rgblakey The Asian film market continues to deliver the most diverse films around with more actually working than not. They seem to take a lot more chances with storytelling and visuals than any other market. The latest A Werewolf Boy comes from Korea and offers a unique love story but does it work to tell the strange tale that it hopes too or is it one of those so far out there that it misses the mark and only speaks to certain audiences? A Werewolf Boy follows an elderly woman called back to a cottage that she used to live in when she was a girl. There she had encountered a young "wolf boy" living in the shed. What started out as a terrifying encounter turned into a love/friendship as she uses dog training tactics to teach the boy how to live in the real world that will change her life forever. This is one of those fantasy stories that sounds a bit boring and probably shouldn't work, but surprisingly delivers. Let's be clear, there are no actual werewolves in this film, but instead more of a feral young boy. The performances are really well done, especially from Joong-ki Song who plays the wolf-boy. He really plays up the dog behaviors making the character that much more believable without making it silly to watch. The film moves at a fairly slow pace with a few moments that could have been chipped to help it flow a bit better, but most of it is necessary for the overall story. There are some aspects that are a bit predictable for where this story is headed, but it never really continues on the standard path.There is no action or horror here, but instead a heartwarming fantasy story of two people finding their own path in the world. The film begins in the present, before jumping to the past for most of the film, but the finale back in the present offers a tearjerker type ending that is sure to please and makes the film even better than it already was. This isn't a film for everyone as it is character and dialogue based, but works well to tell this beautiful story.

Chadwick Ahn "Don't go."A romantic film without a single kiss. It's an amazing feat, especially for a film so critically acclaimed. A Werewolf Boy is a Korean film about the forbidden love between a werewolf and a young girl. While the premise may seem shallow and overdone, A Werewolf Boy goes a completely different direction from the Hollywood stories. A sickly girl, Soon-yi (Park Bo-young), moves with her family to an open countryside, where they encounter a homeless boy with wolf/dog like behaviors. The family decides to take care of the young man for the time being, giving him the name, Chul-soo (Song Joong-ki). Soon-yi "trains" Chul-soo, resulting in the growth of a beautiful bond between master and boy.The film may start slow for some, but the first half is filled with many charms, usually just from simple interactions. Song Joong-ki does a very convincing job acting like a wild canine, especially considering that most of his acting comes from facial expressions and body language alone. A lot of the early lighthearted humor comes from him scoffing down meals and fetching objects. Strangely enough, seeing him act like a dog doesn't seem a bit ridiculous whatsoever. Even though Soon-yi initially treats Chul-soo like a pet, their relationship steadily turns into something more: he is a (good looking) human being after all. The chemistry between the two characters and two actors work perfectly. Basically the first half of the film is innocent fun, mainly strengthening the ties between Soon-yi and Chul-soo in order to make their conflicts more devastating. And Park Bo-young, with her superb acting, really sells the devastation.A Werewolf Boy easily succeeds in creating a really despicable villain character. Ji-tae, a son of a rich family, stops at nothing in order to get rid of Chul-soo and claim precious Soon-yi as his own. It's safe to say that the film builds up Ji-tae to be a bit too nasty, to the point where I found myself constantly wishing for him to just rollover and die. The antagonist almost seems to come straight out from a play, where his actions and mindset are cranked to extreme levels of arrogance and evil. I hate him more than Joffrey from Game of Thrones.While the film is geared towards young women, it still has the potential to be entertaining for men as well. The film is a lot deeper than your average love story, relying more on character development, story, and emotional turmoil rather than CGI, love making scenes, and fantasy action. Viewers not only see the bond between Soon-yi and Chul-soo, but feel it as well. However, the very end of the film is slightly disappointing and has a missed opportunity to really sink in the emotions and leave the story with some mystery. Even so, A Werewolf Boy is most definitely a better love story than Twilight.

JvH48 I saw this film at the Imagine film festival 2013 in Amsterdam. A seemingly neglected boy is found in the barn. Cannot speak or behave properly, but is yet adopted by a young girl who tries to raise him as best as she can to become part of the family. Starting with a dog training book she succeeds very well in her efforts, and we see a special relationship growing between the two. Of course, there are the usual counter powers who rather see the boy moved to an orphanage. But the mills of government grind slowly. The longer the decision what to do with him is postponed, the better he becomes house trained and integrated in family life. Ultimately, discussions about his fate falter. Yet, he remains unable to make comprehensible sounds, let alone speaking sensibly. We see all this in a long flashback, lasting nearly all of the 2 hours running time.The film starts with a prologue where grandma Suni is called to her former birth place, to decide what to do with the remains of a cottage and a barn where she had spent a considerable part of her youth. This relatively short prologue is followed by aforementioned extended flashback, where we see a whole family moving to the country because of their ailing daughter Suni. During a stormy night she finds the "wolf" boy in the deserted barn. It is the first time that someone treats the boy with affection, and they become attached to each other. She is the only one who has some influence on the boy.He eventually becomes a more or less accepted member of the family. The few times he deviates from the civilized route, is when someone threatens the family. We observe him changing into a hairy and growling monster as per the standard "werewolf" routine as shown in other movies. This happens one time too much and people get suspicious, in the aftermath of which his only viable option is to flee. Of course, Suni chases after him and finds him. Alas, she has no choice other than to leave him behind. She promises that she will return, and asks him to wait for her.All of the above is acted splendidly. Even the kids that appear as brothers, sisters and playmates of Suni act very naturally. The story is well told, and two hours pass without much inclination to inspect our watches. There is also nice music "under" several scenes that were assumed to be "moving". There were no particularly scary scenes, not even the few nightly visits to the barn. This means that the film belongs to the Fantasy and Romance category, rather than Horror. There is no reason to keep young kids away in spite of the word werewolf in the title.(*** warning *** spoiler ahead ***) Pity that some inconsistencies were not properly taken care of. For instance: in the finale, the boy still looks not very much older, contrary to Suni who became a grandma in the meantime, and has lived a full live (as she says herself) while the "boy" has done nothing but patiently wait for her. The latter is not very believable, since we hear him speaking correct sentences now, something we did not see him doing ever before. You won't learn mastering the language while all alone and not seeing other people. I think we missed a minor clarification there.A 2rd contradiction is that the young Suni speaks in sentences that are too complex (with "do not xxx" and "stop doing xxx") for the boy to understand at that time, but obviously he gets their meaning anyway. The only way to explain this it that we probably missed most of the "dog training" they did together (understandable for reasons of timing), or that he apparently grasped more than we think from her directions. That he could not speak, apart from a few words, does not mean that he did not understand the language and its basic syntax rules, in combination with her tone of voice and body language. Isn't that the way we all learned our mother tongue??All in all, still a good feel-good movie with the usual mix of good and bad characters. Even local policemen have their good and bad sides, like in real life. The over-caring mother for ailing Suni was annoying some of the time. Over-the-top annoying was the ever interfering son of the "landlord", who from the beginning is portrayed as someone not doing anything useful ever. Finally, to wrap up my positive comments, I did not feel the above average running time of 122 min as too long, meaning that it holds your attention throughout. It is well acted and shot altogether.

pangdudh16 this is a beautiful yet sad movie. song joongki gave a brilliant acting here although he was almost stayed silent throughout the movie. his gestures and stares are so intense and full of details. amazing. you gotta watch the film! i'm sure by watching this, you'll grow fond to chungsoo character and hate jitae as much as i am. hahaha. oh and please don't compare this to twilight. they are obviously different. i prefer this movie a lot rather than twilight. A Werewolf Boy is just so funny and heartwarming on the first half of the movie. But when it hits the second half, well you may be as well as crying and dying inside. it's such a tear-jerker movie. great movie after all :)