Hana fell in love with his heart. She didn’t have any qualms with his claws.
The Wolf Man, last of his kind, wasn’t like any werewolf legend you’d expect. He didn’t uncontrollably transform because of a full moon, tearing people to pieces in savage hunger. Instead, he was simply a man who could transform, at will, into a wolf. And he just so happened to fall in love with Hana, too.
The two married, and they had two children: Yuki and Ame. Yuki (snow in Japanese) received her name from the snow which fell when she was born. Ame (meaning rain) received his name in a similar manner.
But the rain that signaled Ame’s life likewise brought death, too. The Wolf Man, driven by his canine instinct to provide prey for his newborn, drowned in a flash flood. Hana could do little else but watch as his lifeless wolf body gets picked up by authorities and unceremoniously loaded into a garbage truck.
And Hana’s left with so many unanswered questions about how to raise werewolf children. She studies and studies, hoping to glean some nugget of wisdom. When neighbors start noticing that there’s something strange about her kids, for instance, Hana moves them all to a home deep in the countryside. It’s a place where her kids can embrace their wolf forms without fear.
Hana doesn’t know how to mother werewolf kids. She isn’t even sure where to begin.
But she knows that she wants to provide them with every resource she can sacrifice so that they’ll grow into good people.
[Note: Wolf Children was originally released in 2012, but it will be rereleased in select theaters on May 11, 12 and 13th.]
At the core of Wolf Children is the story of a mother learning how to raise her unusual children, even if she stumbles and trips a bit along the way. Hana is one of the most selfless characters I’ve seen in a film: She studies parenting books incessantly, and she sacrifices much to provide her kids with the basics. And yes, she messes up sometimes, and she doesn’t always have the answer. But Hana never gives up trying to provide Yuki and Ame with the skills they need to succeed in life.
We see, ultimately, that there’s only so much that facts can do for us. No matter how many books we read or experts we consult, parenting comes with far too many complications that those books just can’t solve for us. And while life sometimes feels daunting and messy, things often turn out for the better.
But Hana does learn things, too When she moves her family into the countryside, she must learn how to farm. And when she plants her first field, Hana is told by a local farmer that she needs to prepare a second field for farming. At first, Hana says she only needs enough for herself and her family, so she doesn’t need the larger field. But she eventually learns that that mentality doesn’t work out in the countryside; she grows crops to support the others in farming community, and they grow crops to support her. By the end of the film, Hana is encircled by a loving community longing to help her any way they can.
Yuki and Ame, meanwhile, struggle with their werewolf identities. Initially, Yuki loves her wolf side. But as she begins attending school, she realizes that the other girls aren’t interested in things like playing with snakes and hunting for animal bones. And while she compromises in many ways in order to integrate into human society, Yuki still maintains some aspects of her wolf nature and finds her place in the world.
In contrast with his sister, Ame initially hates his wolf side, lamenting that so many fables cast wolves as villains. But, he, too, eventually embraces the other half of who he is.
Their parallel journeys represent the path every child eventually faces: finding his or her place in the world. We see how that journey toward self-acceptance sometimes requires personal sacrifices to grow. It also requires us to cling to those important things that make us who we are, in spite of societal opinions.
Just as Wolf Children encapsulates the difficulties, joys and triumphs of parenting, it also reminds parents that there’s a time to let children thrive and make their own choices. Early on, Hana pledges to support her children whether they choose to identify more as people or as wolves. Ame decides to stay mostly in wolf form. Hana initially opposes this decision, perhaps because she’s intrinsically worried that Ame’s compulsion to find prey drive will get him killed, just like his father. Hana worries that she hasn’t prepared her son for adulthood.
But as Ame eventually heads into the mountains as an adult wolf, he provides a sign that shows he’s ready to leave the nest. That signifier seems to tell his conscientious mother, “You’ve given me everything I need.” And, in seeing it, Hana smiles with tears in her eyes, staying true to the promise she made her kids.
Lycanthropy plays a significant role in this story. To that end, Hana tells her kids that they cannot act as if they are better than other animals they meet.
Hana provides Yuki with a “charm” to repeat to help prevent her from turning into a wolf when she gets emotional.
Hana speaks with her deceased husband in a dream.
Hana and her husband (in wolf form, notably) kiss and fall out of frame while lying in bed, implying more. They’re unclothed when they wake up, though we don’t see anything.
In some scenes, the children bathe or lose their clothes via transformation into and out of their wolf forms, though we don’t glimpse anything.
We see the dead wolf body of Hana’s husband as it is discovered and collected by authorities. Ame falls into a rushing river in the winter and nearly drowns. A distressed Yuki claws a boy on the ear, drawing blood and leaving a scar. A bully pushes Ame to the ground. Someone slips and falls down a mountain slope, falling unconscious at the bottom.
A fox catches a rabbit and kills it, sharing it with wolf-form Ame. Yuki and Ame fight each other as wolves, clawing at each other and leaving bruises. We see dead baby birds following a severe storm.
Yuki accidentally poisons herself after chewing on a bag of desiccant silica gel.
In the English subtitled version, there’s one use each of “stupid” and “idiot.”
None.
Hana’s son detaches while breastfeeding, and we briefly see her animated breast.
We hear a couple references to urination. Hana vomits due to morning sickness.
Parenting is messy. It’s difficult. It can feel a bit like trying to wrangle a pack of wolves who eat your food, tear up your carpet and cause nothing but chaos. And yet, your heart still aches and breaks at times for those rambunctious little wolves.
Wolf Children offers a look into that seemingly paradoxical relationship—one where it requires immense sacrifice from the parent on behalf of his or her child, merely in the hope that it will prepare them to grow into themselves. In any other context, such selfless sacrifices might decay into bitterness. But here, those sacrifices yield a deep love. Because once a parent has done his or her duty, and their children depart to embrace their future on their own, those sacrifices and sleepless nights suddenly seem worth their weight in gold.
Wolf Children has touched many hearts since its release in 2012, and I suspect it will find many more, too. It’s the kind of film that makes you want to go thank your parents for all the trials they put up with for your sake.
That said, it comes with a couple notable issues, primarily for those watching with younger audiences. A breastfeeding scene might catch many audiences by surprise in its realistic depiction. A few other scenes include a bit of blood. And there’s definitely some discomfort with Hana’s relationship with a man who beds her while in wolf form. None of these moments are salacious, but they’re the main content concerns parents will want to consider before watching.
Parenting is messy and difficult, but that’s part of the point and pleasure of Wolf Children. Because, at the end of the day, those trials demonstrate a parent’s love all the more.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
