathing, it was disgusting and frustrating and heart wrenching.

This movie only made me think about how there are actual children in the world going through this, and despite the help- we fail them.

I can’t stop crying over this movie. I can’t stop this ugly feeling inside of my heart from the wronging I feel.

How could an adult watch a video of a child being raped and do nothing about it? How could you be so fucking disgusting? I really can’t wrap my head around it.

This whole movie changed me a lot. I cannot believe how adults lose morality when it comes to children. CHILDREN.

I hope every person who has inflicted any sort of pain on a child, burns in hell for all eternity.

Sorry for ranting so much, my comment on the movie is that the actors did very well, especially the child actors. So very well done and performed. I couldn’t stop crying through the court scenes and when the boy died. Amazing acting. I would never watch this movie again but it is still great nonetheless.

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I AM TRAUMATIZED by this movie. I cried so much. It was so hard to watch sometimes that I hardly/bearly stood it. I even put it on pause to breath through the HELL that happened. It was even worse when I heard it was based on a true story... My heart bleeds for these children... The movie was really realistic and for that reason I hated the ending. Bc it mirrored how our society deals with sexual assualt on children not to say the R and the P words. The ending was really heartbreaking and unfair. First I hated the movie for what it made me feel. Especially a scene I still make nightmares about. This haunts me, it is truly engraved in my memory even though I want to erase it because of the cruelty it portrays. Though, as time went by, I changed my mind. This a wonderful movie because it passes a message and this is what is important here. The message. I CANNOT REWATCH THIS.

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Heartbreaking

I knew what this movie was about going in but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for it. It is an amazing movie, the acting is phenomenal and the cinematography is beautiful, but I felt sick watching it. This movie is very very upsetting and I don’t think any amount of warning will prepare but I will try. This movie includes on screen child abuse and on screen child sexual assault and rape as well as ableism. It is tragic and horrifying. The child actors did so well, I am not certain if they are actually deaf or not but they did an amazing job. Min Su’s “I don’t forgive him” scene was one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have ever watched in cinema. Those poor children, it is truly horrific that this is based on a true story. Gong Yoo did amazing as did the lead female actress. Overall I would very highly recommend this movie but only if you can emotionally handle it.

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When a film changes the law!

Artists can move society forward. France has the Coluche law, Korea has the 'Dogani' law (the Korean title of Silenced). You may find this film exaggerated, but it describes facts that have been well established since the various trials (see Wikipedia "Gwangju Inhwa School"). By using the book that exposed the facts, and by giving a little more heroism to the teacher at the centre of the story (who was a little less courageous in the book), the film mobilised the Korean population to the point of changing the law and retrying the guilty parties (12 and 7 years in prison this time).

We might also add that this success is due to the determination of Gong Yoo, who, having just been demobilised from his military service, set about putting into pictures the book that had been given to him.

The icing on the cake is that the film is so well shot and acted (yes, precautions have been taken for children, see Gong Yoo's interview on You tube) that it's enough to recommend it.

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“The film that shook South Korea”

For this review I am not going to say much about the story and what it does ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The movie is based on true events and that in of itself just means is that story respected and executed well. I think this movie is phenomenally well done.

To keep it short the acting is stellar, especially from the children actors. With this type of subject, everyone did a great job in their respective roles.

So for a review I don’t really know what to say other than everything is done so well.
There are a lot of areas that this movie could’ve changed to appeal to people. I was a bit nervous watching the child abuse scenes but am very glad to know that the children and adults were completely separate during those. The outcomes are still very disturbing.

This movie was more of an experience for me. To see these situations and know that these things actually happened to children and that the justice system did fail and it’s not just for that horrible trope of having a sad ending.

This movie is based off of true events, and it’s harrowing to imagine that with that being the case- the truth of the situation was much worse. I truly found it hard to watch a lot of scenes, and the movie as a whole was also hard to watch. But with this case I am applauding the movie here, it executed its message so well. This movie isn’t supposed to be happy or triumphant- it’s challenging any movie goers sense of justice and educating them of the harsh realities. The justice system has failures and like the true story, it failed children and left despicable people by over the victims.

This movie brought to light a case that wasn’t talked about much compared to 2011, where in 2005 it had wrapped up- public outrage occurred and the actual events and cases were reinvestigated because of it. This movie changed peoples thinking, and actually did a lot of remarkable things.

The rewatch is low because I will get it clear that you really can’t eat during this movie. You can’t talk even, you watch and get immersed and ultimately are moved.. and for me you are left completely silent crying nonstop.

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an amazing but disturbing movie that will bring you to tears

I picked up this movie knowing that it was going to completely destroy me. I'd heard about it, but I had no idea it was based on true events. So I looked up the real case that took place in Gwangju Inhwa School, back in the 2000s. Aka the case that this movie dealt with. I must admit that, me searching and learning about it, contributed even more to how much impact it had over me.

In a general way, the aesthetics of the film, the music, the production were all on point. The acting too, I mean, all of them, including the children did an amazing job. I highly believe they did justice to the delicacy of the film. It was a "quiet" movie in the sense that every scene is handled with the utmost care (as it should be), yet it's not boring at all, nor is it slow. The movie practically rushes by, in a great way.

As for the story, it was incredible and very well executed. It's a story that touches us and is unfortunately very true, not just because it was a specific case, but because sexual abuse and child abuse is a huge problem that, however much we want to solve it, is often not solved as it should be. For that same reason, I think the ending of the movie was a good choice because the intention of it, I believe, was to convey a message, where not everything can be the fiction we would like. Of course, from a viewer's point of view, I would have loved a fair ending, where the perpetrators were punished as they deserved. But as I said, reality isn't always fair, and this movie, in my opinion, wasn't about entertainment. That's why it's such a real and heavy piece of cinema.

Rewatch Value: I put it at 1.0, but I can't really change the overall, as it would be unfair. It's a 10 regardless, great movie, but would I watch it again? Definitely not. I was already expecting it to be heavy, but when the first scene of abuse came along, I was really shaken. I could never bring myself to watch something like that again, as it really made my stomach turn. It's really not an easy movie to swallow for anyone, especially if you're sensitive.

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WOW, just WOW! I just finished watching this, and I am frustrated and in tears. I knew what the Drama was about, but actually watching it was an experience I didn’t expect to have. Silenced is about a teacher hired at a school for deaf children. First frustration was the school expected payment for hiring him. First of many signs of corruption and cover up. Then, after he started working there, that’s when he started witnessing abuse that went far beyond the school. The acting was excellent, both by the adults, but especially the children. If you’re not willing to witness child sexual and physical abuse, do not watch this movie. I mentioned that I was frustrated in the beginning of this review. It is because justice was not served because of all the corruption and cover up. Sorry to say this was based on a true story from the not too distant past. It is true in real life that justice wasn’t served. BUT, this movie did something good. That good was it shed light on the problems of the justice system with child sexual and physical abuse in the country, so much so, that laws were enacted to protect children experiencing this. The unfortunate thing is, these laws were passed after this happened, so the abusive people at the school got light sentences, and some went back to teaching. You will not be able to take your eyes off the screen. Through all the anger, frustration and tears I experienced, I would highly recommend this movie.

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