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Fantasy & Sci-fi Foreign Movie Reviews

A Werewolf Boy – A 2012 Korean Movie

I don’t usually fancy random notifications that stream into my mobile phone. When VIU notified me that A Werewolf Boy is now available for streaming, my natural instinct kicked in, and just when I was about to ignore the notification, the words “Park Bo-young” caught my eyes.

A 2012 Korean movie featuring Park Bo-young.

She is an award-winning actress in Korea – though you must know by now that in South Korea, there are lots and lots of competitions from music to movies to TV-series to what-have-you.

I am a huge fan of Park Bo-young and have been watching her TV series whenever available. Here in Singapore though, K-dramas or K-movies especially the older ones can be limited.

Hence, I have got to give it to VIU and their well-crafted notification (as words are limited). Last night I have attempted to watch A Werewolf Boy but I fell asleep shortly after it had started. This afternoon, I was more alert and have watched the entire 2-hour movie in one go.

While it is an eight years old movie, I still enjoyed watching it. I am familiar with how werewolf themed stories work in the Western world. And it is refreshing to see it from the Korean’s perspective.

OK. Spoilers from this point onwards.

Song Joong-ki played the werewolf boy. His acting was superb. He really acted like … an animal not being able to speak or write and behaved like an untamed wolf. And the trigger for him to transform from his human form is when his loved one was endangered.

Neat eh?

Somehow, in this Korean version, the werewolf was created through a secret government project in an attempt to create super soldiers. I don’t really get why there is only one of them.

Not surprisingly, Park Bo-young was the one who could tame the werewolf.

At the end, when Park Bo-young asked the werewolf boy to wait for her return, the boy waited for decades.

Oh my.

He really loved her.

And yes, Park Bo-young’s acting is amazing, as ever.

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On Your Wedding Day – A 2018 Korean Movie That Made Me Fall in Love & Heartbroken Once Again

I am a big fan of the Korean actress Park Bo-young. I don’t have access to many Korean TV-series here in Singapore. But through Netflix, I have watched Strong Girl Bong-soon and Oh My Ghost. She is by far one of my most favorite Asian actresses of the recent time. So when I read that her latest movie On You Wedding Day was out in August this year, I hit the local cinema websites every now and then in anticipation of a Singapore release. Happy me, I have managed to catch it yesterday.

It is a love story that spans from teenage to adulthood. There is a bit of flashback here and there. The movie has four parts to it. Each part tells a story of a particular period when the two lovers fall in love only to realize that timing always gets in the way. From the audience standpoint, it is so obvious that the two are fated to be together. Yet, circumstances always draw the two apart.

Watching On Your Wedding Day has drawn out many of the past fond memories from within me. It has also temporarily opened up old wounds too. In any given relationship, timing is so important. On a hindsight, life is full of could-have-been. Unfortunately, when we are in a relationship living the very present, there is no hindsight. So we fall in love, make some stupid mistakes, perhaps say or do the wrong thing, perhaps do not say or do the right thing, etc. We hurt someone emotionally, may have even scared the one we love physically. All of a sudden, you find yourself on your knees, begging for that one more chance. And you and him/her and the people around all think that this love affair has to continue. It has got to. It is destiny. It is meant to be. Fated.

And then he/she says, “No. It’s over” with a sense of finality.

You wonder why.

The people around wonder why.

We stop breathing for just a bit, taking in this new twist in life. Surely, a decision can be reversed, can it not?

On a hindsight, if we could erase out a few episodes of life, perhaps move the timeline around just a little, things would have turned out so different.

But we can’t. So we find ways to heal and we move on.

Back to On Your Wedding Day, thank you for making me feel like shit again and to reminisce on what I should have long forgotten.