By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Jo Sung-hee
Starring: Jang Young-nam | Park Bo-young | Song Joong-ki | Yoo Yeon-seok
Original language title: Neuk-dae-so-nyeon
Country: south_korea
Year: 2012
Running time: 122
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2315152/combined
Kyle says: “The title is misleading only if your notion of ‘werewolf’ is defined by the usually unclad muscular body of Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black, and CGI transformations into a huge snarling but protective wolf, in THE TWILIGHT SAGA (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Although references to the American pop culture phenomenon are clear, such as forest scenes, this South Korean film has more in common with François Truffaut’s L’ENFANT SAUVAGE a/k/a THE WILD CHILD (1970), the various versions of ROMEO AND JULIET (1968, 1996), and even THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2008). But it is specifically and unmistakably Asian, and a highly charged fable of the transformative power of love. There was so much weeping at the climactic scene, among both males and females, that some audience members were unable to move during the end titles. And yes, Chul-soo (Song Joong-ki) is a werewolf.
“The film commences with a grandmother and her granddaughter going to visit a run-down home that has been in the family for decades, and segues with a dramatic orchestral flourish back to 1965 and a man dying of a heart attack in a kennel, just as he is freeing one of his animals from captivity. This is revealed to be a feral boy who cannot speak, growls like a wolf, and is presumed to be one of some 60,000 Korean War orphans. The audience recognizes that there is a handsome teenager underneath the grime, matted hair, and rags, as does teenage Soon-yi (Park Bo-young). She takes to teaching him with a dog training manual, as clueless police and other venal authority figures essentially ignore him, except for the nasty, lying, abusive Ji-tae (Yoo-Yeon-seok), who is so villainous as to make Joffrey on HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011, 2012, 2013) seem vulnerable, and attempts to dispense with Chul-soo so that he can have his way with Soon-yi.
“A warm relationship develops between the two teenagers, despite all the odds against it. The narrative careens episodically among moods and styles, from hilarity as the boy dives into the dining table and gobbles up everyone’s dinner, to thrills as he howls at the moon or throws a ball like a Cullen family member in TWILIGHT (2008), to wonder as he instinctively protects little children from death during a construction accident, to poignancy as his face fills with adoring wonder in reaction to Soon-yi singing and playing guitar, or sweetly touching her head as she does his. A werewolf transformation occurs as expected, when a gang of hoods threatens her, but she orders him back into docile loving teenager before he can actually kill. The through-line is their sweetly evolving, loving connection, which Song Joong-ki plays brilliantly, with total commitment and attention to detail. The eventual killing of the despicable villain is pre-ordained, as is the fact of their parting at the climax, lest he be captured, imprisoned, tested and euthanized. He finally is able to articulate his feelings for her in the simple ‘Don’t go.’ But she must, and he literally obeys instruction to wait for her return. He is still a beautiful teenage boy when she returns to him as a grandmother, telling her she hasn’t changed. Which in his eyes she hasn’t, prompting an astonishing outpouring of audience emotion in tears, sniffling, coughing and sobbing. She has moved on and lived her life fully, even if eternally in thrall to that magical first love, while he has remained frozen in youthful longing and anticipation. The film functions as fantasy, allegory and romance, and a telling take on werewolf stories. 3 cats”
Thom says: “Director Hogan has made two great films previously in MURIEL’S WEDDING & UNCONDITIONAL LOVE but a spate of mediocre efforts in PETER PAN, MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, & CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, so I was overjoyed to see him return to his wacky, demented best. Hogan relates that the story was based on his growing-up years but if so high marks to him for finding so many laughs in this atypical dysfunctional family. LaPaglia plays Barry Moochmore a politician running for mayor and totally ignoring his family’s plight while also being a serial philanderer. His wife Shirley is consistently on the verge of losing it and his five daughters all think they are suffering from some sort of undiagnosed mental illness. When Shirley has a nervous breakdown Barry puts her in a mental hospital and he quickly realizes that he can’t care for his daughters.
“On the spur-of-the-minute decision he hires Shaz (a stunning Collette, but she’s always brilliant since I discovered her in MURIEL’S WEDDING, lo, those many years ago), a wayward hitchhiker that he sees pounding the pavement and puts her in his home. Unmanageable kids, a freaky nanny, all of a sudden I thought we were wandering into MARY POPPINS or NANNY McPHEE territory, but, rest assured, nothing could be further from the truth. In the first place, there’s nothing proper about Shaz,
and while indeed she does indeed heighten the five teens’ consciousness, her methods are controversial and naughty to the extreme. There’s a sub-plot involving the eldest daughter who starts working in an amusement park for a man who runs a shark attraction, Trevor Blundell (Shreiber, in an almost unrecognizable turn) who turns out to be connected with Shaz.
“The film is fully unpredictable in a charming way and yet it has a serious edge that drifts towards the macabre. I’ll admit that some might find many of the sequences are off-putting by making light of mental problems but I found the results life-affirming. 5 cats”