The Crucible

Silenced (; English: "The Crucible") is a 2011 South Korean crime drama film based on the novel The Crucible by Gong Ji-young, directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk and starring Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi. It is based on events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the Deaf, where young Deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over 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, where a revised bill, dubbed the Dogani Bill, was passed in late October 2011 to abolish the statute of limitations 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. 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 and prosecutors in the community are trying to cover up the truth. In addition to using "privileges of the 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.