Hwayi: A Monster Boy

I'm so glad I finally watched this. This movie was F****** AWESOME. Yes the language is warranted. The acting was spectacular from every character- especially Yeo Jin Goo,I was already impressed with this child actor since The Moon Embraces the Sun and I Miss You, but he literally BLEW ME AWAY here. He covered every single emotional beat, every scene with the veteran actors (who themselves were freaking amazing) perfectly. I can't rave enough about the acting here.

The story was a lot more than I expected. I thought this would be like Coin Locker Girl when it turned vengeful and just become a bloodbath but damn- Hwayi was way smarter than I thought. Some twists I saw coming, others made me pause and rewind.

The monster analogy was very well done, the part where he just stared it down gave me chills.

The cops really got the short end of the stick here but aside from that I loved the ending. Amazing movie all around. Seriously in my top 10 K thrillers.

The unluckiest one is Hwayi himself, my goodness. The thing about him seeing monsters seemed pretty irrelevant overall, instead the real monsters were his five 'fathers'. Amazing acting by the cast but I felt like there was something lacking about the story.

Complex and fascinating too. Typical Asian, it could have been from China or even Japan, not Hollywood anyway. Pretty hard to follow or summarize, or even totally understand. It is gruesome as a script an directing and remains an excellent crime drama. Not for all western audiences. Not in the spirit. The fault of its quality.

I would have probably enjoyed this movie when I was in my early teens over now. Despite all the blood and gore in this. The acting is good, but couldn't really get immersed into the characters or the story. I guess they did the best they could with 2 hours and multiple different characters. The rising star Yeo Jin-goo is still rough around the edges but still good for such a young actor. I think his acting chops will continue to grow, plus he already beats out other Korean actors that are older when it comes to acting. Another actor that stood out is Kim Sung-Kyun but that is because he seemed to be impersonating the Joker. The plot is similar to something from a graphic novel which I thought was cool. Unfortunately most of the areas in the movie just seemed so darn underdeveloped and rushed at times. Making certain situations not as gripping or even to the point of not making much sense. The situations could have been more tense if there was more development in the story and characters. It's a good movie to boost Yeo Jin-goo as a rising star, but it's not a thriller that sticks with you like "The Chaser" 2008. The plot is passable and the action for the most part is realistic and good to great acting to go along with it. I give it a 6.5/10.

6.5/10

Well last night I finally watched this movie ..I was so excited for it really . well first of all , I RECOMMEND this movie to everyone who wants to have a thriller filled ,dramatic,emotional movie ..so try this great movie . well in order for me not to spoil the movie for you ..I will just say little !! everything was epic and specially the fight scenes and cars races ..the Directer was a real GENIUS in drawing the best in the actors and specially "Yeo Jin gu" ,despite his young age but he was like possessed by the character to the point that you will not be able to tell if he is acting or he is the real Hwayi ,SERIOUSLY . well for me just few things stood out and remained mysterious even when the movie was finished ..I needed more answers for few things but they never made them clear ,specially some past events , but i think the need of the movie directer or even maybe the writer to show us things more than the others was the reason ! all the 5 "fathers" presented a unique character for each one of them ..with "Kim Yun seok" character I got the most chills cuz he was like super scary .. anyways ! If You are OK with BLOOD in movies ..cuz seriously you will see a great deal of blood and scary scenes but it all worth watching really ..so enjoy ^^