''Silenced'' (; English: "The Crucible") is a 2011 South Korean

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

based on the novel ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as a ...

'' by

Gong Ji-young Gong Jiyeong (; born January 31, 1963) is a South Korean novelist. Life Gong Jiyeong was interested in literature from an early age, and while still a teenager, self-published her own stories and poems.Korean Writers and Novelists. Minumsa Pub ...

, directed by

Hwang Dong-hyuk Hwang Dong-hyuk (, Hanja: 黃東赫; born May 26, 1971) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the 2011 crime drama film '' Silenced'', and for creating the 2021 Netflix survival drama series ' ...

and starring

Gong Yoo Gong Ji-cheol (; born July 10, 1979), better known by his stage name Gong Yoo (), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the television dramas '' Coffee Prince'' (2007), '' Guardian: The Lonely and Great God'' (2016–2017), ...

and Jung Yu-mi. It is based on events that took place at

Gwangju Inhwa School Gwangju Inhwa School () was a school for hearing-impaired students founded in 1961 and located in Gwangju, South Korea. The school made national headlines after its decades-long record of sexually abusing students was uncovered in 2005. Followin ...

for the Deaf, where young Deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s. Depicting both the crimes and the court proceedings that let the teachers off with minimal punishment, the film sparked public outrage upon its September 2011 release, which eventually resulted in a reopening of the investigations into the incidents. With over 4 million people in Korea having watched the film, the demand for legislative reform eventually reached its way to the

National Assembly of South Korea The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, often shortened to the National Assembly in domestic English-language media, is the unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. T ...

, where a revised bill, dubbed the ''Dogani Bill'', was passed in late October 2011 to abolish the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...

for sex crimes against minors and disabled people.

Plot

Kang In-ho is the newly appointed art teacher at Benevolence Academy, a school for Deaf children in the fictional city of Mujin,

North Jeolla Province North Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollabuk-do''), also known as Jeonbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Jeolla has a population of 1,869,711 (2015) and has a geographic area of 8,067 km2 (3,115 sq mi) located in the Honam region in the southwest ...

. He has a dark past: His wife committed suicide a year ago, and his sick daughter is under the care of his mother. He is excited to teach his new students, yet the children are aloof and distant, trying to avoid running into him as much as possible. In-ho does not give up trying to show the kids that he cares. When the students finally open up, In-ho faces the shocking and ugly truth about the school: the students have been secretly enduring physical and sexual abuse by the teachers and administration. In-ho decides to fight for the children's rights and expose the crimes being committed at the school and collaborates with human rights activist Seo Yoo-jin, but In-ho and Yoo-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. In addition to using " privileges of former post", the accused unhesitatingly lie and bribe their way to get very light sentences. Using their last night of freedom to go out partying, the Lee brothers are last seen laughing that the judge was so easy to pay off for a light sentence. As Park (one of the sexually offensive teachers) leaves the party and walks home, he bumps into Min-su (one of the victims) along the way. Attempting to force the boy to come to his home to be raped once more, Park is shocked when Min-su stabs him in the side with a knife, having fallen into despair from his lost chance to put Park away for good. Park brushes off the stabbing and smacks Min-su to the ground, viciously beating and kicking the boy, proclaiming he will kill him. As he prepares to finish Min-su off, Park is overpowered by the boy, who flings both of them onto a nearby railroad track. As an oncoming train barrels toward them, the screaming Park is held down by Min-su with the help of the stab wound. Ultimately, the train runs over both of them, with Min-su refusing to let the rapist escape with his sickening inhuman acts. Later, In-ho, Yeondoo and Yoori are seen mourning Min-su's death in a tent. A group of protesters and activists are seen demonstrating, when police attempt to disperse them. However, since most are

deaf-mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...

, they continue unaware, forcing police towards forced dispersal using water cannons. As the clash plays out, In-ho stands amid the chaos carrying a picture of Min-su, repeatedly chanting, "Everyone! This boy could neither hear nor speak. This child is called Min-su," before he is apprehended by the police. The movie ends with the words of Yoo-jin's email updating In-ho about the lost appeal and the improving children's condition.

Cast

Impact

The film sparked public outcry over lenient court rulings, prompting police to reopen the case and lawmakers to introduce bills for the human rights of the vulnerable. Four out of the six teachers at the

for whom serious punishment was recommended by the education authority were reinstated after they escaped punishment under the statute of limitations. Only two of them were convicted of repeated rapes of eight young students and received jail terms of less than a year. 71-year-old ex teacher Kim Yeong-il recently claimed that two children had died when the incident took place in 1964, after which he was beaten and forced to resign his job by the vice principal. Two months after the film's release and resulting controversy, Gwangju City officially shut down the school in November 2011. In July 2012, the Gwangju District Court sentenced the 63-year-old former administrator of

to 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old student in April 2005. He was also charged with physically abusing another 17-year-old student who had witnessed the crime (the victim reportedly attempted to kill themselves afterward). The administrator, only identified by his surname Kim, was also ordered to wear an electronic anklet for 10 years following his release. In 2011, the Korean National Assembly passed the "Dogani Law" (named after the Korean name of the film), removing any statute of limitations for sexual assault against children under 13 and disabled people. It also raised the maximum sentence for rape of young children and disabled people to up to life in prison, and abolished a clause requiring that victims prove they were "unable to resist" due to their disability.

Reception

In Korea the film ranked No. 1 for three consecutive weeks and grossed in its first week of release"'The Crucible' surpasses 1 million viewers at box office"
''The Hankyoreh''. 28 September 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-15 and grossed a total of after ten weeks of screening. After the film's release, the bestselling book of the same name by author

, which first recounted the crimes and provided the bulk of the film's content, topped national bestseller lists for the first time in two years. Ruling conservative political party

Grand National Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Hanna ...

(GNP) then called for an investigation into Gong Ji-young for engaging in "political activities", a move that was met with public derision. It received the Audience Award at the 2012

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

Far East Film Festival in Italy. Conversations about the film and its impact re-emerged when the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) released its annual survey of the year's top ten consumer favorites on December 7, 2011. Based on a poll of market analysts and nearly 8,000 consumers, SERI's "Korea's Top Ten Hits of 2011" ranked ''Silenced'' among the year's top events.

Awards and nominations

International release

The film's international title is ''Silenced''. On November 4, 2011, the film was released in select theaters in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, San Jose,

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Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. It has been reviewed by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. In 2019, the film was released on Netflix.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Silenced 2011 films 2011 crime drama films South Korean crime drama films South Korean legal films South Korean courtroom films Films about educators Films about education Films set in schools Films about child abuse Films about sexual abuse Films about child sexual abuse Films about pedophilia Films about deaf people Korean Sign Language films 2010s Korean-language films Films shot in Incheon Films shot in Daejeon Crime films based on actual events Films based on South Korean novels CJ Entertainment films South Korean films based on actual events 2010s South Korean films