Gyeongseonghakyoo: Sarajin sonyeodeul (2015) Reviews

• Never A Normal Day at this Boarding School

  aria-ariana20122015-07-24

  The Silenced or it's Korean title translated Gyeongseong High School : The Disappearance of the Girls made me dive into the story right from the start. The story, i believe took place sometime during the Japan colonization in Korea. And the mysterious disappearance of the girls happened in this boarding school. Joo Ran (Park Bo Young) as the centre point in this whole story shoulders her own weight. I couldn't help but sympathize her for the treatment she received. A mysterious incident took place one by one and it makes me wonder what's the deal with this shady boarding school who only has a very few students and was built way too deep into the forest. It's easy to lay suspicion as to whom is the one behind the disappearance but the real question is why this has to happened. I'm just a little bit disappointing near the ends because i was expecting some historical reference to be the reason of the disappearance but surely the story take it's own twist. I've watched too many movies, I started developing an expectation on a certain pattern that a movie with this genre should have. Not really the ending that I want but it's worthwhile for anyone who loves mystery/thriller/crime movies. Happy watching. Sorry for this kinda crappy review. I haven't written in a while.

• Atmospherically engaging mystery drama for a lazy autumn or winter night at home

  kluseba2016-10-03

  ''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.

• Mad science

  amiemica2017-08-29

  The purpose of my review is to explain this movie to those who don't understand it, so, yes, there are definitely spoilers in my review. This movie comes across as a mystery, thriller, horror, etc, depending on what point of the movie you're at. It even has what appears to be supernatural elements. They are not supernatural. This takes place in the 1930's during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The boarding school is one of several boarding schools that are near a Japanese military base. They are basically science labs with active experiments. The girls at the schools are the experiments. The goal of the Japanese empire is to create a drug or set of drugs that can create super- soldiers. It is never truly said where the girls in the boarding schools came from, only the stories that they all believe. Every time a girl disappears, they are either doing additional experiments or she has died. If she hasn't died, they brainwash her and erase her memory and return her to the school as a new student. The remaining girls are either knocked out to "end the semester" or they are told that the girl's family came in the night and took her home. They are all given drugs that are called vitamins before every meal and before bed. They are convinced that the girl coming to the school is a new girl, even if she looks familiar. If they were knocked out, they awaken with no memory of anything that happened.each semester is a separate experiment and is labeled as a test group. If girls survive that semester, they continue on into the next semester, or test group. Later in the movie, Ju-ran (Shizuko) and Yeon-deok (Kazue) discover the science notes and film. They watch movies of themselves and Yuka and see film of how they have been in the other groups and have no memory. Kenji tells the headmistress that two have gotten out of her sight. Those two were Eguchi and Yuka. Eguchi has apparently escaped from horrific experiment and cannot find her way out of the school due to injury or whatever, but she is trying to get help or show the girls what is happening. That's why Shizuko saw her under the bed and later Kihira and Shizuko saw her under the stairwell. Apparently, Kihira's reactions to the drugs seem to be instability and what could be triggered programming to kill herself if she sees certain things. Yuka throws herself out of a tree and the headmistress says if she survives a little longer, they will break a record. The girls have been desensitized to pain, so Yuka is left broken to see how long she survives. Shizuko, Yuka and Kazue were in the original test group and kept surviving. They were friends from the beginning, so even though they have been brainwashed, some deep unconscious memories cause them to gravitate to each other, especially Shizuko and Kazue. Eventually, they both start to experience flashes of memory triggered by events happening around them. Shikuzo even has dreams. She thinks she is hallucinating due to her injections. After the whole movie has passed, the last scene is of Shizuko and Kazue in the basement. If you look closely, you'll see that they are much younger and the basement is not decayed. The record player even works. That is when they actually, really met each other for the first time. This scene shows us that the girls have been in the experiment for many years. Likely, all of the girls have disappeared at some point and been returned as "new" arrivals. Only when one dies is she truly replaced with a new girl. Shizuko doesn't exhibit supernatural strength. She is the result of years of drugs and experimentation to create super-soldiers. She has super-human strength and speed.

• What secrets lie within the walls of the school?...

  paul_haakonsen2017-04-15

  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.

• Lazily written

  rosaliesummers2017-02-18

  I saw this movie on Netflix and decided to give it a try. To summarize, an ill girl moves to an all girls boarding school which helps sick children. However, all is not as it seems - supernatural displays of strength, disappearing girls, and many death. The idea behind it seemed quite good but unfortunately it was not a great film. The first half hour seemed interesting enough, however after that it all got too samey. There were millions of flashbacks which got pretty tiring, but the most overused scene was the main character staring at blood on her hands. Honestly, I lost count of the times she just stood there staring at her bloody hands after she beat people up or whatever. It's as if they didn't know how to lead on to the next thing so they were just like, "Let's add another hands with blood scene in here!" It was so ridiculous and random, but boring for the watcher. This was just something that irked me as it seemed pretty lazy. My next point - the characters. Shoddy writing to say the least. None of the characters get a proper background or even a glance into what their motives are. Each character is there to serve their purpose to the plot, but the watcher can really feel that and so it is hard to care about any of the characters. The main character is rather bland and boring with not much personality, just looking shocked or scared the whole time. Another thing I considered to be lazy was the ending. They probably thought they were tying all the ends up nicely, but it was so predictable, Also the fact that the headmistress keeps 'treating' the girls when all of her attempts get botched up and people literally die, she keeps going. How desperate is she to find the right 'treatment'? And what do they tell the parents of the kid who dies? Because it is a school for sick children they probably try to pass it off as them dying of illness, but if this were the case wouldn't the parents want the children's body back? I'm sure they wouldn't just be cool with letting the school keep their child's corpse and complaints must have been made, but hey, it's just another technicality that the movie skims over. Overall, The Silenced is rather lazily written, rushing to get to the anticlimactic end scene. Maybe if you have nothing else to do give it a watch but don't set your hopes too high.