It might have shocked South Koreans and ignited a searing controversy in the country, but Silenced has yet to bring closure to the victims of the sex crimes the film so harrowingly depicts.
Silenced, directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, is a dramatisation of a novel of the same name that was itself inspired by a serial sex abuse case at a school for the hearing impaired in the southwestern Korean city of Gwangju between 2000 and 2004. Its subject was reportedly so disturbing that it had difficulty raising funding, but was eventually picked up for distribution by media giant CJ Entertainment.
The film is dark, intense and chilling - all the more so for being based on true events. It stars Gong Yoo as a teacher who, arriving at a provincial city to teach at a school for the hearing impaired, finds his new students haunted and reluctant to interact with him. He makes the shocking discovery that teachers and staff are physically and sexually abusing the children. Enlisting the help of a human rights activist (Jung Yu-mi) to expose the cruelty, he finds the abusers are protected by the local community and judiciary.
If the film is harrowing, the reality is worse in a nation where sexual crime is often swept under the carpet, or subject only to light sanction. The case came to light in 2005 when a teacher alerted human rights groups to the serial abuse. The result: the whistleblower was fired. An investigation only began after the incident was featured on TV.
Four school staffers, including its principal and his brother, were convicted in 2006 of sexually assaulting at least eight students. But only two served time; the principal and a teacher were freed on appeal. Victims alleged that members of the Gwangju establishment, and institutions including churches, lobbied for the perpetrators.
Despite being limited to viewers aged 18 and over, Silenced was a surprise hit on its release in the country in September. It was No1 in South Korea's box office for four weeks, won more than four million viewers, and was specially screened for President Lee Myung-bak.
'The film is about a shocking situation and what appealed to the audience is that it is about something people would normally find very hard to believe, but - terrible as it was - it did happen,' says Kim Yong-jin, professor of film studies at Myungji University and a movie critic.
