TL;DR – A film that wanted to be murky in its depiction of crime but ended up being muddled and frustrating.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

WARNING – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

A Place Called Silence Review –

Today, we are looking at a challenging film because it is filled with grand highs and deep lows. Because of this, we get a movie that is frightfully uneven in all the worst ways, even though it deals with some significant subject material. Also, before we dive in, please do not skip over the warning above.

So, to set the scene, Doma City has gone through many struggles in the past, including devastating storms. It is here where Li Han (Janine Chun-Ning Chang) is working as a cleaner in a local school so she can help support her mute daughter Tong (Wang Shengdi). However, while she tries to support her daughter through her struggles, it is made worse by the sheer torment Tong receives from local bullies, including getting glued to a wall. But when the bullies start going missing, it drags more than just the police into the lives of those in the school.

While I will get into some of my issues with the film in a moment, I do want to say that it made some strong visual choices. Always having it rain creates an oppressive feeling that builds dread. It also helps separate people in a crowd and obfuscate who the killer is because everyone is wearing the same rain jacket. There are some moments here that are truly tense, and you feel it, the panic, the fear. That first act really leans into the slasher mentality, and it works. Also, I think the film is trying to shed light on crimes that people often look the other way too. We have police corruption, abuse, bullying, abuse of power, to name a few. The way in which the first thing the police did was turn the camera away to protect each other was confronting, if for no other reason than for how practiced, they seemed to be at it.  

There was quite a bit of the film that did work. However, as the proceedings went on, I found myself getting more and more frustrated with the film. The structure of this film is quite meandering, weaving around before crashing together. However, it felt that those friction points became more forced as the film went on. It is held up by flashbacks that damage the pacing. Quite a lot of people are comically bad in this movie, and while the film wants to shine a light on them, it does not wish to provide any analysis. This is also a personal thing, but some scenes were depicted in this film that I don’t think they needed to show.

All of this creates a messy narrative that never quite came together. This was amplified by the ending, which took a swerve and then produced one of the most baffling mid-credit scenes that I have ever watched. All of this undercut some emotional moments that were clearly reaching for something. Now, I do have to say the version that I watched in cinemas did not subtitle everything. Indeed, some significant features, like text messages, were not transcribed, and this may have helped with the confusion.

In the end, do we recommend A Place Called Silence? Look, I do appreciate what they were trying to do with this film. Indeed, the themes and subject material are areas that need to have a light shined on them. However, it just did not come together for me in the end, even though it had a tremendous first act. If you liked A Place Called Silence, we would recommend to you The Dry.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched A Place Called Silence?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of A Place Called Silence
Directed by – Sam Quah
Written by – Sam Quah
Screenplay by – Sam Quah, Wang Zhizhi & Wang Yimeng
Music by – Bing’er Du & Fei’er Du
Cinematography by – Ying Zhang
Edited by – Yuan Zhou & Zhang Zhiyan
Production/Distribution Companies –
Starring – Eric Wang, Janine Chun-Ning Chang, Wang Shengdi, Francis Ng, Cai Ming, King Shih-Chieh, Huang Minghao, Xu Jiao, Liu Xiao Hai, Xing Jia Dong, Li Meng, Mingyi Gu, Mengjiao Mu, Joy & Xiaoyunzi Wang
Rating – Australia: MA15+; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15;