Movie Review: A Werewolf Boy
by HeadsNo2
A Werewolf Boy is an exceptional film that’s been on my radar ever since it was announced (so by that timeline, I’ll get to watch Gwanghae, the Man Who Became King by the year 2037), and one that’s raked in some considerable accolades since its lauded release last fall.
Despite this being a sophomore effort by director Jo Sung-hee—who netted himself an award for best new director at the 49th Baeksang Arts Awards—A Werewolf Boy set box office records, becoming the most successful Korean melodrama of all time as well as the third highest-grossing domestic film of 2012, second only to crime caper The Thieves and the aforementioned Gwanghae (internationally known as Masquerade).
Note: There will be some spoilers, but every story detail won’t be spelled out for those who haven’t yet seen the movie but still want to. And for those readers, the ending has been separated into its own section so it can be skipped in its entirety. (If you do happen to be a spoilerphobe, then enter the comments section/beanut gallery at your own risk. I can only go so far to protect you!)
SONG OF THE DAY
Park Bo-young – “My Prince” from the OST. [ Download ]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Aside from the prologue and epilogue, which take place in the present, most of the film is set in an unspecified countryside village circa 1965 where our heroine and her family make their initial move in the hopes that it will improve her ailing health.
This is where the stage is set, since A Werewolf Boy opens with our heroine, forty-seven years after the events that take place in the movie proper, returning from the United States to the home that filled her days with wonder. She comes from a household filled with her children and grandchildren, and comes to meet another granddaughter when she returns to Korea to sell the house that’s more or less stayed in her family all these years. The sight of the house again after so long spurs her into a flashback of her teenage years that lasts nearly the entire runtime, where her love story with the film’s titular werewolf begins.
I went into this knowing nothing more than the name and starring couple, which is my favorite way to watch most anything even though it’s getting tougher to do nowadays. Because the title is fairly specific I had a few guesses as to what the story was about, and in that sense there aren’t any huge surprises as far as plot goes—it’s more or less your classic beauty and the beast story, with a hero that has a little The Jungle Book in him, plus an inevitable bit of The Wolfman, too.
Lest we think that the title is an allegory or that our hero is just wolf-like, rest assured—it’s pretty literal, in that he’s an actual werewolf. What’s most rewarding about this experience, however, is how the story deals with him as a boy/man caught between two worlds, while seemingly belonging in none.
Along with being a love story, A Werewolf Boy also functions as a coming-of-age tale for both our wolf boy and our heroine, who both begin as outcasts in their own right before discovering in each other a common bond that relies only on their connection to each other, and not on words.
She’s KIM SUNI (Park Bo-young), who finds herself ostracized from normal activities like going to school or living in the city because of her health. She lives with only her mother and younger sister since her father has passed away, and spends her days sullenly while she spends her nights writing down her loneliness (and subsequent anger at the world which scorns her as an invalid) in a diary.
The first glimpse we see of CHUL-SOO (Song Joong-ki) is during a dark segment at the beginning of the film, where his dying captor frees him, perhaps out of a sense of mercy. It doesn’t seem to be a boy locked behind such a heavy iron door, but a feral creature with glowing eyes, one we hear uttering ferocious, otherworldly roars, and one we only see hulking in shadow.
But when Suni and her warm-hearted mother (played by Jang Young-nam) first encounter him (technically the second encounter for Suni, but she doesn’t know that), Chul-soo doesn’t look imposing at all – he’s merely dirty, ragged, and starving.
Song Joong-ki hasn’t managed to go wrong yet, but I have to admit to being surprised at just how well he pulls off being feral here – you just wouldn’t have thought it was possible from his face alone, coupled with his previous roles. He’s got the animal mannerisms down pat, but he’s still human, and we see him grow and evolve from mindlessly inhaling food like a dog to something a little more in-between, helped in no small part by how incredibly expressive his eyes can be.
Despite Chul-soo sticking out like a splinter in the thumb of society, the small-town Powers That Be aren’t very concerned with his discovery and write him off as an orphan and by-product of the Korean War. It’s their disinterest which causes Mom to take him in out of pity, lending to moments of hilarity I didn’t think to expect in (what I perceived to be) a Very Serious Movie.
It’s refreshing that the director realizes how absurd it is to have someone like Chul-soo all but leap onto a dinner table in order to stick his face in everyone’s food, and so we get plenty of laughs from the fact that a family of three girls just adopted a feral boy. Doubly nice is that the movie knows just how to strike the right balance, with everything being played straight because it’s the situations themselves and not exaggerated reactions that make up the funny. Thus the comedy feels organic to the world that’s set up, as opposed to feeling shoehorned in before the melodramatics start.
Suni initially treats Chul-soo with a mixture of disinterest and disdain, though she eventually starts to warm up to her strange and unrefined roommate the more time she spends with him.
He first wins her favor (in no small part) by protecting her on multiple occasions from her menacing landlord, JI-TAE (Yoo Yeon-seok), the errant and privileged son of her late father’s business partner who carries a torch for Suni, but can only express his love through the fine art of assault.
Yes, Ji-tae’s the Gaston of this tale, and he’s not even two-dimensional enough to be a cartoon. He’s the weakest part of the story hands down, if only because he’s just a device to get us from point A to point B, and he’s in love with the heroine because that’s his only excuse. When literally every other adult in the story acts absurdly reasonable (most of the time), Ji-tae sticks out for being lazily contrived only because giving him proper motivations would take too much effort.
To put it simply, his character and the role he plays in the story is a waste of space.
So, Suni gets the bright idea to start training Chul-soo to act more refined by using a dog training manual, the reading of which begins to replace her nightly “I hate the world” diary musings. She starts by getting him to obey her whenever she tells him to “wait,” and Chul-soo begins to eagerly seek her approval because the reward for a job well done is her giving him a pat on the head, and nothing makes him happier.
There is one thing he likes more than a pat on the head, and that’s when Suni plays the guitar and sings for him. You can see his eyes fill with childlike wonder as he stares at her, completely transfixed, and it’s in this moment you realize that he’s falling in love.
It’s a strength that Song Joong-ki is able to portray these emotional beats without uttering a word—Chul-soo can understand Korean, but he can’t seem to speak any of it.
Chul-soo struggles to fit in and struggles to please, all while his bond with Suni grows. It’s adorable and sad to see him try to communicate using only what he’s been taught, like when he wants to reward Suni for playing the guitar by how she always rewards him—with a pat on the head. (So. Cute.)
All the cute can’t last forever, even as we get peeks into Chul-soo’s very inhuman traits like his superhuman resilience and strength. It’s only when Suni is threatened by Ji-tae that he loses control and morphs into his werewolf form for the first time in full in order to protect her, his transformation spurred by emotion and not anything genre-specific (like a full moon).
Chul-soo is less in control of himself while in his inherently-violent wolf form, but he’s stopped from killing Ji-tae by obeying Suni when she shakily commands him to wait.
It’s a relief that Suni’s not a wilting flower, since she’s not afraid of him even though she’s seen what he can become. But the encounter does put Chul-soo in an unwanted limelight with the town authorities (and on Ji-tae’s shit list, because who isn’t on that), which only works against him as he tries to do right, but keeps getting misinterpreted for doing wrong.
The story begins to sidestep later into the second act, as Ji-tae seeks to call official attention to Chul-soo in the hopes of getting rid of him. Through this process, Chul-soo’s origin story is revealed, and while I give it props for being unconventional from traditional werewolf canon, it starts to feel tangential when introduced so late in the game.
Mostly, it just didn’t seem all that important to find out exactly why Chul-soo is a werewolf, because that’s not what the story is about, nor do any of his personal developments hinge on that revelation. (A revelation he doesn’t even get to understand, since it’s not like anyone sits him down to tells him what’s happening.)
Another detriment to getting bogged down in the technicalities is that we inevitably realize that they’re not quite technical enough to explain what could’ve been just as easily passed off as just supernatural, and therefore mysterious. If you’re going to purposefully bring attention to his supernatural origins, you better hope that you’ve got your sense-making ducks in a row, ‘s all I’m sayin’.
But it serves as an excuse for the authorities to get involved, though it’s really Ji-tae who moves things into place during the second half, just because he’s crazy enough to take action without concern for consequence if it means killing Chul-soo. Why? Because he can, and because that moves the plot forward.
To say that he manages to break character when he was barely conceived to start with really says something, but it’s an inevitable feeling that overcame me as he started losing it toward the finale, since most of his actions had me going, “What? Seriously?” It’s tough, because I found myself liking the scenes that resulted as a consequence, even if I wasn’t as much a fan of how we got there.
Once the focus shifts back to Suni and Chul-soo, and how they’re directly affected by all of the above, we find our footing again, and not a moment too soon. It’s not to say that the movie derailed in any way, but it could have been leaner in some regards in order to focus more on the dynamic between our two star-crossed lovers, and less on the outside forces threatening to tear them apart. (If only because the outside forces weren’t that convincing or engaging in the first place.)
It’s there where the story shines, whether it’s solely due to the actors or the poignancy of their relationship, or even a mixture of all those factors rolled into one. For someone who’s as story-driven as I am, saying that a film makes up for its narrative shortcomings with something as unquantifiable as heart means a lot, and speaks to something special that can’t exactly be explained.
This all goes to say that A Werewolf Boy surprised me by gripping me emotionally even when I had reservations about the plot, so I’m kind of at a loss on how to deal reconcile that. Does an emotional stake actually elevate a movie like this, or does it just make us turn a blind eye to what didn’t work for us? I’m genuinely curious, especially in this case.
THE ENDING
The reason why I wanted to mention the ending specifically is because it was, honestly, an incredibly moving and bittersweet bookend to a tale that is inherently tragic, yet one that didn’t dwell too long in its own misery. Thus, when the tragic moments hit, they hit you like a bus – starting from Chul-soo’s innocently misguided search for Suni’s guitar, as he wordlessly holds out the crude picture he’s drawn in place of a word he can’t say. Props to Song Joong-ki, because he kills it through the whole movie, but never more than in the final act.
I was sure that my heart couldn’t take any more after Suni abandons Chul-soo for his own good, causing him to say his first line of the entire film: “Don’t go.” Don’t go. That one line is immensely powerful because it’s said at just the right time, and is a testament to how far in this show set its emotional hooks—because as much as the mob-with-pitchforks angle bothered me in the second act, I found myself willing to forgive almost everything just because of how much Suni and Chul-soo’s emotions affected me during their farewell.
Throughout the story, Chul-soo displays his unwavering loyalty toward Suni in waiting eagerly for her without expecting anything in return but her affection. We know that he’s a byproduct of some military experiment gone wrong (made to produce super soldiers because wolves are so resilient, since I doubt the fact that wolves also mate for life was on the forefront of their priority list), but it’s not really said whether he’s immortal, or how long he’ll actually live.
That’s not important, since not much of his origin story is—all that really matters is that he doesn’t change on a fundamental level, and is loyal to Suni for life – which means that he waits for her for forty-seven years, his own face frozen in time, just because she’d left him a note that said: “Wait for me. I’ll come back for you.”
We don’t know why Suni never thought to return before, though the most likely scenario is that circumstances prevented her and she just… forgot. Which is why Park Bo-young’s tears (in the extended version, we see a vision of her as her teenage self, even though it’s the older version of her actually meeting Chul-soo) are honestly difficult to watch, since she’s registering the fact that for all the years that she lived her life to the fullest, Chul-soo was patiently waiting for the day she’d return like she promised, even learning to speak in the process just so he could do like she wanted and read her a book. He was loyal where she wasn’t, but you can’t hate her for living her life, either. Though it’d be an easier pill to swallow if she hadn’t left him a note instructing him to wait.
And so Chul-soo waited for forty-seven years—but even in the end, he doesn’t get the girl. He’s left alone, for an untold amount of years to come, unable to move on. One gets the sense that he’ll just keep waiting, for as long as he lives.
It’s one of the most horrendously tragic movie endings I’ve ever seen, especially in the absence of any real tragedy or death, which is a feat. Actually, it’s eerily reminiscent of how affected I was by the ending of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which also centered on the idea of a tragic hero waiting for eternity. (Come to think of it, A.I. also had a similar Forest Abandonment scene. Huh.)
At least Chul-soo and Suni were able to meet again, which adds a bittersweet layer to the tragedy of it all, even though it’s still harrowing to consider that nothing has changed or will ever change for Chul-soo. The movie has its merits and plenty of them, but this is the kind of ending that sticks with you and stays there when all the other details eventually fade away. And that sort of staying power is an A+ in every moviegoer’s book, mine willingly included.
NOT THE ENDING
The Bottom Line: A Werewolf Boy is an intensely moving and fantastical love story that’s earned its spot high on the shelf of mainstream acceptance, all while managing to separate itself from the pack by relying on pure and understated emotion, rather than slick tricks or commercial appeal, to drive the narrative forward. A worthy watch and then some, even if only for Song Joong-ki’s standout performance. 8/10.
RELATED POSTS
Tags: featured, Park Bo-young, Song Joong-ki
Interview with Kim Yoo-jung
Hello Dramabeans series
![[2022 Year in Review] The Bean Count](https://www.dramabeans.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/beancount_2022.png)
Required fields are marked *
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
51 Aleena
May 11, 2013 at 8:30 PM
I loved the movie, but seriously. The ending. It killed me. :( I really wish it had been different. Because it really could have been. She could have gone back to him after a few years. I don't understand why she didn't. Sniff. :'(
Required fields are marked *
Mama J
May 11, 2013 at 10:51 PM
She just didn't. She forgot about him. These things happen all the time, but it's what makes THIS movie so heartbreakingly sad. Because for her, he was important for a time, and then forgotten as she became involved in a new life. For him, she was the entire world, and that never changed. She realized that when they met again, and she took steps to protect him - but in this life there is no going back. Only forward, and she chose not to stay. Probably to protect him and everything else that she loves, but still.
I tell myself she was just a young girl and she did what young girls do, when they move across the planet and begin new lives. It doesn't make it any less painful to watch him on that hill, though.
Required fields are marked *
pogo
May 12, 2013 at 11:49 AM
Exactly. She's not the girl she once was, and that girl began changing as soon as she left - I don't blame her for leaving again, but poor Chul-soo has me in tears.
Required fields are marked *
52 k-soup
May 11, 2013 at 10:50 PM
I really love this film. I was interested to watch this because Soong Jong Ki was the main lead but my, this movie was really good. He portrayed his character well though there are parts of the film that in my opinion was rushed and was not well explained.
btw, Park Bo Young looks like Moon Geun Young :D
Required fields are marked *
53 hiba
May 11, 2013 at 11:41 PM
omg the review brought me to tears ! how the hell am i going to watch it !! hh but im ! love the story the actors and every thing !
Required fields are marked *
54 jennie
May 12, 2013 at 12:17 AM
this is a fave.
song joong ki killed it in this role, he did such an exceptionally great job, and park bo young's tears were so moving.
there were tons of memorable scenes and the ending really got to me when she realized that she had instructed him to wait for her and then she lived her life to the fullest and forgot about him.
so heartbreaking, awesome movie! will def get this and watch it again ♥
Required fields are marked *
55 rubie
May 12, 2013 at 12:26 AM
2037? Ok.
Required fields are marked *
56 sui
May 12, 2013 at 2:12 AM
I love this movie so much especially the ending. This is one of my favorite movies aside from Ahjussi aka The Man from Nowhere, a very cool action movie with a very nice ending.
Required fields are marked *
57 lanselau
May 12, 2013 at 2:51 AM
This movie left my crying the whole night... I loved it, and at the same time hate it because the bitter ending... I'm pretty sure the next time I see it, I'll cry again.
Thanks for the review.
Required fields are marked *
58 MIKAN
May 12, 2013 at 4:36 AM
It's a nice movie. I am not really invested in it because of the wolf thing but the pacing was really poignant and I love Jongki's portrayal as a wild semi wolf puppy. I also enjoyed Gwanghee as a Korean version of the "Prince and the Pauper"
Required fields are marked *
59 Riri
May 12, 2013 at 8:03 AM
I was going to write a review on this movie but I thought Dramabeans will one day pick it up. I mean c'mon YOU JUST HAD TO. And you summed it up perfectly. It is tragic. To the core. I had never EVER spilled tears as much as I did during any movie. All those simple moments eventually became painful. The note written by Suni was terrible. It really broke me haha. So sad. And weird thing is, I know I shouldn't be SO emotional about it. But those mundane moments that brought about this became amplified and it's weird. I already knew why everything happened in that movie, but it still slapped me in the face.
Those fleeting tragic moments hit quick like a bus but in no doubt they gave me emotionally scarring man. Which in a way makes it completely perfect in the fact that it really truly affected the audience. I will never forget this movie, just like Edward Scissorhands. I'm not sure what it is, and that's why this movie is spectacular. You're just left satisfied but broken. Just so incredibly drawn to a simple plot. This movie was brought to life by the cast and directing.
I never ever go for a sad movie but I watched this and it was one of the best movies I've ever watched. This was grabs your heart and pulls it out of your chest. It hurts to watch it, but boy it will stay with you. And you'll be glad to have watched such a beautiful story.
:( still makes me sad tho haha.
Required fields are marked *
60 pogo
May 12, 2013 at 11:45 AM
I love watching Korean movies, not least because they tend to be so much less predictable than dramas - and this one is a tour de force for every one of the actors involved. No wonder people were raving about Song Joong-ki in this last September - he absolutely KILLED it, and the chemistry between him and Park Bo-young is no less amazing for the fact that they don't really go the usual route with it, physically anyway.
I have no idea how a movie managed to make me laugh so much (Suni's mother and that half-asleep bath scene, ha) and then gut me completely when she had to leave him. That his first words EVER were to ask her not to go....I almost cried. And then I cried some more at the ending, poor poor Chul-soo :(
Required fields are marked *
61 ZOBear
May 12, 2013 at 11:51 AM
I love Song Joong-ki. He is a pretty damn good actor. He doesn't have to speak, everything you need to know or for him to say he can express with his eyes. Not too many actors can do that and do it well.
I just watched this movie and cried like a baby. I also agree with some comments about minor details being left unanswered, but the quality of this film makes it so you don't really care about those details you just want to know why the hell didn't she go back?! lol
Required fields are marked *
62 momche
May 12, 2013 at 8:53 PM
where can i watch or buy the WAREWOLF BOY movie.i had been looking for it since i heard about it.thank you.
Required fields are marked *
63 Kiara
May 12, 2013 at 9:54 PM
Ahhh I love K-movie reviews. Thank you so much Heads. Loved this movie (so much heart) and the 2 leads were fantastic. Open endings can be frustrating to some but I like it because I can have a different ending each time I watch it.
Required fields are marked *
64 Fangy
May 13, 2013 at 1:58 AM
Thanks, HeadNo2 for the review!
It comes just in time after I finally managed to watch it while I was on the plane! (This show and Gift from Room 7 had turned me into a floodgate and I didn't care if others on the plane noticed my swollen eyes.) How glad am I to know that there are others who shared the same view of the movie!
Song Joongki has nailed the character! My regards to him as an actor has increased tremendously. This is the second show that I've watched that he is in. The first one was SKKS and he was my favourite. He was able to convey the emotion and growth through his eyes and body language. And he had me at "Kajima".
Park Boyoung...I've liked her since I watched her in Speedy Scandal (also in the plane few years ago).
Like others who have commented, it does remind me of Edward Scissorhands. Hey, I like Scissorhands. And if Werewolf Boy is able to adapt well with its own flavour, why not?
To be honest, I didn't expect Chulsoo to be a real werewolf. Somehow I had this impression that he is just a feral boy being caged by some mad scientist. Hence, it turned into a nice surprise when he really is one. And made sense to me of the animal growling sound that I heard at the beginning of the show.
Like others, I wondered - while watching the show- about the long lasting electrical supply in the shed, the clothes that he wore for the past 47 years, and his ability to read. That makes me think that their final meeting was all Grandma Suni's imagination. The whole shed was too sunny and dreamy for a snowy night. And he wasn't there when she woke up in the morning.
Perhaps he was still around in the neighbourhood. Yet, over the years, he knew that even if she were to come, even if they were to meet again, they would still have to go on separate ways. Sensing each other's presence, knowing the other person is well and healthy, is good enough. Looking at it in this way, whether the final meeting is real or imagination doesn't seem to matter that much to me anymore except leaving a bitter-sweet taste for me like a dark chocolate.
Oh yes, I want to thank Heads once again. After watching the show, Park Boyoung's "My prince" remains in my mind; and I told myself that I'll look for the OST when I return. And here it is! So, THANK YOU!!!!
Required fields are marked *
kumi
May 13, 2013 at 8:18 AM
"Sensing each other’s presence, knowing the other person is well and healthy, is good enough. Looking at it in this way, whether the final meeting is real or imagination doesn’t seem to matter that much to me anymore …"
Here I want to say that for love this kind of knowing might not always be enough, because of love's very nature: it is always active. You always want to DO something for the person you love. Otherwise, the feeling will (at the very best) lessen to be only a memory. Exactly what happened to Suni. In this sense, Chul Soo was on a more pristine and firm platform. He was actively engaged in trying to do things for Suni all those years (like learning).
Yes, you can also think that it was all Grandmother Suni's imagination, if you choose so. But I think the beauty of this movie's directing is that if we pay attention to all the small details throughout the story development, we can become sure their meeting was quite possible in reality.
Just a small example: a little girl gave to Chul Soo a small beanie in a pot for him to grow it. So, he was watering it, and that's how he learned to grow flowers. And in one of the final scenes we see a lot of blooming flowers in that shed. Thus, I'm sure he learned other things about the house to be able to do something about it, either when he was being trained by Suni or when he saw other family members doing small things.
Another detail that I liked very much: in the very beginning of the movie we see how she carefully takes out an orange sweater from from a drawer. It was the sweater she was wearing at their separation. So, she actually did remember about him throughout her life, but chose to have a different life and keep their love just as memory.
Required fields are marked *
65 yasminsatria
May 13, 2013 at 10:46 AM
(-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩__-̩̩̩-̩̩̩-̩̩̩)
You make me teary again reading this review. And about the similarity between A.I and Werewolf boy, I so agree with you. Still remembering my heartbreak after watching A.I, I cry a river. Their longing to be loved and the sense of waiting for eternity...
Required fields are marked *
66 piggybunny12
May 13, 2013 at 1:24 PM
Can you go into more detail about what happens in the extended ending please? After seeing it in the States I could never find out!!
Required fields are marked *
67 ajj
May 13, 2013 at 6:42 PM
At the end of the movie I was really curious who taught him how to read and write and how he lived and where he got the money to buy pencils and clothes and stuff.He looked clean and seems to live like a normal human being. It weird since the last time they saw each other he's chased in the forest.
Required fields are marked *
68 zodd
May 13, 2013 at 8:26 PM
While the movie was good I found it way overhype than what the movie deserves to be. Wish the bad guy wasn't so cartoony in the movie, really dragged down the movie for me. Overall it's a good one time watch.
Required fields are marked *
69 Newborn Fanatic
May 17, 2013 at 2:10 PM
I really want to watch this movie but have no idea where I can stream or even pay to watch korean movies. ANyone has any websites they can recommend?
P.S. They kind of look alike in the movie poster :P
Required fields are marked *
70 jahne24
May 18, 2013 at 7:34 AM
Just watched this movie today. Even though I read the recap ahead, it still didn't shield my fragile heart. Now I have to go find all the pieces while wiping my tears in the process. T.T
Such a good movie.
Required fields are marked *
71 katey
May 20, 2013 at 10:40 AM
SJK was my favourite part of the whole movie. I can't believe how talented he is, to be able to convey all those complex emotions without speaking a word.
This opinion might be unpopular, but I hope he enlists soon. That experience will give him way more range, plus my opinion is always to get it over as soon as possible. And army life will probably do wonders to his pretty-boy looks - lee junki is one prime example.
Required fields are marked *
72 aicaramba
June 11, 2013 at 8:20 PM
I made sure to watch the movie before I read the review (hence, the very late comment. hahaha). I totally agree with you when you said it reminded you of AI. I kept thinking about that in the scene right before their reunion. I was hoping Chul-soo had grown old, too. I didn't want him to be immortal, because that would mean he'd exist forever without Suni. What broke my heart the most was when they showed him to still be young. :'(
Required fields are marked *
73 Cee
June 26, 2013 at 3:03 AM
I watched this last year (or maybe early 2013) and I can still feel the movie's atmosphere until now. It's one of the most unforgettable movies for me!
Four (yes, four) thumbs up for Song Joongki's performance! He did very well, hell this boy always has certain ways to surprise us, right? And Park Boyoung did fine too. Their chemistry was awesome.
At first this movie seemed too commercial for me. I mean, werewolf movies/serials are the trend now, and honestly I didn't expect much from this movie (even after it hit 5 mill viewers)
But it proved me wrong. This movie is very innocent, very moving, and very pure. You can feel the cast's emotions, chemistry, etc without flashy effects.
It doesn't even have a kissing scene but it made your heart swell with happy/sad tears, and that's what makes me love this movie even more <3.
The ending is one of its strong points too. I loved the ending because it was realistic. It was very tragic, bittersweet, the kind of ending that makes your heart literally hurts. But it was better than forcing them to be together. Thumbs up for the writers.
Required fields are marked *
74 Katherine L.
June 26, 2013 at 9:06 PM
Is it bad that the ending made me cry like a baby?
"Kajima..."
DEAR LORD THE WATER WORKS!!!!
Required fields are marked *
75 Shee
July 10, 2013 at 8:31 AM
I watched this movie yesterday and I've heard that it was sad, but I didn't expect to completely break down at the end, when I saw Suni's note, telling him to wait for her. And he did. It was heart-wrenching.
On the fate of the two characters, realistically speaking, even if Suni didn't leave, it would've been impossible for them to be together as much as I want them to have a happy ending. She'll grow old while he'll stay young...forever.
Required fields are marked *
76 jasmine
August 1, 2013 at 10:12 AM
i really love the movie, it's so touching and full of emotions between the 2 characters. song joong ki has the ability to express his whole face even without talking. it's so impressive. i'll rate this movie an 8/10. definitely one of the best korean movies. to think im an irish. thanks for the eng sub and i was able to understand the movie.
Required fields are marked *
77 nimrah
August 21, 2013 at 1:02 AM
song joong ki was superb in this movie! :O
after seeing him in nice guy as any other main lead k drama character and then seeing him playing a role like this was pretty amazing to me. This was such a sweet movie :') its one of those feel good, touches your heart, makes you smile type of movies with a good ending. It wasn't too long or short. I would rate this movie a 4/5!
Required fields are marked *
78 daria
August 25, 2013 at 6:18 PM
finally gotten around to watching this in its entirety & i was completely unprepared for the buckets full shed in the last stretch of the movie.
it was very 'beauty & the beast' meets 'ed scissorshand' for me; and in a film where it's so easy for the leads to go overly dramatic & do one of those phone-booth scenes, i love how the emotions & expressions are just right.
now i can understand the fuss surrounding song joongki :)
Required fields are marked *
79 Hee yoon
August 28, 2013 at 10:59 AM
where i can watch this??
love song jooong ki..
can you help me?
Required fields are marked *
80 Ha Ni
September 2, 2013 at 2:09 AM
UGH to Suni! My poor Chul Soo. My heart broke for him several times throughout this. How could she just leave him? TWICE! I was wishing she imagined/dreamed meeting him again. Just so we wouldn't have to deal with the fact that he waited all those years.
Required fields are marked *
81 Lilypad
September 10, 2013 at 1:37 AM
I loved this movie and have to say I was quite reluctant to watch is as I'm a song joong ki fan and wasn't too keen on the whole 'wolf boy' concept so didn't want to risk anything. I can't believe that I was almost going to miss out on such a great movie.
It was unreal...pulling every emotion out of the viewers.
When reading this review, all the feelings I felt during the movie came back to me and it was tugging on my heart strings again *sob sob*
Required fields are marked *
82 tia
September 21, 2013 at 8:25 AM
i haven't watch the movie T.T but i found myself crying reading this
Required fields are marked *
83 jennie
September 22, 2013 at 1:36 PM
Wolf Boy stole my heart, it was so beautiful and had such powerful meanings. I cried so much, hearing "wait" (in Korean) seems so painful after watching this movie. I LOVE IT, absolutely wonderful ♥
Required fields are marked *
84 Wens
October 7, 2013 at 1:45 AM
This movie is so simple yet aesthetically beautiful and touching.
The whole movie is shot with such a soft lighting, as if it brings you to a time many many years ago, where a young girl met a young boy and they fell in love. Unlike a conventional movie, there was no "big" romantic scenes in the movie, where you can tell they fall in love at that moment and they declare their love and seal the love and promise with a kiss. There was none of that.
That's why the werewolf boy was so mesmerising, you can tell the two leads slowly drawn to each other. Initially, may not be romantic attraction, merely curiosity. But from there daily interaction, Chul Soo is like an adoring puppy dog that follows her everywhere and listens to her orders. That's how you know he loves her. In his own sweet and subtle ways.
The ending kills me. He is a boy who was forgotten by time. 47 years later, where the world around him changed, he remained the same boy who obeyed her orders and waited for her, with the mere hope that she would come back again. During the 47 years, he practiced speaking and writing, so that he can read to her when they meet again. Even when he didn't know if and when they would meet again.
What's even more tragic is that, there is no happy ending after 47 years, it's not like they reunite and embrace and be together. They spend one night together then she takes off again. This time, you know it's forever. Yet he will wait for her, despite she told him not to. What else is he going to do, he's waited for 47 years, waiting for her is the only way he knows how.
I wish he doesn't live forever, for that means he'll wait forever, in vain, because she will not come back.
Required fields are marked *
Aaron Lindsey
March 7, 2014 at 9:03 PM
Exactly I wish she would have came back for him sooner and also wish he aged normaly so they could be together atleast
Required fields are marked *
85 bonsai
November 8, 2013 at 10:54 AM
I cried so much my eyes became sore and my sisters were cackling next to me over my ugly crying. This was such a good movie and I even ignored my sister taking pictures of my face throughout the ending. It was romantic, it was bittersweet and it was unforgettable.
Song Joong-Ki was like a more eternal-living and in-love version of Hachiko T^T
Required fields are marked *
86 Brancusi
November 9, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Cruel persecution against the different just because of irrational paranoia; Faith that seems too good to be true. The juxtaposition just sears into my lungs making me choke further on my tears. Along with the fact that I've been the guilty party before. What have I done?
Blown so far out am I for speechless expressions that penetrate right through me with the insane emotional intensity. Joong- ki's hit almost all the right spots in this film that I'm starting to think his good looks are honestly secondary to his acting chops [no matter how heartbreakingly beautiful he is].
Love the nuances and the cold draft of an ending where he waits on with seemingly someone [the snowman] yet really just alone.
Life that has got to crack on despite all; guilt because of it. Only so human.
Required fields are marked *
87 July
January 18, 2014 at 7:01 AM
Just finished this movie yesterday. Going in without any expectations I wasn't prepared for how much my heart was going to hurt at the end. I didn't cry mostly because I forced myself not to even though my chest hurting but I did find myself talking to the screen like they could hear me which is something I almost never do. This is a great movie because it's ruined me for a while and even though a day has passed I can't stop thinking about everything that happened in those 2 hours. There are few movies that will stay with me after a period of time has passed but I know this one will stay with me and I will find myself recommending it to people to watch.
Required fields are marked *
88 Adal
January 23, 2014 at 12:57 PM
Just as an FYI - A Werewolf Boy is now on Netflix for anyone who's interested in viewing it.
Required fields are marked *
89 Aaron Lindsey
March 7, 2014 at 8:59 PM
Also I hate the fact that he waited and even at the end of the movie she didn't tell him to leave or go start a life so he could still be waiting which is just sadd :'(
Required fields are marked *
90 Nicole
March 31, 2014 at 8:38 AM
If I'm being 100% honest, I didn't care for the ending. What a cruel little girl, what a sad little boy/thing. So many questions. Surely the neighbors would have noticed him hanging around.
I almost wonder if he didn't die. She is woken in the woods by the sound of a gun shot. But when the search party find her, they act like they didn't see the wolf thing. So why were they randomly shooting their guns?
I kind of wondered if he didn't die out there and everything after that was her broken mind filling in the gaps.
:P There's a new interpretation for you. THAT was the twist I kept expecting to be revealed.
Required fields are marked *
91 FILM KOREA TERBAIK
June 18, 2014 at 9:18 PM
The first time I watched this movie I full out sobbed for an hour and whenever I brought it up for the next week or listened to the song she sings I cried. I watched it a second time and did not have the same joy. DO NOT WATCH IT MORE THAN ONCE. You can never relive the first time.
but i love film A Werewolf Boy
Required fields are marked *
92 Clara
November 6, 2014 at 10:02 PM
It's a good movie to watch if you're needing to let out a pent up crying session.
I truthfully wouldn't have watched it if I had known how much it would make my heart ache and my tears fall
Required fields are marked *
93 Richa
February 1, 2015 at 10:52 PM
I cried a lot while reading this review,, I'm even haven't watch the movie yet.. Maybe I will prepare for a lot of tissue, I'm afraid I will cry a river ToT
Required fields are marked *
94 shanghai
March 8, 2015 at 11:36 AM
well when i saw this ,movie first time in the flight while coming in the flight i cried and were the passenger next to me asked why was i crying and were i told him that this movie is very heart touching and were even he saw the movie and cried and he too loved him soo much and this is the best movie which made me cry after the movie "millionaires first love story" and hats off to the director,script writer,and everyone and mainly to the song joong ki for doing tat role and he was awesome and i felt tat if i had been in tat position i would have not left him and gone and even if i had to die one day , i would stayed with him still than and tats my opinion.
Required fields are marked *
95 Vicky
March 20, 2015 at 9:37 PM
This movie made me so sad! I'm supposing the screen writer wanted to portray how cruel human beings are as compared to canines:
1) the bad guy wanting to kill him out of jealousy,
2) suni commanding him to wait and then forgot about him. I mean, in 47 years not once did she think to check in on him??
3) for leaving him all alone a second time when the movie ends.
Sigh, it's a wonderful movie that left me feeling sad inside. I loved it, though. I might re watch it once the sadness wears off!
Required fields are marked *
Cherrybomb
June 9, 2015 at 1:36 AM
as mentioned in the article, it was different for suni. Chulsoo was just a part of her world, while chulsoo's world is suni. She went to America, and started a new life there, she moved on. She assumed that chulsoo did the same, but he never did. However, it is wrong to think that she forgot about him. He just became something of a first love to her, even though she still remembers him, ultimately it's not the person she spends her life with. Circumstances prevented her, whether she was caught up with studies, or even fell in love with another person. She just slowly forgot about going back, and he just became a memory. She left because he was just that, a memory. It was separate from her real life, but You can't fault her for that. Chulsoo was like a first love that never came to be, and just faded into a memory. She didn't stay with him the second time because she had a whole life elsewhere, not with chulsoo. The fact that he waited for her didn't change the fact that suni and chulsoo were never meant to be together.
Required fields are marked *
96 MyGrain
March 30, 2015 at 8:57 AM
I just finished the movie and I didn't like the ending, well I hate most movie endings so meh, my ranting is moot. But! I do think Suni will come back again. I mean she didn't sell the house so most probably she won't be coming back to America anytime soon. I hope.
Required fields are marked *
97 lezzy
April 28, 2015 at 1:05 AM
No. no no no no no. I get that this ending is brilliantly tragic in that it sticks with you forever and such, but I'm not the kind of gal to appreciate the beauty in such tragedy. All I see is tragedy, tragedy, and more damn tragedy. All I want is for this adorably heartbreaking kid to love and be loved and have at least a couple decades of happiness to make up for all the crap he's suffered through. But seriously, if this house means so much and this story is such a huge part of your life, how could you FORGET HIM? I do blame her, and I will continue to blame her until a time machine is created and she goes back 47 years to scratch out "Wait for me." and write in, "I'm moving on, find someone better." I mean come on, how can you forget someone who looks at you the way he did her? Like she was the only and best thing in existence. Eyes like that aren't forgotten so easily.. shouldn't be forgotten so easily. And if she did, she wasn't worth it.
Required fields are marked *
98 nike pratiwi
May 31, 2015 at 7:45 PM
aku suka banget filmnya....
bikin aku ngeluarin air mata....
tapi aku ingin cheoul su ma suuny tuh jadian eh ternyata gak....
Required fields are marked *
99 melody~
July 23, 2015 at 12:22 PM
Is now too late to comment on this post? I have just finished watching the film momments ago and I just want to write down something.
It's weird how somebody can make you cry by saying one word. "Don't go". I felt the chemistry between Chul-soo and Sunmi along the movie but not as strong as it was at the ending. I just burst out with tears. Even when I was reading your recap, I felt emotional again. The way Bo-young and Joong-ki acted together, felt so real. I was about to stop sobbing like a baby when the ending hit me again. He waited. All this time. It was a beautiful movie and hits people in the heart. I may never forget his words. "Don't go". *back to sobbing again*
Required fields are marked *
100 rentenmann
August 25, 2015 at 5:52 PM
I love this movie even if it makes cry cry cry every time I see it! Song Joong-ki is amazing. I've seen him in a few dramas and this was a clincher in my estimation of his abilities. Wonderful to watch!
Required fields are marked *