O Garoto Lobisomem (2012)

In times of vulnerability

I usually do not write reviews but on Dramacool someone quoted Melissa Vice's comment from Youtube and it is so beautiful and says it all that I had to add it here as well:
"I remember this movie when it first came out in 2012. I had a different outlook on the bittersweet ending that seemed more bitter at the time than sweet. But now, almost a decade later, seeing this with older eyes and a sense of maturity, this was actually the sweetest approach that Sun-Yi could have done for Chul-Soo. And that was that, she was setting him free at long last.
When it comes to the analysis of the movie, as teenagers, they used one another as a crutch for survival. Sun-Yi to cope with her depression and illness. Chul-Soo dependent on the bestial instinct of loyalty. Realistically, there was no way she could have taken care of herself and also Chul-Soo had he left with them. She would never had gotten to do the things she did. She would never have gotten to live fully on account of her declining health, which turned around for the best for her. And ultimately, she was not in love with Chul-Soo as he was with her. Over the course of time, as the years went on, an important lesson that showed Chul-Soo's humanity was his ability to learn on his own. Learning how to write. To read. And even--as shown in the end--to be able to be on his own and stand for himself.
Sun-Yi gave him his freedom to be his own person by releasing him of the promise she made. I feel like he too needed this circle to come to a close, and only then, he could really move on despite having done so long ago. He kept his promise because it was Sun-Yi and he held his loyalty to the only person who showed him care and affection. Him playing by himself in the snow, building the snowman by himself, is a powerful metaphor of his ability to finally be human now that Sun-Yi has removed the collar and leash. But the most important aspect to gain from this, she was telling him to go and live his life to the fullest as she had done. This was not a romance story, but perhaps more of a "coming of age" of two people who helped one another in their time of vulnerability and loneliness, and pushed one another to become better versions of themselves. Chul-Soo especially. He deserves happiness, and the most Sun-Yi could do within her power was to offer him shelter and security until he found it for himself."

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Eleven years after A Werewolf Boy premiered, I have finally gotten around to watching it. The story felt like a fusion of Harlequin romance and fairytale with a warning. While often predictable it was also enjoyable and addicting.

Kim Sun Yi along with her mother and sister move into a house in a remote rural area. Their landlord is the “slimeball”, Ji Tae. Not long after settling in Sun Yi discovers a feral young man hiding next to a shed. He wolfs down the food her mother gives him. Unlike so many rigid Korean mothers in dramas, open-hearted Ok Hui takes the stranger into their home. With 60,000 orphans from the war, it wasn’t a leap of imagination to think he had been abandoned and left to fend for himself. She gives him the name Cheol Su. Sun Yi takes it upon herself to train Cheol Su like a puppy with good results. “Wait” comes to mean many things as the story progresses. As Cheol becomes more civilized she begins to teach him to read and write. Ji Tae comes to resent Cheol Su’s protective nature whenever he attempts to put the moves on Sun Yi which leads to dire consequences and a bizarre wartime experimentation revelation.

I enjoyed Park Bo Young and Soon Joong Ki’s performances. It was refreshing to watch them when they acted freer and more natural than their more crystallized on brand performances in recent years. Jang Young Nam has great depth as an actress and it showed in this film, too. Yoo Yeon Seok was given the tough job of playing Ji Tae, a character with zero nuance and an animal far more dangerous than a wolf.

A Werewolf Boy was a chaste romantic coming of age tale set in a beautiful bucolic setting. Promises were kept and broken, something unavoidable on the road to adulthood. It veered in and out of fantasy, showing once again that the worst monsters are actually human beings.

10/27/23

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Phenomenal!

I watched this a few years ago because I was home for the holidays and trying to avoid my brother's (then) girlfriend.

It was the first time seeing SJK but I already loved the FL and so I watched it for her.

To say that I was BLOWN AWAY is an understatement. It was absolutely beautiful and profoundly sad all at the same time. I would still randomly cry the next day every time I thought of a particular scene and my brother's gf (now ex thank goodness) thought I suffered from depression.

This movie gave me emotional whiplash in the most painful way but it is honestly still one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. I'm not sure I'll rewatch it over and over again because a) My poor heart but also b) I don't want to ever spoil the impression that the acting and the story has made on me.

This has cemented Song Joong ki as one of my favourite actors ever. He was terrific in this! In fact, everyone was. Park BoYoung as well!

This movie is phenomenal. Please watch it!

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This movie reminds me to why I love Korean movies and dramas so much. The elements that are put into productions have an outcome of something beautiful. The movie all the way through was splendid, there were very few words in this film actually spoke between the two characters and it didn’t matter because of how well the body language communicated. The ending made my cry, it wasn’t a bad or good ending in my opinion, it was neutral. I wish there would’ve been more, but there was only so much she could do. The ending had me so shook that I couldn’t believe he actually waited for her all those years. It didn’t have cliches and things happened that you wouldn’t expect. It was just a great film.

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It was a great Friday movie pick! And I'll say it - even better than some of the Hollywood movies about werewolves and the supernatural. Of course, there were no special-effects or anything like that because the story is the main focus. Indeed, it gets very shocking, cute and most importantly emotional as the story progresses. Personally, I shed only a couple of tears and, like most people, wasn't satisfied with the ending. I was really moved by Song Joong Ki's performance as he stayed quiet almost during the whole movie. The relationship between the main characters was very fitting as the actors were chosen wisely. I loved the slow but strong character development as well. However, it's not a perfect 10 from me because I'm not too keen on these werewolf or vampire movies in general. But nevertheless, if you're a fan of these uncommon love stories between a girl and a beast, definitely give this a go. This movie has a different feel from other films with a similar vibe, so it's definitely worth watching!

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Korean Beauty And the Beast?

If the goal of the film was to demonstrate how many people treat others as less than human, then the film succeeded in its goal. If the goal was to demonstrate that we should treat everyone with a level of love and respect as human beings, the film comes up a bit short.

Kim Sun Yi is a young, and rather sickly girl, living in a very small, rural village with her mother and sister. We can see her life is rather mundane, and she finds small pleasures in writing until she comes across a South Korean experiment gone wrong.

Enter Cheol Su, a young man in his late teens who has been locked up and used in some kind of backward experiment with animal and human DNA. Initially, all Sun Yi sees is a wild animal who eats like one and largely behaves like one. Her mother takes the boy in, and cleans him up, even though she’s unsure of what to do with him.

Sun Yi is initially disgusted by Cheol Su’s lack of table manners until she finds a book about how to treat dogs. She uses this book to train Cheol Su to only eat upon her command. We find that Cheol Su can understand Korean, due to the professor who was raising and experimenting with him. Whenever Cheol Su does something correctly, he gets a pat on the head, much like a dog.

Seok Ji Tae is the town rich boy and thug. He owns the house that Sun Yi’s family is living in. He’s a largely uninteresting and rather cliched villain of the story, which tends to play out like a Korean version of “Beauty and the Beast.” Of course, Ji Tae attempts to brazenly demand Sun Yi’s affections and becomes violent when he doesn’t get them, making him a far greater monster than Cheol Su could ever be.

The film is a touching one and the performances, especially by the film’s two leads in Bo Young Park and Song Joong Ki are especially poignant. However, the chemistry goes little beyond the affections of two people, but rather a woman and a man she perceives as an animal (even if a benevolent animal at that); like a beloved pet.

The story would have been better served had Sun Yi begun to see Cheol Su as a person, and yet she’s never really one hundred percent sure. In the end, she says that she doesn’t care if he’s a monster. It would have been more powerful if she had told him that she knew he was a human being and not a monster. His violent actions are always done to protect her as well as those around her, but she’s unable to truly see past his animalistic qualities.

In the end, despite living alone, we see just how wrong Sun Yi was about Cheol Su. Just because a person doesn’t speak, doesn’t mean that they can’t, and perhaps she learns something about how to treat others. This film had the potential to be so much more than it ended up being.

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Will Bawl Out Your Eyes

This is it!

Watched it. Loved it. Cried for it.

SJK's acting as a werewolf was fabulous. He portrayed the animalistic actions very precisely. Like how an animal in human form would act- eating like an animal, behaviours etc.

The FL was a calm and smart character. She knew how to make a human out of an animal.

The whole movie made my heart flutter until the end. The end was BEAUTIFUL. Just BEAUTIFUL.

How the Story started was great as well. Nostalgic 1900s feeling. Felt like going back to nature.

Well I have a lot to say but cannot come up with it.

So, JUST WATCH IT if you haven't yet. And REWATCH IT if you already have.

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(Read the full review at my review blog, Re(mAAArk)able Reviews! [Link in my profile!])

Song Joong Ki was always a masterful actor, as anyone who has seen anything he's been in can certainly attest. He's got a beautiful face, for one, and a talent for saying little and yet expressing a lot. This works in his favor in playing the wordless Chul-soo. I can't imagine what it was like to play him in the early stages, when he was ravenously stuffing food in his mouth and constantly running around like a crazy person, but Joong Ki embraces the role and plays it just monstrous enough without going overboard. I was extremely impressed with him, and for once not just because he's beautiful. (He's beautiful. Ladies who might be hesitant to watch a werewolf film--he's beautiful. Do it.)

Park Bo-young who plays Suni and Suni's granddaughter (we get a frame narrative of Suni when she's older, but I don't want to say any more than that) is similarly talented, although of course she gets far more lines. The way she embraces training Chul-soo like a puppy is so entertaining, especially when at first she's just pissed her mother has taken the homeless boy in. And at the climax of the film she delivers an incredible performance that is definitely what started the waterworks. I am convinced all the way through by every emotion Bo-young expresses.

The film is also beautifully shot. Since most of the story takes place in the past, there is a kind of soft glow and sepia-toned coloring to the whole film that is just beautiful. Everything feels so nostalgic and warm, despite the obviously dark subject matter. (He is a werewolf, after all.) The countryside landscapes are filmed in such a way as they could be anywhere, not necessarily the Korean countryside, which gives this film a universal feel that I'm not used to with most Korean movies. It just feels like it could be anyone's family story, and I really enjoyed that.

Like I said, there are tears, and I'll never be able to hear "kajima" ("don't go" in Korean) ever again without sobbing like an infant. But I won't spoil any of that for you, because this film is well worth watching, again and again and again, even with all the heartbreak. The performances are flawless, the cinematography dazzles, and the story itself will wiggle its way into your heart and never let go. Definitely an A+.

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