History Film / Silenced

Kang In-ho (Creator/GongYoo) is a [[WideEyedIdealist newly arrived art teacher]] at the [[BlatantLies Benevolence Academy]] for hearing-impaired children in the city of Mujin. He quickly notices something is amiss at his new workplace. He is casually ordered to pay a bribe to receive his post (in front of a complacent local [[CorruptCop Police Inspector Jang]]), and most worrying of all, the children he is assigned to teach are withdrawn, fearful, and frequently sport cuts and bruises. When he eventually gains the trust of eight-year-old Jin Yu-ri, she leads him to horrific sight - that of caretaker Yoon Ja-ae savagely beating eleven-year-old orphan Kim Yeon-doo, and when he alerts human rights campaigner Seo Yu-jin, the two quickly discover the extent of physical and sexual abuses committed against the children by their educators. They then proceed to collect testimonials from Yu-ri, Yeon-doo, and a third student, thirteen-year-old Min-su, in order to bring the abusers to justice, but find themselves blocked at every turn by Jang, foot-dragging bureaucrats, and Headmaster Lee's Christian congregation.

* DisabledMeansHelpless: This trope is played rather cruelly in the case of the schoolchildren, as, for the most part, they are hearing impaired and, presumably, mute so, they can't really communicate too well what is wrong, along with the fact that the perpetrators take advantage of this.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Park and the Lee twins, who routinely ridicule the hearing-impaired children in their care, and claim their physical disabilities cause them to be "mentally deficient" or "not like normal people".

* TheSpeechless: Being hearing-impaired, the schoolchildren, in more ways than one.

Originally titled ''Dogani'', this 2011 FilmOfTheBook (the 2009 Korean novel titled ''The Crucible'') is based on the true story of the litany of physical and sexual abuses committed against the pupils of a Gwangju school for the hearing-impaired between 2000 and 2005. The film drew millions of viewers and sparked national outrage in South Korea, resulting in the introduction of tougher legislation to deal with sex crimes.

* IllGirl: In-Ho's daughter, who suffers from asthma.

* DepravedHomosexual: Park Bo-Hyun.

* AdultFear: Much of the premise draws on this, as it concerns the abuses towards deaf students and the fact that said abuse has been covered up/ignored for years.

* HateSink: The staff are obviously written to be as despicable as possible.

%%* EvilGloating: The school staff, frequently.

%%* HarmfulToMinors

%%* LadyMacbeth: Yun, oh so very much.
%%* NaiveNewcomer: In-ho.

* RageBreakingPoint: In-ho, who has been TheStoic for most of the film, finally breaks down when the lawyer assigned to defend Headmaster Lee makes a vague threat towards In-ho's daughter. In-ho, finally overcome by the hopelessness of his situation, takes out his anger by repeatedly punching one of the windows on his car until it finally breaks, all while uttering a cry of pure anguish.

* EvilGloating: The school staff, frequently.

* HarmfulToMinors

* LadyMacbeth: Yun, oh so very much.
* NaiveNewcomer: In-ho.

* HateSink: The staff are obviously written to be as despicable as possible, to the point where on wonders if they were truly this depraved in real life.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The school settles out of court with the families of Min-Su and Yu-ri, meaning that Yeon-doo's case is the only one that goes to trial. The Lees and Park get off with only a year of jail time each, and it's later revealed that the Lees' attorney bribed the prosecuting attorney with a prestigious position at his firm to throw the case. An enraged Min-Su attempts to kill Park, but during their fight both are run over by a train, and the ensuing demonstration by disabled activists at Min-Su's funeral turns into a brutal display of PoliceBrutality against them. The one silver lining is that Yeon-doo and Yu-ri are placed with supportive foster families by the end of the film.]]

* PaedoHunt: [[spoiler: Where the hell are you when we need you? Averted, sadly.]]

The film was released under the title ''Silenced'' in the English-speaking world. Not to be confused with the ''Theatre/TheCrucible'', the theater play.

Originally titled ''Dogani'', this 2009 Korean novel and 2011 FilmOfTheBook is based on the true story of the litany of physical and sexual abuses committed against the pupils of a Gwangju school for the hearing-impaired between 2000 and 2005. The film drew millions of viewers and sparked national outrage in South Korea, resulting in the introduction of tougher legislation to deal with sex crimes.

Not to be confused with the [[Theatre/TheCrucible play of the same name]], the film was released under the title ''Silenced'' in the English-speaking world.

* CallingTheOldWomanOut: In-ho's mother objects to him "stirring up trouble", as she calls it, and when she admonishes him during the trial for looking after deaf orphans in place of his own child, he replies that he wouldn't be fit to call himself a father if he abandoned children who needed his help. He then leads Yeon-doo by the hand into the courtroom.

Kang In-ho (Gong Yoo) is a [[WideEyedIdealist newly arrived art teacher]] at the [[BlatantLies Benevolence Academy]] for hearing-impaired children in the city of Mujin. He quickly notices something is amiss at his new workplace. He is casually ordered to pay a bribe to receive his post (in front of a complacent local [[CorruptCop Police Inspector Jang]]), and most worrying of all, the children he is assigned to teach are withdrawn, fearful, and frequently sport cuts and bruises. When he eventually gains the trust of eight-year-old Jin Yu-ri, she leads him to horrific sight - that of caretaker Yoon Ja-ae savagely beating eleven-year-old orphan Kim Yeon-doo, and when he alerts human rights campaigner Seo Yu-jin, the two quickly discover the extent of physical and sexual abuses committed against the children by their educators. They then proceed to collect testimonials from Yu-ri, Yeon-doo, and a third student, thirteen-year-old Min-su, in order to bring the abusers to justice, but find themselves blocked at every turn by Jang, foot-dragging bureaucrats, and Headmaster Lee's Christian congregation.