Synopsis
Hana, an ordinary college student, meets a young man in her class and falls in love with him immediately. However, she discovers that he is far from being ordinary. He is a Wolf Man. Though their fairytale-like love, the couple bears two children together. Their children Yuki and Ame are born wolf children. As mother, Hana has to find her own way of raising them. The film presents the story of a mother with two special children who grow up and face their unusual destiny.

Program Note
Wolf Children is the latest film by HOSODA Mamoru, who has been praised for his excellent directing and charming female
 characters in animations such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. Hana falls in love with a werewolf and
 marries him. But her husband disappears one day, and she is left to raise Yuki and Ame, who are both werewolves, by herself. Yuki,
 the daughter, narrates the story about Hana throughout the film, and the movie comes to an end when the two children decide
 on their lives. On the surface, Hana’s situation seems to require unusual parenting skills since the children are werewolves, and
 they have to make a decision as to whether they will live as humans or wolves. However, these are only conditions set up to raise
 questions about parenting, responsibility and independence, and the relationship between parents and children. The story of
 Hana’s struggle is a beautiful and touching tale rather than a tale of an ill-fated woman because she does not try to control her
 children’s lives. Instead, she responsibly and earnestly cares for them, and as a result, her children independently decide to live
 differently from their mother when they come of age. Wolf Children mainly focuses on Ame’s life as he begins a new life in the
 forest, separated from his mother, but it also hints that Yuki becomes independent after she graduates from elementary school.
 The details in the movements of the wind, clouds, and water, as well as clever ideas to develop the surroundings, characters, and
 emotions through the passage of time make this film all the more impressive. [HWANG Miyojo]