The cruelty of school violence
School violence is a problem in Korea. For a long time, Korean filmmakers have directly brought this issue to films. Many works shocked public opinion.
Since the 2000s, when the Hallyu wave began to spread, audiences have seen the theme of school violence appear in famous films such as Band Garden, School 2015, The Heirs ...
Kwak Geum Joo, a psychology professor at Seoul National University, said that since the 1990s, the concept of wangtta has appeared in Korea - a slang term for a collective boycott.
But from 2020 to now, school violence has become an even more explosive topic, as scenes depicting school violence on screen are increasingly detailed and horrifying.
bullying behavior is also displayed in many forms, including physical, language, mental impacts and even online violence...
Many films are even based on real events about victims of school violence, arousing extreme anger and hatred towards bullies.
In the movie " Glory in hate", the female lead Moon Dong Eun (Song Hye Kyo) was beaten and brutally humiliated by her friends, turning her school life into hell. Every day at school, I was bullied by friends, even tortured and humiliated.
As the drama " Glory in hate" is watched worldwide, Korean cultural expert Ahn Jung Hwan said, "School violence is really cruel. School violence has turned a place that was originally intended to be for children to study, to be educated into people - into a worldly hell."
The scene where Dong Eun was stuck with a hair clip heating up his arm is based on a real story in 2006, at a girls' school in Cheongju, South Korea.
The film also reflects the persistent consequences of school violence, the indifference of teachers and those around them that haunt and cause the victim to suffer all his life.
School violence was previously adapted into films just as a setting and an aspect of the story. But now, as online platforms have developed and become more open to deploying thrilling topics, many films with school violence as the main theme have been produced.
The series of films Weak Hero Class, Pyramid Game, One: High School Heroes, Study Group of online platforms not only depict the details of violent behavior, but also focus on how victims find ways to take revenge and punish bullies.
The daring of films about school violence comes from the alarming situation in Korea.
The complexity of school violence
The number of reports of school violence in South Korea has doubled in the past 4-5 years, from 25,903 in 2020 to 58,502 in 2024.
According to a survey in the first half of 2025 published by the Korean Ministry of Education in September, the rate of students reporting that they are victims of school violence has increased to the highest level (2.5%) since the government began monitoring the issue in 2013.
The rate of students who have witnessed school violence also increased from 5% to 6.1% compared to the previous year, and among primary school students, this number skyrocketed to 10.2%.
However, 30.7% of witnesses said they did nothing when witnessing violence; 7.8% of victims did not tell anyone because they were afraid that "the problem would get worse" or worried that reporting would be useless.
According to Koreaherald, the number of reports of increased school violence shows that awareness of this problem is increasingly of concern in society.
School violence has now become an extreme crime in Korean society. Celebrities who are actors, singers, and even politicians will be strongly boycotted by the public when accused of school violence, regardless of whether the evidence is clear or not.
Many stars have denied it, but accusations related to school violence have become a "stain" in their careers.
