A Place Called Silence (默杀) by veteran suspense director Sam Quah has proved to be an instant hit in cinemas across China this summer, surpassing Disney’s Inside Out 2 in sales to secure the coveted summer vacation top slot.
However, Quah’s latest is by no means a light-hearted movie. The film is about a middle school girl who is bullied by her classmates. As those around her turn a blind eye, greater violence unfolds. The film deals with multiple hot button social issues, including school bullying, child abuse, and juvenile crime, while briefly touching on many more.
Prior to its premiere, netizens noticed that the film’s team had positioned its highly explicit nature as a major marketing point. In the trailer, multiple scenes are blurred out to suggest violence on-screen, and the film’s poster advises viewer discretion for those 18 and under. The advertising seemed to work, with the film occupying four “hot search” positions on Weibo in the weeks leading up to its release.
Yet, after A Place Called Silence hit theaters, many netizens expressed discomfort about the extent of violence, goriness, and perversion on-screen.
“The film fails to meet the promise of addressing a range of social issues and by the ending, you realize that the plot is merely filled with violence and bloodiness, and does not ultimately offer any relief for the victims” wrote one user on Xiaohongshu.
This is not the first Chinese film in recent years that has used violence as a major selling point. Other high grossing films in the suspense genre, such as Lost in the Stars (2022) and Quah’s film Sheep Without a Shepherd (2019), were equally bloodthirsty and twisted.
For some netizens, these films unnecessarily portray the violence perpetrated against victims, encouraging Chinese audiences’ appetite for increasingly disturbing movies. On the other hand, blogger Ban Fuo Xian Ren suggests that the film is merely responding to netizens’ voyeuristic desire for violent and aggressive content, as evidenced by the film’s box office success.
Banner image via Sir Movie.
