Han Gong-ju (2013)

AKA:
Directed by: Su-jin Lee
Starring: Woo-hee Chun (Han Gong-Ju), In-sun Jung (Eun Hee), So-young Kim (Hwa-Ok), Yeong-ran Lee (Mrs. Lee)
Country: Korea, Effed Up Asian Cinema
Language: Korean
Runtime: 01:52:29

Plot – Spoilers:
Han Gong-Ju is transferring to a new school and is accompanied by her teacher who even sets her up at his mother’s place, despite the latter’s misgivings.

Since when did schools and teachers go out of their way to help a kid moving school? And what’s with Gong-Ju’s intense silence? The film takes a while to get around to addressing this, so if you don’t enjoy slow-moving films that try to dwell on the drudgery of post-traumatic ennui, maybe give this a skip. Otherwise, barring some awkward pop-idol scenes that stick out jarringly, Han Gong-ju is pretty damn good at what it sets out to do.

Genres: Based on a True Story, Rape-Sexual-Violence against Women, Teen-oriented

Massive Spoilers:
Han Gong-ju is based on the Miryang gang rape case. In real life, three school-girls were raped repeatedly over a year by 41 high-school seniors. The case was notorious for its insensitive investigation, coverups, victim shaming and the betrayal and lack of support from the families of the girls.