A Place Called Silence 默杀 (2024) Review: Sam Quah’s Own Remake is a Riveting, Though Sometimes Overwrought Thriller

Already a huge box-office hit in China, raking in over 1.3 billion RMB at the time of writing since its initial release on July 3, Sam Quah’s remake of his own 2022 movie bearing the same title A Place Called Silence sees the writer-director tackles a lurid and twisty story about school bullying and murder.

Set in the fictional Doma City (it was shot in Penang), the movie follows a cleaner and single mother Li Han (Janine Chang) who works in Jing Hwa High School, where her teenage daughter Chen Yutong a.k.a. Tong (Wang Shengdi) studies there. Tong is a mute schoolgirl who’s constantly bullied by her classmates. At one point, they even glued her against a wall.

Then, one night, the three schoolgirls responsible for bullying Tong end up dead after a mysterious killer dressed in a black raincoat hacked them with an axe. From there, the investigation begins with Brother Dai (Francis Ng) in charge of the case. Who is the killer? Could it be Tong or her mum? The movie also introduces other characters that may or may not be involved in the murder, one of which includes Lin Zaifu (Wang Chuanjun), a social worker from Build Together Charity who is also a handyman for the school.

Quah also gives some of the characters a backstory including Li Han’s past with her abusive husband and stepfather (Xing Jiadong) to Tong. This leads to a series of flashback-heavy moments that may botch the otherwise intriguing story that is supposed to hold our interest to see where will it lead us. At the hands of a lesser director, a movie relies prominently on flashbacks typically means it’s going to explain things or in the worst-case scenario, spoon-feeding the viewers.

Thankfully, this is hardly the case in A Place Called Silence as Quah incorporates numerous flashbacks to mostly efficient results. His labyrinthine storytelling can be convoluted at times and the central theme of school bullying tends to resort into emotionally agitated moments to the point of histrionics. But credit to Quah for not overdoing it too often while manages to sustain the momentum with a confident pace.

It helps that his sleight-of-hand direction keeps me glued (no pun intended) to the screen. He doesn’t shy away from matter-of-fact violence and brutality when comes to school bullying and domestic abuse, where the latter is evident in Li Han suffering from her husband’s sadistic nature.

The movie is also partially a slasher movie with the introduction of the raincoat-wearing axe killer, which helps to spice up this mix-and-match genre fare aside from the engrossing mix of whodunit and topical issues about the aforementioned subject matters. Quah brings out the best in his cast, notably Janine Chang and Wang Shengdi’s respectively sympathetic turns as the supportive mother and daughter.

Wang Chuanjun delivers solid support as Lin Zaifu while Francis Ng shows up as the no-nonsense and at times, volatile police officer. While I appreciate his supporting turn in this movie, the fact that he’s given a little backstory about why he tends to behave in such a way working as a police officer feels more extraneous than a necessity to the overall plot.

The director tries to lighten up with some comic relief, notably with the appearance of a nosy landlady. It sure feels awkwardly misplaced for a movie that deals with grim subject matter. There’s a mid-credits scene revealing a twist involving one of the characters, which feels a little far-fetched. A Place of Silence may lack the sneaky narrative and technical brilliance of his 2019’s Sheep Without a Shepherd, itself a remake of 2015’s Drishyam, but I do enjoy his overall effort in crafting an entertaining thriller.