Voice of Silence: Stolen Childhoods

What's the old adage? Never share the stage with a pet or a child? Frankly, it's a terrible piece of advice. Because if performers adhered to it, we'd never get a movie like the wonderful (and often devastating) Voice of Silence, one of the most impressive big screen debuts to come out of South Korea in the last decade. For Director Hong Eui-jeong's first feature abounds with powerful scenes between adults and children. And while the film isn't exactly told from a kid's perspective — at the center of the movie is Tae-in (Yoo Ah-in), a mute man-child who finds himself in the middle of a botched kidnapping crime — you really do sense the precariousness and danger that are inherent to being at the mercy of adults.

As the abducted child, Cho-hee (Moon Seung-ah) must do her best to appease her captor, forge alliances with a fellow youngster (a brilliantly feral Lee Ka-eun), and attempt to coordinate her own escape. Adults are neither reliable (including her unseen parents) nor trustworthy. Which is unfortunate for what is our role as grown-ups if not that of caretakers? What are we doing as a species if not collectively working for the well-being of the next generation? And, on the other end, what options do we have as kids, except to make the best of the situation in which we find ourselves? And how can we not turn out to be the same muddle-headed people repeating the destructive patterns of those before us. It's what we saw and know as the way to survive.