The Crucible (도가니) is a 2011 South Korean film directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk based on the novel of the same name by Gong Ji-young published in 2009. It is based on actual events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students ages seven to twenty-two were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s.
Kang In-ho (Gong Yoo) is the newly appointed art teacher at Benevolence Academy, a school for hearing-impaired children in the fictional city of Mujin, North Jeolla Province. His wife was a high school student who committed suicide and he has a daughter who is staying with his mother suffers from asthma. Kang has to earn money for his daughter's surgery and on his first day at school, Kang meets the school's principal and director of administration who are an identical twins. The director of administration asks for a bribe from him to work at their school. Kang's mother delivers the 50 million WON (US$50,000) by taking out the deposit money for their home.
One day, on his way home, Kang notices one of his students Yoo-ri (Jung In-seo) sitting on the ledge of her dorm room window, he rushes into the dorm building and pull her back from the window. Yoo-Ri then leads Kang to a door down the hall where he sees the dormitory superintendent, Yoon Ja-ae (Kim Joo-ryung) dunking the head of orphaned male student, Yeon-doo (Kim Hyun-soo) inside a washing machine and discovers an ugly horrifying truth about the school. The children are being physically and sexually abused repeatedly by their teachers.
Kang decides to fight for the children’s rights and expose the crimes being committed at the school. He teams up with human rights activist Seo Yoo-jin (Jung Yoo-mi) but they soon realize that the school’s principal and teachers and even the police, prosecutors and churches in the community are actually trying to cover up the truth. Even after the court proceedings, the faculty members were only given light penalties and some even got their jobs back.
Being based on a tragic real-life story of sexual abuse at a school for hearing-impaired children, The Crucible is a haunting, brutal, visceral and ultimately heartbreaking tale that literally shocked the nation which raised public awareness and outrage about lenient laws and court rulings on sexual violence against minors.
Two months after the film's release and resulting controversy, Gwangju City officially shut down the school in November 2011. In July 2012, the Gwangju District Court sentenced the sixty-three years old former administrator of Gwangju Inhwa School to twelve years in prison for sexually assaulting an eighteen years old student in April 2005. He was also charged with physically abusing another seventeen years old student who had witnessed the crime (the victim reportedly attempted to commit suicide afterward). The administrator, only identified by his surname Kim was also ordered to wear an electronic anklet for ten years following his release.
Sometime real life can be far more cruel than the fiction.
Movie Trailer:
Kang In-ho (Gong Yoo) is the newly appointed art teacher at Benevolence Academy, a school for hearing-impaired children in the fictional city of Mujin, North Jeolla Province. His wife was a high school student who committed suicide and he has a daughter who is staying with his mother suffers from asthma. Kang has to earn money for his daughter's surgery and on his first day at school, Kang meets the school's principal and director of administration who are an identical twins. The director of administration asks for a bribe from him to work at their school. Kang's mother delivers the 50 million WON (US$50,000) by taking out the deposit money for their home.One day, on his way home, Kang notices one of his students Yoo-ri (Jung In-seo) sitting on the ledge of her dorm room window, he rushes into the dorm building and pull her back from the window. Yoo-Ri then leads Kang to a door down the hall where he sees the dormitory superintendent, Yoon Ja-ae (Kim Joo-ryung) dunking the head of orphaned male student, Yeon-doo (Kim Hyun-soo) inside a washing machine and discovers an ugly horrifying truth about the school. The children are being physically and sexually abused repeatedly by their teachers.
Kang decides to fight for the children’s rights and expose the crimes being committed at the school. He teams up with human rights activist Seo Yoo-jin (Jung Yoo-mi) but they soon realize that the school’s principal and teachers and even the police, prosecutors and churches in the community are actually trying to cover up the truth. Even after the court proceedings, the faculty members were only given light penalties and some even got their jobs back.
Being based on a tragic real-life story of sexual abuse at a school for hearing-impaired children, The Crucible is a haunting, brutal, visceral and ultimately heartbreaking tale that literally shocked the nation which raised public awareness and outrage about lenient laws and court rulings on sexual violence against minors.
Two months after the film's release and resulting controversy, Gwangju City officially shut down the school in November 2011. In July 2012, the Gwangju District Court sentenced the sixty-three years old former administrator of Gwangju Inhwa School to twelve years in prison for sexually assaulting an eighteen years old student in April 2005. He was also charged with physically abusing another seventeen years old student who had witnessed the crime (the victim reportedly attempted to commit suicide afterward). The administrator, only identified by his surname Kim was also ordered to wear an electronic anklet for ten years following his release.
Sometime real life can be far more cruel than the fiction.
Movie Trailer:
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