Hwayi: A Monster Boy

Hwayi: A Monster Boy centers on a teenage boy who was taken from his family as a small child and brought up by the five criminals who abducted him. Each of the men trained him in his own specialty, turning him into a skilled killer by the time he turns seventeen. Their plan to raise him as one of their own collapses when he learns the truth about where he came from, setting him on a search for his identity that puts him at odds with the only family he has known.

The film was directed by Jang Joon-hwan, arriving a decade after his debut Save the Green Planet! and four years before 1987: When the Day Comes. Park Joo-suk wrote the screenplay, and Lee Dong-ha produced for Showbox, Pinehouse Film and NOWFILM. Kim Yoon-seok plays the gang leader Seok-tae, with Yeo Jin-goo as Hwa-yi and Cho Jin-woong among the men credited as his surrogate fathers. It runs 125 minutes.

Against a budget of about 16 million dollars, the film took in roughly the same amount worldwide, so it essentially recovered its costs. On IMDb it holds a 7 out of 10 from more than five thousand votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.4 out of 10 from over two hundred and fifty votes.