The Silenced
Promotional poster
Hangul
경성학교: 사라진 소녀들
Literal meaningGyeongseong School: The Lost Girls
Revised RomanizationGyeongseonghakgyo: Sarajin Sonyeodeul
Directed byLee Hae-young
Written byLee Hae-young
Produced byKim Jho Gwangsoo
Shim Hyun-woo
StarringPark Bo-young
Uhm Ji-won
Park So-dam
CinematographyKim Il-yeon
Edited byKim Chang-ju
Music byDalpalan
Production
companies
The Secret Garden
Generation Blue Films
Distributed byLotte Entertainment[1][2]
Release date
  • June 18, 2015 (2015-06-18)
Running time
99 minutes
CountrySouth Korea
LanguagesKorean
Japanese
Box officeUS$2.5 million[3]

The Silenced (Korean: 경성학교: 사라진 소녀들) is a 2015 South Korean mystery-thriller film written and directed by Lee Hae-young, starring Park Bo-young, Uhm Ji-won and Park So-dam.[4][5][6]

Plot

Set in Gyeongseong in 1938 during the Japanese occupation, the film centers on Ju-ran/ Shizuko (Park Bo-young), a sickly young girl who gets transferred to a sanatorium/girls' boarding school to recover her health. Her physical condition improves thanks to her new friend Yeon-deok, and the headmistress' special treatment program. But she soon notices that students are disappearing one by one and that her own body is undergoing abnormal changes. Determined to uncover the truth, Ju-ran starts to investigate the mysterious happenings and the school's possible role in them.

Shizuko begins seeing a couple of her classmates in terrible positions; bleeding out or having severe seizures. The school denies that anything unusual is happening in an effort to convince Shizuko that it is all in her head. After being confronted by her classmate Yuka, Shizuko snaps and in a violent rage almost strangles Yuka to death with a single hand showing incredible strength. Shizuko does not understand what is happening to her or to the other girls in the school and with the help of Yeon-deok, who now recalls other horrors from her time there, decides to investigate by breaking into the headmistress' office. While in the headmistress' office, they overhear an argument between her and a young man dressed in a Japanese military uniform. The argument is about a new drug and apparently losing test subjects, referring to Shizuko's disappearing classmates. When the headmistress and the soldier leave the office, Shizuko and Yeon-deok continue their snooping eventually finding an experiment proposal written in Japanese describing a performance-enhancing drug that aims to alter the human condition making the subjects super strong but also heightening their emotions and causing many adverse side-effects. This reveals that The Imperial Japan is using the girls as lab rats to create drugs to enhance performance of Japanese troops against the allies. Shizuko and Yeon-deok also find movies of themselves and a previous cohort that demonstrate the effects of the drug. The two students then hear a commotion outside culminating in the attempted suicide of Yuka. In the ensuing chaos they try to escape the school by running into the forest, only to find that they are at the edge of a massive Japanese military base. Shizuko and Yeon-deok are then captured by Japanese commander and brought back to the facility.

The Japanese commander states to the principal that he will take over the experimentation from now, much to her dismay. Yeon-deok drowned in a tank, causing Shizuko to wake up after hearing her screams. Shizuko then goes on a rampage and kills all the Japanese soldiers at the facility. The councilor is brutalized by the girls as Shizuko tells them about everything. The principal tries to kill Shizuko but hits the water tank with Yeon-deok in it. Shizuko, distraught at her friend's demise, throws the principal at a spike hanging on the wall, which kills her. Shizuko then proceeds to attack the Japanese base in a fit of rage.

Cast

Box office

The Silenced was released on June 18, 2015. It opened at third place, grossing ₩2.02 billion (US$1.83 million) from 258,000 admissions in its first four days.[11]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Recipient Result
2015 24th Buil Film Awards Best New Actress Park So-dam Nominated
Best Art Direction Han Ah-reum Nominated
Best Music Dalpalan Nominated
15th Korea World Youth Film Festival Favorite Actress Park Bo-young Won
52nd Grand Bell Awards Best New Actress Park So-dam Nominated
Best Lighting Kim Min-jae Won
High Technology Special Award Park Ui-dong (Visual Effects) Nominated
Popularity Award Park Bo-young Nominated
36th Blue Dragon Film Awards Best New Actress Park So-dam Nominated
Popularity Star Award Park Bo-young Won
16th Busan Film Critics Awards Best New Actress Park So-dam Won
2016 21st Chunsa Film Art Awards[12] Technical Award The Silenced Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Uhm Ji-won Won
52nd Baeksang Arts AwardsNominated

References

  1. ↑ Ma, Kevin (23 March 2015). "Hot Korean titles at FilMart". Film Business Asia. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  2. ↑ Noh, Jean (23 March 2015). "Filmart 2015: Hot titles - South Korea". Screen International. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "The Silenced (2015)". Korean Film Biz Zone. Korean Film Council. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  4. ↑ Lee, Sun-min (6 August 2014). "Uhm Ji-won to play a perfect principal". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Jin, Eun-soo (29 May 2015). "Homegrown horror loses edge". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Won, Ho-jung (17 June 2015). "Herald Review: The Silenced visually stunning, but ultimately lacks substance". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  7. ↑ Yoon, Sarah (5 June 2015). "Park Bo-young talks about upcoming mystery film The Silenced". K-pop Herald. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  8. ↑ Ko, Seok-hee (16 June 2015). "Park Bo-young goes back to teen years". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "Actress Park Bo-young Hungry for More Film Roles". The Chosun Ilbo. 27 June 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Starlet Hopes to Make a Splash". The Chosun Ilbo. 4 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  11. ↑ Ma, Kevin (23 June 2015). "Classified File opens second-placed in South Korea". Film Business Asia. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Bae, Hyo-joo. "'여우조연상' 엄지원, 품에 트로피 꽃다발 안고 벅찬 미소". Nate (in Korean). Newsen. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
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