[discussion]The Crucible

wrote: A new film based on a true story is stirring up anger and a sense of helplessness among Korean moviegoers.

The movie, called “Dogani” or “The Crucible” in English, is adopted from the bestselling book of the same name by Gong Ji-young, one of the most prominent and respected female writers in Korea. The book is about serial rapes of students by the headmaster and other adults in a school for the hearing-impaired in Gwangju, a city about 180 miles southwest of Seoul. The crimes went on for five years.

Right after they came to light in 2005, a police investigation and subsequent trial found two school officials guilty of repeated sexual assaults against young students. But they received only a slap on the wrist, getting jail sentences of just one and two years, respectively.

Civic groups strongly pressed for further investigations and the National Human Rights Commission intervened in 2006. The agency later referred four more people on the staff of the school to the police on the same charges.

In 2007, a court found two more people, including the headmaster, guilty. But they were given a suspended sentence on the grounds that they had no criminal records and had reached “an agreement” with the parents of the victims. The headmaster died of pancreatic cancer in 2009.

The school still is operating, and one of the suspects even returned to the school and still works there.
Since the movie opened last Thursday, more than 1 million people watched it. Internet forums and Twitter are full of comments deploring how those responsible for such a horrendous crime could get away with it.

On Daum, the South Korean Internet portal, more than 44,000 people have so far signed a Web petition calling for further investigation.

In response, the Education Office of Gwangju issued a statement on Tuesday with an apology for its inadequate handling of the case. It added it will further investigate.

----- http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2011/09/27/unsettling-dogani-revisits-school-horror/

wrote: According to a report issued by the education ministry in September 2010, the punishment for teachers who commit sex crimes is usually nothing more than a salary cut or a short-term suspension. It is typical for other categories of convicted sex criminals to be sentenced either to suspended sentences, fines or probation.

But because cases are prosecuted only when the victim wants to press charges, the fear of facing one’s attacker in court means that very few offenders are brought anywhere near justice. It is estimated that only 6-8% of all victims inform the police in the first place. And in 2009, only 41% of their complaints resulted in prosecution (that was down from 50% in 1999). Of those offenders who are ultimately convicted, only 24% receive jail sentences.

---- http://www.economist.com/node/21532106

wrote: After one official at the Inhwa School for the hearing impaired was sentenced to only a year in jail for raping a 13-year-old girl, a deaf man sitting in the courtroom screamed and tried desperately to express his anger through sign langage. Lee Ji-won wrote, "It was clear that the man was shouting, ‘This is wrong! This is wrong!"' The blog inspired author Gong Ji-young to write a novel about the crimes committed at the school, and now the film based on the book has brought the story to an even larger audience.

wrote: Six people were indicted in the Inhwa case, and two of the perpetrators went to jail for less than a year. Another two were given a suspended sentence, and the others were acquitted because the statute of limitations on sex crimes had passed. This disturbing outcome was typical, according to a report issued last year by South Korea's education ministry. Most teachers found guilty of sex crimes are sentenced to a salary cut and a short suspension.

wrote: Only about 24% of those convicted of sex crimes serve any time in jail. The number is even more staggeringly low when you take into account that only about 6-8% of victims report sex crimes to police. These cases are only pursued if the victim wants to press charges, and in 2009 only 41% of reported sex crimes were prosecuted.

----- http://jezebel.com/5850770/south-korean-sex-crime-movie-highlights-nations-anger

wrote: According to the new law, the statute of limitations for sexual crimes targeting children under 13 and the disabled will be scrapped.

Prison terms for those raping the disabled or young children will also increase, up to life imprisonment. Previously the term was a minimum seven years for rapists of the disabled and at least 10 years for those of children.

When the offender is the head or a staff member of a welfare or educational organization for the disabled, an additional sentence will be given.

The controversial clause about "inability to resist" will also be abolished. The clause was originally meant to punish sex offenders harming people physically and mentally unable to resist properly, but it has given offenders a way out because courts required victims to prove they were in such a state.

-http://www.hancinema.net/national-assembly-passes-dogani-law--34766.html

If you can't tell yet, I feel strongly about this movie

wrote: The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has embarked on a massive investigation of more than a million employees of schools in Korea to see if they have histories of committing sex crimes.

The investigation was prompted by a national uproar sparked by a recent film, "Dogani" ("The Crucible"), which is based on a true case involving the rapes of hearing-impaired students at a school in Gwangju.

Teachers or other school employees with records of committing sex crimes will face harsh punishments, including termination.

The education ministry, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the National Police Agency launched a comprehensive investigation on Wednesday of up to 1.03 million instructors and administrative officials of 189,759 educational institutions, including special schools for the disabled, kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools, private cram schools, and public science museums.

The investigation actually started in May.

According to the education ministry, 85.2 percent (or 874,552 officials) of the total education workforce have agreed to be investigated and completed the authorities' personal background checks.

Of the remaining teachers, some have just started cooperating, but 17,891 education officials (1.7 percent) have refused.

The education ministry decided to request that local education offices force them to cooperate.

"Education superintendents in all cities and provinces have the right to check personal histories of their staffs in order to make clear whether sex offenders are working in the education field or not", Oh Seung-geol, an official from the education ministry, said.

Convicted sex offenders will be fired from schools, and sexual offenders against juveniles, in particular, will be prevented from holding education-related jobs for the next 10 years.

The authorities said that offenders who received harsh punishments in the past will still be fired.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho emphasized that all offenders will be immediately fired from schools regardless of the severity of their crimes.

An official from the ministry said the names of teachers with records of sexual offenses will be made public on the Internet and in the press.

The ruling Grand National Party is also pushing for a revision of the law in order to ban teachers convicted of sex crimes against children from returning to work in schools.

The education minister said the legal reforms will be made law within a year.

--- http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/html/481/2942481.html?cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1

The movie has done lots of good.

wrote: "I expected the film would generate discussion and debate, but I didn't think the response would be this quick and explosive", said director Hwang Dong-hyeok, clearly dismayed by all the controversy his movie has provoked.

"The issues portrayed in the movie -- sexual violence against children, corrupt ties between police and influential families, negligence of duty by civil servants -- is not fictitious, but can be seen regularly on the daily news", he said on Tuesday.

"The growing repulsion and rage that people feel every time they hear about such injustices seem to have come to a boil with my movie".

"The Crucible" has been met with criticism as a disturbing film with little to redeem it due to the graphic scenes portraying children being sexually molested and its depressing ending.

Many people tried to persuade Hwang to change the ending, telling him that he should have the protagonists win their case as people like happy endings. But the director would not be swayed. He said he wasn't trying to make a feel-good movie, but rather present reality.

"I did it intentionally to make people feel uncomfortable", he said. "I thought about two things when making this film. First, I wanted to let the world know about this horrific incident. Secondly, I wanted to expose the structural problems of society as revealed during the process of how the case was buried. The scenes of sexual violence and the morbid, unhappy ending were therefore inevitable".

For some members of the group campaigning for the victims of the case, however, the film did not go far enough in revealing the extent of the horrors that took place.

"Novelist Gong told me that she only managed to depict one third of what actually happened in her novel", said the director. "And my film couldn't even deal with all that was written in her book"

wrote: "We can see through films how much we are changed by the world. You can't change society with just one movie, but looking at the repercussion of the release of this film, we can think about the power film has in terms of positively affecting society", he said.

"Of course, it is impossible to reopen the case, put the offenders back on trial and punish them now. But we can show how the victims have suffered and try to do something to help them. They haven't even received an apology yet".

--- http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/09/28/2011092801311.html

wrote: Hwang explained that he was moved by a line from a news article that the novelist quotes in the book's epilogue - how when it was announced in sign language that the sexual offenders would stop short of receiving probation and 10-month prison sentences, muffled cries of the hearing impaired children filled the entire court room.

wrote: "Because film is an audiovisual medium it portrays even less than the novel. Yet it is no less shocking or powerful", he said. He added that he refrained from contacting actual victims or people involved in the case. Several students that attended the Gwangju school did however appear in the film as extras.

wrote: The actor said that he didn't want his character to be portrayed as a hero, but rather have more ordinary, human flaws. In the original novel Kang In-ho is more weak-willed, as he oscillates between his conscience and the need to financially support his daughter.

---- http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2011/08/135_93389.html