The Werewolf Boy (2012)

Country: South-Korea
Format: movie
Genre: romance,
Cast: Park Bo Young, Song Joong Ki, Yoo Yeon Seok, Jang Young Nam, Kim Hyang Gi, Yoo Seung Mok, Lee Young Ran, Seo Dong Soo, Ahn Do Kyu, Jand Seo Yi, Woo Jung Kook,
Synopsis: After an unexpected call Soon Yi visits old country house in Korea. She recalls memories of when her family moved to the countryside to cure her chronic lung ailment and found an orphan boy living in the barn.
Rating: 5/5
The first time I got to know about this movie was from "Mostar" drama in 2013. It is the movie that is shown in the one episode where everybody are going on dates to the cinema to watch "The Werewolf boy" in the cinema.

No further waiting, let's get to the movie. Soon Yi is a girl who has great pride and at first she finds it difficult to get used to living in the countryside where is nothing to do. In addition, she feels that she is a burden to her family with her weak health. While at first sight she finds Chul Soo disgusting, she soon makes taming him with dog-training manual her favorite time-filler. He becomes her best friend in the area and slowly she opens up to him. She is the person who still sees Chul Soo as caring person whose actions are only caused by his need to protect her. Park Bo Young's acting is absolutely amazing and her crying definitely hits my "favorite crying scenes" list.

Despite living wild for all his life, Chul Soo adjusts to the new environment very fast.  This movie is another great example how you can have an character in the movie without having lines. Well, through out the movie he only says one line and this line will break your heart to pieces. Song Joong Ki won a fans heart with his performance, but unfortunately enlisted to military after the movie came out. He returned to film industry in 2016 (review edited).

Ji Tae is the son of businessman who used to be Soon Yi's late father's businesspartner. He provided the house for Soon Yi's family and in return hopes to marry Soon Yi, but all the time faces only disgust by her. He is full of himself and the more he sees Soon Yi and Chul Soo together the more jealous he gets.

The last character I want to put attention to is Soon Yi's mom. I think she is one of the most heartwarming characters I have met in recent times. Despite Chul Soo being socially disadvantaged and even possible threat to her own children, she is taking the boy into the family, because he has no one else. She has the kindest heart and she believes that Chul Soo would not hurt her children no matter what other people say.

I think what is really fascinating about the story is that you cannot say it is 100% made-up. There are many stories of feral children - meaning "children who have been brought up by animals in the wild". These children have also noted to take animal habits and abilities like abnormal muscle strength to their own and not being able to adjust to human world. It is so sad to read how after being "captured" most of these kids end up having soulless look in their eyes in some kind of "mental institution while being watched and studied". And if you think that this kind of things only happened a lot of years ago, then now - the most recent dates back to 2008.

Back to the movie - It is considered one of the most successful Korean melodrama movies of all times and definitely earns this title as it is great movie from every perspective. The movie has a lot of heartbreaking moments in it. I think it makes any person cry their eyes out. I think more than it being a "love-story", it is story of trust and loyalty. Another small fact about the movie before I finish the review: The script of the movie was written by the director Jo Sung Hee while studying in Korean Academy of Film Arts and he re-wrote the script many times before finally sticking to the one that was made. Due to the great success and popularity, the movie was given also an alternative ending, which unfortunately I have not been able to see, so if anyone has information where and how to see it, then let me know also.

SPOILER-review: I was amazed with the end of the movie. It gave me conflicted emotions as in one way I was thinking that she will stay with him or something, but on the other hand that it was the only rational decision she could make. I guess the cherry on the top would have been if in the end it actually would have come out that he was no longer there and that one night she spent there was just her imagination and dream. even though it would have showed his animal behavior instead of until-the-death loyalty.