Gyeongseonghakgyo: Sarajin sonyeodeul

''The Silenced'' is an above average mystery drama from South Korea with a few minor horror elements. The plot takes places during the thirties of the last century when the country was occupied by the Japanese. It follows the story of a teenage girl who is transferred to an isolated boarding school. After her mother's untimely death from tuberculosis, her father and his new wife are scared to get infected by the teenage girl whose medical condition is getting more and more critical. She gets various medical treatments at the boarding school and finally seems to recover step by step and ends up standing out as a promising sportswomen who might get the occasion to go to Tokyo with another girl to represent the small school honourably. However, strange things happen at the isolated boarding school. Some pupils disappear from one day to another without leaving any trace behind. Several students seem to be emotionally unstable and react in overtly aggressive ways in seemingly random situations without being able to recall these events later on. When the protagonist starts having strange visions, she wonders whether they are due to her new medication or whether there is more to it than that. Along with a new friend, she tries to uncover the school's gloomy secrets.

This movie convinces with a mysterious and slightly gloomy atmosphere from start to finish. This is due to the intriguing settings including the isolated boarding school itself, a secret room in the basement and an old forest with a mysterious pond. The authentic traditional costumes, mostly dimmed lighting techniques and the calm and mysterious score add to the gripping atmosphere. Another winning element are the few and cleverly integrated horror parts consisting of strange emotional outbursts of several characters, the protagonist's continuous nightmares and visions and the emotionally and physically brutal conclusion. The movie doesn't have any particular lengths and develops a coherent flow that is slightly slow in the opening twenty minutes, keeps a regular pace most of the time and ends up being a little bit faster in the final twenty minutes.

Even though the numerous young actresses are doing a solid job, there isn't anyone that really stands out. Most characters are slightly too exchangeable, pale and shy to get the audience emotionally involved with any of them. Despite a mysterious tone throughout the movie, the film reveals too many hints too quickly which leads to a quite predictable story halfway through the movie where the movie loses some momentum. The ending was a little bit too exaggerated, intense and stereotypical to go with the rest of the film. This is one of the rare films where I prefer the smooth, slow and gloomy first part of a film over the more intense, fast paced and engaging second half.

In the end, fans of South Korean cinema, atmospheric mystery movies and smooth teenage dramas should give this interesting mixture of genres a chance. Those who are expecting a truly original plot, outstanding acting performances or a scary horror film should look elsewhere. This is an entertaining movie for a lazy autumn or winter night at home but nothing more.

You can ask yourself many things with this. From morality (to mortality I guess), to group dynamics, to children with bad influences to bullying. Of course it's not that the movie points everything out, or spells everything out. Also for a movie playing mostly inside a building, this is very "far out"! There are some pretty strange things going on and by the end of it you will catch up.

Of course, the end will split a lot of people. Because while we are aware this is nothing ordinary, what we get to see is way extra ordinary. Is that something the movie can pull off? I'd say more no than yes, but it depends on the viewer. It's well done overall and it can be a pleasant watch, if you let it

It was perhaps a good film, but its style was a bit confusing. Individual scenes were suddenly cut off for no apparent reason, with the missing part shown much later in flash-back.

And unless you have a lot of friends or acquaintances that are oriental you might have trouble keeping track of the characters. (The old "they all look alike" cliché.)

For an OWM (old white male) like me, it especially didn't help that not only did most of the characters look very similar, they all wore identical clothing. The scenes that were fast paced didn't give me enough time to figure out who is who.

Just to make it worse, each character had two different names (their real name and their school name), and to top it off, one of the names was used for two different characters.

Being able to recognize the difference between Korean and Japanese might help too.

I suspect I'd like it better if I watched it a second time.

As someone who knows next to nothing about what makes a movie "good" and has no standards, I liked this movie. It certainly wasn't "horror", but it had good twists and the ending made me cry because I'm a baby who cries about everything. It was all very well acted and good enough (for me) to watch like 3 times. If you too have low movie standards, you'll probably enjoy this.

Usually the South Korean Cinema makes very great movies and quite often memorable horror movies. However, it would be impossible to keep making such movies. And "The Silenced" (aka "Gyeongseonghakyoo: Sarajin Sonyeodeul") was a deviant from the usual impressive line of horror movies to make it out of South Korea.

I hadn't heard about "The Silenced" before I stumbled upon it while browsing the horror selection on Netflix. Being a fan of the horror genre and being particular fond of Asian movies, then of course I would give "The Silenced" a go. However, it turned out to be a less than mediocre experience.

The story is about a girl who is sent to a remote boarding school where things seem quite out of place. And in order to survive, the new student must uncover the secrets stored within the walls of the school.

"The Silenced" wasn't scary at all, it was not even a thriller; it was, a best a mystery laced with supernatural elements. As such, then it was a major disappointment, because I had expected it to be more within the typical horror genre; a genre that South Korean Cinema does so well.

It should be said that the acting in the movie was quite good, and that is what kept me sticking with the movie to the very end. Even after that preposterous turn of events after the reveal of what was actually going on.

The story in "The Silenced" just wasn't particularly riveting, nor was it particularly memorable. I have seen the movie to the end, but I am sure that the movie will soon fade from memory, because it just didn't manage to find any foothold.

"The Silenced" was a disappointing movie to me, and as such I am rating it a mere 4 out of 10 stars. If you enjoy a good South Korean horror movie, then there are far better choices available.