A Place Called Silence

Story: Tong (Wang Shengdi) goes to middle school, and she is mute. She is bullied by her classmates and her mother Han Li (Chang Ning) can't help much either. Han works as a cleaner at her daughter's school. One day, three of the four students who bullied Tong are suddenly reported missing. The investigating police force led by Detective Dai (Francis Ng) learns from the fourth student that they wanted to meet up in a run-down building. The police do not yet know that someone murdered them and that the killer has also chosen the fourth girl as a victim. It looks like someone is taking revenge and the police soon focus on Han Li and her daughter Tong. And in fact, both mother and daughter seem to be hiding something. Eventually, Tong gets kidnapped as well. The mother is completely beside herself and tries to track down the killer herself. Somehow, the school's janitor Lin Zaifu (Wang Chuan-jun) seems to be involved in the case as well. And then there is also the case of a student who died at school not long ago. While Detective Dai has to try to shed light on the strange case, Han Li hopes to find her daughter alive ...

Review: The first thing that catches your eye in this thriller is the setting, which seems a bit more fresh and multicultural than usual. This is probably due to the fact that Malaysian director Sam Quah shot the movie in his home country, but most of the time people speak Chinese. Another interesting thing is the fact that the filmmaker reshot his own work from 2022 here because his first attempt did not make it to Chinese cinemas. The reason for this was a scandal surrounding the lead actor. Believing in his own work has paid off, though, because "A Place Called Silence" was an enormous success at the Chinese box office. This is most likely due to the theme of the story, which is about bullying at school, as well as domestic violence. In addition, the mystery flick always has a surprise or twist in store, which keeps us wondering what could happen next. A good prerequisite for a successful thriller. However, the movie sometimes also struggles with a somewhat peculiar tone.

The subject matter of "A Place Called Silence" is quite serious and dark, a certain scene or resolution is such an unexpected low blow that it takes you a minute to digest what you've seen. But then there are characters like the landlady, who seems to be taken from real life with her pushy and self-centered demeanor but somehow feels like a caricature too. The police also offer some weird characters, nevertheless, at least Francis Ng ("Line Walker 2") manages to provide a solid ground for the investigation. Strictly speaking, though, it's the mother who conducts the actual investigation. Often enough, you wonder why she is always one step ahead of the police in her investigations, but it soon becomes clear that she has prior knowledge of certain people which is quite relevant to the case. It is also amazing how quickly the actual perpetrator is presented to us. So, it is obvious that the thriller is not about the "who" but rather about the "why". As is often the case in mystery thrillers like these, it also means that you are confronted with a series of flashbacks.

Most of the time, these flashbacks are a bit too long and disrupt the pacing and focus of the story. Wang Chuan-jun ("Dying to Survive") needs to be in the spotlight so that we understand how and why the murders happened in the first place, same goes for the mother, who also hides some things - in this respect the movie starts sprinkling small hints into the story quite early on - but that's exactly why it's so frustrating that the two characters have no true rough edges as human beings. It is difficult to put yourself in their shoes. Therefore, all that's left to cling to as an entertainment factor are the twists. In addition to the already mentioned pretty successful surprises, there are also moments in which things are presented to us as something new, even though we have seen them coming well in advance. Since the movie was also made for Chinese audiences and you therefore have to conform to certain rules, there is an additional scene during the credits that seems unnecessary and, depending on the interpretation, even lessens the impact of the story.

"A Place Called Silence" was marketed in China as quite brutal in the trailers, but this is not the case. Generally, blood and violence are not used in an exaggerated manner here. It's just that the bullying, and specifically a scene involving child abuse, can be pretty hard to watch. But the fact that the psychological violence inflicted on the victims is not easy to deal with should be expected in a movie revolving around bullying at school. Apparently, director Sam Quah also wants to deliver some socio-critical commentary, but unfortunately, it gets lost in the tonal mixture of thriller, horror, comedy and drama. Especially towards the end, everything is pushed into a dramatic perspective, and you feel manipulated as a viewer. In general, however, the individual parts work quite well. It's just that the different gears don't engage with one another that well. Maybe that would have been different if the movie had been edited differently.

Despite the aforementioned criticism, the movie does not feel too long with its two hours running time. Unfortunately, you always ask yourself who you should actually root for, and this is not meant in a positive way when the line between righteous and evil gets blurred. That's a real shame, because morally, vigilante justice can be seen in shades of gray if the story provides the right foundation for it. "A Place Called Silence" does not succeed in doing that. Nevertheless, the sets of run-down apartment buildings, or even an old school bus in the rainforest, manage to convince, and the many twists and turns are able to keep us on our toes. As mentioned before, things get difficult when it comes to the tonal fluctuations, which are sometimes also reflected in the acting. In the end, this mystery thriller is quite entertaining, but it doesn't really deserve its enormous success at the box office.

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