Hwayi: A Monster Boy

Hwayi: A Monster Boy was released in 2013 full of mystery, action, and crime. Starring Yeo Jin-Goo and Kim Yoon-seok, this is one of the most interesting action films to grace the big screen.

Plot

The Day Goblins are known to be one of the most notorious gangs that have graced the streets of South Korea. They commit heinous crimes in broad daylight and get away without a scratch. With five members abiding by the commands of their leader, Seok-tae, the men are invincible.

Hoping to nab a large sum of money after kidnapping an infant and using him as blackmail, Seok-tae and his fellow members are taken aback when the child is abandoned with them. Not knowing what to do, the Day Goblins come to a standstill before agreeing to raise this child as their own.

Fourteen years pass and the little boy has now grown to be a seventeen year old known as Hwayi who is training to become the ultimate assassin by his five fathers. He has learned the skills of all five Day Goblins at home and has never been sent to a school. Though he loves his fathers dearly, Hwayi yearns to be a normal boy who can go out and have fun like the other schoolchildren he sees.

Finally allowing Hwayi in on one of their ill-fated crimes, Hwayi realizes the man that he's sent to kill is someone of familiarity. He has his suspicions that the family that has been targeted by the Day Goblins are in fact his biological parents. Struggling to cope with the truth as well as his delusions of seeing monsters lurking in the dark corners of night, Hwayi finds himself stunned by his fathers' lies and turns on the Goblins, using their own tactics against them to avenge his past.

Overall

I've seen Yeo Jin-goo in a few Korean dramas such as Orange Marmalade and Missing You, none of which gave him any credit. Though his acting was absolutely phenomenal, I couldn't attach myself to his cute self any further because the plots were just so ridiculous. But seeing him in an action-thriller (something I live and breathe for) excited me beyond recognition.

Jin-goo seriously does not fail in delivering. He's this doe-eyed seventeen year old trying to please all five of his fathers.

Seok-tae being the leader obviously dominates over his four allies, but even past his cold demeanor, it's obvious that he's come to genuinely love Hwayi. Then there's Ki-tae, the loving, playful one of the group who—from the start—has always been more kinder and sweeter in his approach. Jin-seung has a more authoritative parenting style, always trying to look out for Hwayi and doing what he thinks is best for the boy. Beom-soo is the laid back cool guy who thinks of Hwayi as an equal, not a son. That leaves Dong-beom as the more crazed, delusional individual hoping Hwayi grows to become like him.

From the start, the individual relationships between Hwayi and each of his fathers is established. There's no doubting that the Day Goblins have fallen in love with their son while shielding him from his past life, but also making him their own.

The interesting aspect I found in this movie was how carefully Hwayi's innocence was corrupted. He was a caring boy that strived to do his best despite severe punishments from Seok-tae who would lock him away in the basement when failing to do his job. I also thought his fear of the "monster" that was haunting him was absolutely brilliant. It was this other-worldly experience where this hallucination of a monster haunted him so dearly that Hwayi would do anything to make it stop.

Seok-tae, near the end, comments on this in a scene where he's visiting Hwayi's biological mother in the hospital. Covered in blood from an altercation that killed all of his members, Seok-tae is finding himself teetering on the edge of insanity (as if he's not insane already). He talks about Hwayi, saying that the monster his son sees is also a monster that haunted him as a child and "to get rid of the monster, you have to become him." That line itself made chills run down my spine as eventually Hwayi corrupts his own innocence to avenge his fallen family.

I loved the symbolism of Hwayi and Seok-tae. Here's one side of innocence and the other side of corruption both playing with one another before the act of revenge in itself turns Hwayi into something unfathomable.

I fell in love with both of them, no doubt. I admired the character development as well as Seok-tae's being who was raised as an orphan and sinned according to his own beliefs when thinking it was better to be bad than good.

This movie is definitely one of my favorites, no question. I wasn't expecting this bloodbath when I clicked on the movie section on Hulu, but I don't regret it one bit. Kim Yoon-seok is the perfect face of evil and Yeo Jin-goo rocks a schoolboy uniform, a bloodied face, and a need for vengeance.

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