Silenced (2011)

if you have a heart, you will be left in tears and rage

FIRST IMPRESSION
Am SILENCED after watching this movie. I ain’t unable to explain the pain I feel which is making me think of this diseased society where no one is safe. WHY? Because the justice sides with the money and victims are SILENCED to let them live in the society.

PLOT VIEW
The first half of the movie is showing us the crime being taken place and the second half is a courtroom drama. Every moment, every scene, every dialogue, breaks the soul into a thousand pieces, mere thinking this isn't just a movie but is a real case, some disabled children actually had to go through this. The movie makes one uncomfortable with explicit scenes and its supposed to make you feel that way to get in the shoes of a spectator where you did nothing.
the movie shows also show vast discrimination happening in society poorly people are brought with money, where rich people take bribes. No interpreter for the disabled people which like humiliating them for being that way.

What makes this adult do such felony because they know the society is of respectable people who will remain silent for their reputation. The prosecutors, judges, teachers, schools, and parents will remain silent if they are bought with money. How do such people live by selling their professional integrity for few bucks? But as human beings where does our soul die and we fail to protect such kids. Not just kids but teens, grown-ups too and not just girls but boys too. If the crime is committed the perpetrator's good reputation and deeds are taken into account on the other side victims dressing, behavior is described, why such discrimination, just because they are underprivileged? There should be no less than execution as the punishment for such crimes.

ACTING/CAST
Gong Yoo never disappoints with his acting chops. He is remarkable with an average art teacher reputation, we can see how he represents all of us who wants to but fight. All the kids were no less, each expression without saying anything they just said their story to the world.
Yun Doo, Yoo Ri, and Min Soo have shown a wonderful performance. Min Soo specially sweeps you off the feet with his intense character portrayal and storyline. These child actors actually felt like a living demonstration of the horrible incident that had happened.

MUSIC
The music actually isn't there but it still has a main part in the movie. The whole movie will feel like a raw conversation.

REWATCH
This movie can be rewatched if you are good at taking disturbing issues. I will rewatch this but not now, after when I have overcome its trauma.

APPRECIATION
This movie is based on the book The Crucible by Gong Ji Young who knows if she had faced a rebound for writing this book. But glad that this novel was made into a movie that had such a huge impact to make the S.Korean government amend the laws.

With the first scene car and the child in a tunnel, the movie sets its bar high that it is not going to be an easy watch. You might have to pause at some point to take a breath and calm yourself down or maybe take time to cry out loud because tears just don’t seem to stop. And I always say take some popcorn and tissue to watch a movie, but for this movie only tissue is needed.

RECOMMENDATION
This movie is for people who can process child molesting, abuse. It also good for some law inspiration as this movie was able to shook the society. if anyone has an interest in human rights then have a watch.

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"Based on a true story" is what made this story for me, even more memorable. It is a movie that made my head hurt for days and I had to pour it all out to my friends because I would be very depressed afterwards. Let me be honest, I would never rewatch it, not because it is bad, but because to takes a toll on your mental health. The story itself breaks you apart and the acting is just as good. I watched this after hearing that this was a very controversial movie, so I was wondering how it would go. I made a great decision! I still feel pain in my heart even though I watched this a while ago.

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I went into this movie after reading its basic summary. Since it had Gong Yoo in it, I decided to go for it. I did no prior research beforehand and after finishing the film, I realized I should have.

This movie is not easy to watch, by any means. And I think that's what the makers of this movie intended it to be, and that is why it got the response it did. Did you know that this is a story based on true events? Did you know an author named Gong Ji Young wrote a book on said events? Did you know that Gong Yoo read it while he was in the army and decided to make it into a movie? This movie, caused such a visceral public reaction, that it was forced to revise a law, a law which enabled offenders of this particular crime get off with light sentences, and after the legislation was passed, the offenders were then punished justly, years after the actual crime was committed?

For those who didn't know, they know now.

The movie starts off on a morbid note. From the beginning, you are gripped by this sense of foreboding that things will take a dark turn, and oh lord, do they ever. There were times, I wanted to stop watching and never think about it, but I managed to make it to the end, somehow.

People heavily critiqued the scenes where that showcased the abuse. I can understand where they're coming from, because who wants to see that? But, in my opinion, those very scenes helped drive the point home. The point being that we live in a society where these abhorrent atrocities take place. People like these, exist. They look just like us. They are us. They don't look like the embodiment of evil, they look like your average person, your friendly neighbor, the scruffy teacher who's always in a hurry, or a member of a religious group. People who are hailed as paragons of virtue. People like these take advantage of children, because they know they're easy to manipulate and abuse and that they will get away with it.

Every actor, played their role well. To the point they made your skin crawl and your gorge rise. The actors playing the children, especially. I cannot even imagine how they managed to play the roles they did.

I can't say anything for its rewatch value. For me, once was more than enough.

Another thing that made this movie hard to forget was how the story of Minsu ended and the movie's ending. It was tragic and it was realistic. It made you realize, that justice does not always prevail, and that the bad guys get away. I will end this review by a quote from the movie, which gives you much to think about;

"Watching them grow so well, it makes me think that we should not fight to change the world itself but to stop it from changing us. "

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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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