Korean Movie Club: Silenced
Trigger warning: Physical and sexual abuse of minors. The plot: Kang In-ho (Gong Yoo) is a new art teacher at Benevolence Academy, a deaf school for children (Based on the real-life Gwangju Inhwa School). He's excited to teach his new students, but they all seem afraid of him and even scared. In-ho does not give up, and eventually the students start to open up to him - and tell him horrifying things. The children are being physically and sexually abused by their teachers. When he decides to fight for the children’s rights and expose the crimes being committed at the school, he soon realizes the school’s principal and teachers, and even the police, prosecutors and churches in the community are actually trying to cover up the truth
According to its summary: It is based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s The aftermath: The film looks at both the crimes, as well as the legal battle that followed. It showed the true story that the teachers who ABUSED THEIR STUDENTS were let off with minimal punishment.
The nation was pissed.
After its release, there was so much outrage from the citizens who watched the film, that the investigations were reopened. The demand for legislative reform reached all the way to the National Assembly, where a revised bill, dubbed the Dogani Bill, was passed in late October 2011 to abolish the limitations for sex crimes against minors and the disabled.
I haven't seen it yet and will need to be emotionally ready, but I do want to see a film that sparked such a big change in Korea!
You can watch it here on Dramanice.
Is anyone else interested or has seen it before?
