Written and directed by Jo Sung-hee

The title might suggest horror, but A Werewolf Boy is something quieter, something that slips past genre and settles into the heart. At its core, this is a story about connection, about what it means to reach across the distance between wildness and belonging. The film follows a feral boy and the family who takes him in, tracing the tender, sometimes painful process of learning to be human. Fantasy creeps in toward the end, but it’s not what holds you. What holds you is the warmth, the ache, the small gestures that bridge two souls.

The cinematography is beautiful, but it’s Song Joong-ki who anchors everything. With barely any dialogue, he conveys an entire inner world through his eyes, his body, the way he moves between fear and longing. I’ll confess my bias here: I adore his work. Vincenzo remains one of my favorite dramas, and watching him here, so early in his career, already wielding such quiet power, only deepens that admiration.

If I had one wish for the film, it would be a lighter hand with the visual effects, particularly in moments of rage. The rawness of his performance didn’t need embellishment, it was already there, visceral and real. The story itself walks familiar ground, echoing Beauty and the Beast in its fairytale bones. But the characters feel lived in, complex, human in ways that lift the film beyond the usual young adult supernatural romance. It’s the actors who make the difference, breathing life into what could have been merely formulaic.

Image Courtesy of CJ Entertainment