[Movie Review] A Werewolf Boy

"A loner girl moves to a new town and finds herself entangled in the life of a mysterious boy that gave meaning to her lonely world."

~

Sounds like the entire plot of Twilight eh? In that context A Werewolf Boy is similar to Twilight but the similarity between the two movie started and ended within that description. A Werewolf Boy in its entirety is no Twilight...


...because if it is I would have thrown a fit already! Ha!

SPOILER ALERT!!!

In the heart of the movie is Soon Yi, a girl who is in need of a friend. Soon Yi has to undergo home treatment for her lung problem so she and her family moved to the countryside. Little did they know that the property they moved in had a secret. The barn is home to a dirty, starving boy with a strange mannerism similar to a - you guessed it! - wolf. While waiting for the social workers to find a place for the boy, Soon Yi's mother decided to take care him and named him Chul Soo. Thrown in the unlikely company of the strange boy whom Soon Yi domesticated using a pet training manual she found that friend. As they spent most of their time together they developed a deep bond and eventually harbored special feelings towards each other. I like how the romance part was not forced. We get to see it bloom from frightful first encounter, countless pat in the head, heart-tugging guitar scene and a bittersweet confession of love inside the cave.

It was yet another retelling of first love between two unlikely people but A Werewolf Boy boasts of an ending that is far from a fairy tale end. In fact it was almost tragic. Our couple didn't end up together. Soon Yi was forced to let him go after a brutal scene where he turned into a wolf and attacked a person in order to protect the people he love. This is another point that I like in this movie. The ending is realistic. No matter how I look at it, they can never be together because he is a werewolf that is one step away from being executed and she's a girl who has a bright future ahead of her (her lung problem got cured eventually). So they went their separate ways. She left town and he was on the run from the people who pegged him as dangerous.


Yes, it's sad and I cried until my vision blurred but one thing this movie did best is it showed that there's no need for butterflies, pixie dusts and happily-ever-afters to know that true love exists even in the most out-of-this world circumstances. It is enough that both Soon Yi and Chul Soo knew that what they had was true love.

Two thumbs up for Song Joong Ki who did the best portrayal of a speechless character I have ever seen in a movie and for Park Bo Young who moved me to tears for her portrayal of youthful innocence. A Werewolf Boy is indeed the best of its kind and definitely worth the fuss!