【资料】猫咪少女——Collected English Reviews

阿韩

Ain't It Cool News, Sept. 8, 2002
I can tell you, this Korean hidden gem is gonna be overlooked and got overshadowed by other high profile "women films" in this festival like "8 Femme/8 Women." But if you're into "women films," or what the heck, if you're just into films, "Take Care of My Cat" is a very interesting piece of work that you should go check out. It's about the friendship of five Korean girls after they have graduated from high school. And while most people think of women films, they must be thinking of their love stories and the female characters' connection with guys and some tiring stuff like that. But "Take Care of My Cat" is not about that. It's about how their friendship slowly dissolves when those girls got separated by their different social experiences when they've graduated.

Although there're five girls but the movie basically focuses on three of them. One girl is the most beautiful of the five, who is also arrogant and doesn't care about what others think. She got a secretary job in a brokerage firm but not satisfied for her career aspect there. But she's already the luckiest compared to others. On the other hand, her best friend in high school isn't that lucky. She lives in the poor squatters and cannot find a good job. Her parents are dead and she has to take care of her sick grandparents. She is good at drawing pictures but her potential is never discovered. There's another girl, who is the most cheerful and lovable, often dreams of going elsewhere and wanders around the world. However, she's also the only one who has a lot of heart and care for their friendship.

What I love about this film is that it's so subtle with a lot of sensitivities for the characters. There're not really good and bad characters in the movie; in other words, they're just people. They misunderstand and start to abandon each other notbecause they're heartless but simply because they're constrained by their circumstances at that moment. More, this movie does show something that has happened to most of us: Your best friend right now may not be your best friend in future. On the other hand, to your surprise, you'll later in life find out that the friend who helps you the most is the one you never considered as your best friend in the past. Life is just full of irony.

"Take Care of My Cat" is a very good film that really cares about the characters and take the subject matter of female friendship seriously. And the film has something pretty creative too, such as the pop-up screens of those girls' cell phones that show the messages they page and email for each other. In addition, the film is realistic and brainier than most brainless teenage films and comedies in North America that are all about guys and girls looking for sex after they graduate from high school. "Take Care of My Cat" is about real people who have to find a job and worry about their life and future, and make tough decisions for making compromise between the hard reality and their wild dream.

-- Jan Chik

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-7-10 at 01:57 PM ]

阿韩

review by Gnute
July 15, 2002
Take Care Of My Cat
directed by Jeong Jae-eun

Ever been through a time when you didn't know if you and your buddies would stick together? Take Care Of My Cat deals with this but do not be deceived into thinking it is a boring coming-of-age film.

Told effortlessly against a cool soundtrack by M&F, the film is about five ordinary girls making the transition from school to working life in Inchon and Seoul, South Korea. They struggle to find or maintain their jobs, at the same time making the effort to meet up with each other. The kitten Titi gets passed around the girls as a token of trust. Its vulnerability and fragility certainly mirrors their bonds of friendship, which is kept intact also by the use of their mobile phones and text messages that appear on the screen in a variety of innovative ways. Planes, trains and buses appear throughout, signifying changes, journeys and catharsis: the whole business of growing up.

Interestingly, the particularly moving scenes do not concern their strained friendships; rather, the hardships that they go through - individually - are given much consideration and time in the film. Perhaps the director wisely did not want the stereotypical scene of friends crying to each other about what good friends they have ala Frodo and Sam in LOTR:Fellowship Of The Ring. The film dwells instead on how each character's pain is particular, as opposed to shared among the circle of friends. This theme is also subtly helped by the cinematography, led by Choi Young-hwan: Ji Young, the most introverted one, lives in a neighbourhood characterized by narrow lanes and she often appears in closed spaces. In another scene where Ji Young talks to her once-close friend Hae Joo in the ladie's room, the camera is fixed on Ji Young who is in front of a mirror. Hae Joo's reflection is behind her, so it appears as if Ji Young is talking to someone near, yet distant.

One senses that it is as much a showcase of typical South Korean city life as it is a story. At one point the movie segues into an interlude that includes a montage of South Korean cityscape coupled with a hip head-nodding tune.

While offering insights into class and social expectations for Korean women, it also shows how desperate these young girls are for jobs. The poorest of them, Ji Young, is very smart with high aspirations but is willing to be a cleaner. The girls are forced to be resourceful and some go to some pretty drastic measures to fulfil their dreams.

阿韩

review by asiandb
October 02, 2002
Read: 1379
"A BIG SURPRISE ... THE END OF GIRLHOOD HANDLED WITH UNUSUAL TENDERNESS." - AMY TAUBIN, VILLAGE VOICE

The critically-acclaimed South-Korean film, TAKE CARE OF MY CAT will be released in the U.S. This "engaging" and "wonderfully fluid" film (Derek Elley, VARIETY) opens at the Quad Cinema in New York, on October 18th, 2002. The film expands nationwide shortly after.

Directed by one of the most promising upcoming woman directors in the international film circuit, TAKE CARE OF MY CAT "marks the slick debut of first time helmer Jeong Jae-eun" (Derek Elley, Variety). Jeong’s first feature length film, after many successful short films, captivated audiences at international film festivals (BERLIN, ROTTERDAM, MOMA’s New Directors series) with her engaging, yet accessible portrayal of young women in South Korea.

TAKE CARE OF MY CAT centers on the story of five girlfriends living in the industrial city of Incheon, South Korea "with a low-key seriousness lacking in most North American coming-of-age films" (Mark Peranson, VILLAGE VOICE). A close-knit circle in high school, their paths begin to diverge as they step into the adult world and struggle with unfulfilling daytime jobs, family problems and increasingly different values.

Elegantly shot by cinematographer Choi Yeong-hwan, TAKE CARE OF MY CAT beautifully captures the colors and textures of life in a fully-modernized South Korea. Choi's refined camera work paints with subtlety and restraint the disparities between a corporate Seoul and the dingy port town of Incheon, which is about one hour away from the outskirts of Korea's capital.

TAKE CARE OF MY CAT is both a powerful portrait of the universal struggles during the passage from youth to adulthood and a sharp depiction of some of the specific socio-economical problems present in modern South Korea.

This film will be distributed by Kino International, the New York based distributor of art and classic film, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Current releases include THE PIANO TEACHER, starring Isabelle Huppert, the digital restoration of Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS and an ANDREI TARKOVSKY RETROSPECTIVE upcoming at New York's Walter Reade Theatre and Film Forum.

阿韩

Life in Twenty is like Cat.. Their Secret Message

Variety
Five young women find their friendship and dreams tested in the fires of post-high school life in Take Care of My Cat, an engaging, highly-accessible movie. With its wintry setting in the grungy port city of Inchon and its focus on the social divisions between the girls, the film has a more European flavor than most youth-centered Korean movies. Jeong Jae-eun's avoidance of cliches like sex, drugs, and discos keeps the focus tight on the girls' fluctuating friendships. Their ties are held together by that special Korean obsession, the cell phone. Jeong passed up fashionable Seoul for the movie's setting as Inchon better reflected the flux and unease in the girls' lives, as well as their dreams of escape abroad.--Derek Elley

Filmmaker
Jeong Jae-Eun's Take Care of My Cat, deserves special mention, not only for being one of a handful of Korean films directed by women, but also for setting its tale within the working-class town of Incheon rather than the usual slick Seoul backdrops. --Jason Sanders

Synopsis


Five girlfriends in their early twenties live in the dingy port town of Incheon. A close-knit circle in high school, their paths begin to diverge as they step into the adult world.

At the center of the group is the beautiful and vain Hae-joo, who dreams of becoming a successful career woman. She leaves Incheon for an apartment in Seoul and a junior position with a brokerage firm.

The other girls are left behind in a state of solitude and unease; Tae-hee works for free for her parents and takes dictation from a poet suffering from cerebral palsy and Ji-young seeks a job, while caring for her grandparents in their dilapidated apartment. The twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo buffer themselves from change with constant togetherness.

The cellular phones ring as the girls coordinate their meetings. A lost cat, Tee tee, enters the lives of these young women, passing from one owner to the next as circumstances pull lives and friends apart and others together.
http://www.asiandb.com/browse/mo ... =review&num=674

阿韩

Jae-eun Jeong  

Jae-eun Jeong (Seoul, 1969) studied film at the Korean National University of Arts. Before 'Take Care of My Cat'貓咪少女, she made several short films, including Yujin' Secret Codes which won the Grand Prix of the Women's Film Festival in Seoul, 1999.



Interview with Jae-eun Jeong (Kino, October, 2001) The Road that Crosses the World, Children Who Leave Home   



Q: A captivating aspect of the film is the solid presence of Inchon as a place, both as a backdrop of the film and the way it connects to the characters. The film richly portrays the implicated meanings of Inchon, the port city that was one of the first to open its doors to foreign culture and is declining now.   

　

A: What do I reveal about the city? When I shoot the city of Inchon, what method do I use and what story do I tell through it? Then is it parallel to the way I am developing the characters? These were the thoughts that often crossed my mind regarding Inchon. First, Inchon is on the outskirts of Seoul, the capital city. I felt that this matched my characters who are also outsiders. Second, compared to Jeollado and Kyungsangdo, provinces with native settlers, Inchon, an old open port, is a city with many immigrants who came during the war or in the 70s during industrialization. It is a city full of wanderers. Therefore, I was attracted to the fact that the city has less regional color.

　

Q: In the film, the girls are mostly walking or taking the bus or roaming on the streets. And the places the girls go to - the Inchon Airport, Inchon Harbor, subway stations, etc. - are all places of motion. These things continuously bring one word to mind. It is 'nomad.'

　

A: It was the word that I thought most of while I was filming. I wanted my characters to be girls who possessed nothing permanent and therefore were able to leave. Their relationships change and the girls continue to walk. I believe that if something is not moving, the energy weakens and it needs to be filled with things that are moving. I intentionally wrote the screenplay in accordance to the space.

　

Q: In a way, these girls are all leaving. Haejoo leaves Inchon for Seoul, making a new home for herself there. Taehee tries to leave home and Jiyoung has nowhere to go. Biryu and Ohnjo have a Chinese mother so their nationalities are ambiguous. Where did you come up with such characters?  

　

A: If the main idea is 'nomad' then Taehee is a child who has a home but her heart is not there; Haejoo wants to live in the middle of a cosmopolitan so she lives life as a city nomad; Biryu and Ohnjo always exist as still objects on the street so they place no meaning at home; and Jiyoung is under the pressure of the home but becomes free. The characters were set up in this manner so this is a very configured film. (smiles)   

　

Q: Why a cat?   

　

A: First of all, I personally like cats. Also, it is because cats are neglected over dogs. I believe that Korea is a dog-oriented society. (laughs) I think that cats are a bit taboo. In that way, I thought it would be good to connect cats to 20-year-old girls. I had hoped for the girls to be like cats - flexible, independent, complex, to have the tendency to leave if they are not happy with their ownerÉ However, I do not like humanizing certain aspects of animals as it is often the case in nature documentaries. I dislike stories and tales about dogs such as the dog who finds his way home after being sold to a new owner.   

　

Q: In many parts of the film, text plays a part in the images. The text messages and Joosang's poems present a new aesthetic beyond just captions.   

　

A: From the beginning, I wanted a lot of text on screen. Personally, I like words very much. When people think of images, they usually think of pictures. But I think that words are images, too. When beepers were commonly used in the past, I would feel as if a mixture of numbers were floating in the air, going from person to person in the city. In recent years, text messages are in use a lot. Say there's a large globe. I keep picturing words flying here and there and words floating around as they meet and part. To me, words are the most abstract 'images.'  

　

Q: What was your rule of editing? I would think that it was a tough job with the multiple characters and the fact that it is not one big narrative. I also got the impression that the scenes were very tight.   

　

A: Because the perspective changes and the characters develop in groups like two, three, or five, I did not necessarily add more to the beginnings or ends. When I looked at all the footage after the shoot was over, I did feel the beginnings or ends of certain scenes were a little rushed. In any case, I tried to apply the principle of movement by moving things along. I try not to be tricked by certain things such as new ways of creating transitions or cuts. I do not enjoy thinking of things like that nor is it my style. Maybe that is why I prefer very simple storyboarding because as I draw them, I can not help thinking in that manner. I do not know how I will be in the future but for now, my definition of editing is to acknowledge unique things from each scene and to put these two distinctive scenes together.   

　

Q: What is your concept regarding music?   

　

A: I thought that it would be hard to maintain a fresh feeling if there was one theme song summarizing the whole story. From the beginning, I was going to use an electronic-based sound and I wanted the music to have its own mood rather than to direct how one should feel. Then I heard some music by 'Byul (star)' which I liked very much. His deep voice sings lyrics not quite clear to the ear and his sounds are electronic yet there is a power that creates an emotional and dreamy feeling through those electronic notes. The peculiar thing was that even though Byul and I were in different places, how do I say, our directions were similar. Like our paths in life and emotions. In this way, there was something that let us understand each other beyond words.

阿韩

by bypeople2000 (movies profile) Jun 5, 2004

I saw this movie two years ago, but it still is vivid in my memory. A realistic movie about coming to an age. No fantasy, no fairy tale, but still empowers you to be yourself



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bypeople2000
San Francisco, California

Date: 5 June 2004
Summary: A movie getting you to think where you are

Please don't expect something dramatic or exotic from this movie. You'll get disappointed. This movie is not a fairy tale.

But, if you're serious about life, you may like this movie as I do. I saw it two years ago, and the image is still vivid, because it got me to think about my life and lives of so many friends of mine, not limited to the actors in the movie. After all, 70% of high school graduates don't go to college in Korea. It is not fair that nobody in movie industry cares just because the story is not fancy enough.

I agree with the other reviewer in that the ending does not go anywhere. However, I would say the ending suggests a direction, and I believe that was intended. There is a background. A couple of years before this movie, younger generations of Korean started making their voice heard. Now, just after 10 years or so, a lot of cultural figures and opinion leaders are from non-mainstream careers, which used to be very rare in Korea. This movie is part of the shift, encouraging people to think of alternative paths.


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Alaric Dirmeyer (farleygranger@hotmail.com)
Chicago, Illinois

Date: 4 June 2004
Summary: Sensitive, Warm, and Wise

For me, "Take Care of My Cat" was one of 2003's overlooked treasures.

Low-key in plot and imbued with tone, this debut feature by Jae-eun Jeong focuses on a transitional moment in the lives of a group of 5 female friends drifting apart because of jobs, because of boys, because of familial duties.

There's a warmth and intimacy to this film that is similar in many ways to "Lost In Translation," another film of female transition. "Take Care of My Cat" succeeds through beautifully fluid and feline cinematography and lived-in performances by the five superb young actresses.

There's something special happening in Korean cinema as of late, with such recent masterpieces as "Oasis" waiting to be discovered by the world at large. Alongside Lynn Ramsay's "Ratcatcher" and Sophia Coppolla;s "Virgin Suicides," this may be my favorite debut by a female film-maker.



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bjb15
in my daydreams

Date: 1 November 2003
Summary: beautiful sadness

a wonderful take on the trials of friendship. i was most taken by the character of Tae-hee. there is one scene where she is imagining herself floating in a boat, down a stream. all she wants to do is sit back, look up at the sky, and read. she wants to let everything go, and drift away from the mainstream. this scene was immediately relatable to me, almost cathartic. the director doesn't sentimentalize the very real emotions these young women are feeling. the music is quite good, and the performances are perfect.



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BUHRAHION
USA

Date: 10 August 2003
Summary: GoodKorean Drama

Korea is well known by koreans for their "drama's" "take care of my cat" gives americans an insight not only in the lives of modern korean girls but the cultural issues that are embedded into the korean culture. This Movie Greatly portrays how korean's cherish friendship (that being what americans would consider a "best friend) Being half korean i may have taken a greater liking to it since i can relate but i highly suggest you should give "take care of my cat" a chance...



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fml_lopez
longBeach,Ca.

Date: 26 May 2003
Summary: Beautiful

When I saw this movie on television I was amazed. The story is well written although it starts a little slow. The four main characters are girlfriends whose relationship is windling down as they become older.

The most optimist one is Tae-hee, who tries to keep the group together with a lot energy trying to help others. However, Tae-hee neglects her own happines as she works in the family business run by her father. She is never paid a salary and is shunned away by her father's favoritism towards her brother. She spends free time (not really explained) typing for a handicapped poet. She notices that she and Ji-young have a lot of things in common. Ji-young lives on the shores of the bay of Inchon. She lives on a shack with her grandma. Her dream is to study textile design abroad but she can't afford to because she's very poor. She feels further neglected when Hae-joo starts drifting away from her (Seoul mall scene). She can't find a job because she has never had a job experience, apart for being typecast as being a shy girl. Hae-joo is Ji-young's other end of the spectrum. She has a steady job at a firm in Seoul, owns her own apartment, earns a decent wage and is very ambitious. Tae-hee witnesses how Ji-young and Hae-joo start to drift apart because of their social status. Tae-hee remembers Hae-joo and Ji-young used to be the closest ones. Hae-joo knows that climbing up in her social status will in some way wreck her relationship with the other girls and feels bad about it, but she doesn't give up her dreams. The twins Ohn-jo and Bi-ryu are Korean-born Chinese girls who live by themselves in an apartment on the Chinese sector of Inchon. Both stay rather neutral towards the viewpoints of their friends. Both can't help but watch their bond break apart. There's a lot of iconography in this movie that could be further explained (smoking, etc), but one thing that I liked was the way they communicate. In an age of technology available to anyone, the girls communicate through their cell phones constantly with instant messages. The messages appear in walls, bedposts, etc. a very innovative technique.


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kerpan


Date: 22 May 2003
Summary: I'll take care of your cat anytime

Goyangileul butaghae aka Take Care of my Cat (JEONG Jae-eun, 2001)

"Cat" tells the story of five young women, one year after their high school graduation. It focuses particularly on three of them: Tae-hee (played by BAE Doo-na -- an upper middle-clas girl, who feels trapped by her rather philistine family -- who works for free for the family business and as a volunteer typist for a young poet afflicted with severe cerebral palsy), Hae-joo (played by LEE Yo-won -- a somewhat lower middle-class girl, who has a job as a trainee in a brokerage firm, and has dreams of unencumbered upwards mobility, with all the attendant opportunities for conspicuous consumption) and Ji-young (played by OK Ji-young -- an orphan who lives with her impoverished grandparents in a rather squalid slum dwelling, who wants to study textile design, but currently can't find any work at all to help supplement the meager family income). The other two girls are the twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (played by LEE Eun-shil and Eun-joo, currently working as street vendors selling home-made jewelry "all strung with the highest grade fishing line").

Like Ozu's films this movie SEEMS virtually plotless -- but beyond describing the overall situation (which I did above), I find it impossible to say much about the plot content that couldn't spoil a new viewer's enjoyment of the many little twists and turns of the story. Let it suffice to say that all three of our key characters suffer a number of vicissitudes during the relatively short time span covered by the film.

After watching this a second (and third) time, I noted something that had not registered at the time of my first viewing. The film very much reminds me (in a number of ways) of recent Aki Kaurismaki films, especially "Drifting Clouds" and "Man Without a Past" (which was released AFTER "Cat"). JEONG and her cinematographer CHOI Yeong-kwan (also a relative beginner) show the same ability to present what OUGHT to be ugly urban settings in a way that gives them an unexpected sense of beauty (with no trace of artificial prettification). The humor is JEONG's script is mostly rather dead-pan, passing by with no attempt to "play it up". And she shows a deep affection and respect for her characters (even for Hae-joo, who can test the patience of both her friends and the viewers of the film with her arrogant self-centeredness). Finally, the finale of the film is rather reminiscent of that of the Kaurismaki films I mentioned already (saying more would definitely be a spoiler -- if this vague circumlocution is a spoiler in itself -- accept my regrets).

One final word, the five young actresses featured here are absolutely splendid, one and all. And, if there is any justice is the cinematic world, at least one of them BAE Doo-na should be destined for "greatness".


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seronie
dublin, ireland

Date: 15 May 2003
Summary: Good stuff

This is a nice, introspective movie that looks about growing up and trying to stay friends after school. Though set in Korea it is still applicable to the West.

Though this film feels every inch of its running time it is still worth a look. The performances are all good, Ji young and Doo-na Bae bringing out very memorable performances. This film ranges from funny to poignant and back again enough times to keep you interested and its critique of life in its country is particularly resonant.

It manages to frame well the thoughts of the current youth and how things never seem to go as planned, especially our dreams. Recommended



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Brian Stevens (briannstevens@yahoo.com)
Chicago, Illinois

Date: 27 February 2003
Summary: Very Good Film

I really liked the film. Kind of reminded me of a foreign "Ghost World". Had the same kind of chemistry between the girls. It is good to see that female friendship is the same all over. This is a fun movie and gives us a peak of what it is like to grow up in modern Korea. I highly recommend it!




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Virginia Bishop


Date: 22 February 2003
Summary: A fascinating look at girls coming of age in another culture



and another country. The place is Korea and the story follows 5 friends that just having finished school must learn to make it in the real world. The transitions in their relationships and closeness with each other as they each go their separate way and through their own dilemmas is realistic enough to sometimes make one feel depressed as to how childhood friends grow apart and how adulthood changes the chemistry and makeup of the magic that once was. As an westerner, I must say that I have found a real love of Korean film - it's fresh and different and seems to be in a renaissance period at the moment. When I think of some of these films having their scripts translated directly to English and played by English speaking actors, I find there probably wouldn't be anything special about them. But in their native form, with the backdrop of Seoul and the culture, they are a refreshing and mind provoking break from the drudgery of American cinema. The story is quite a simple layout but the issues that they each deal with, no matter how 'everyday life' they appear are complex to each character, just as life truly is.

I really enjoyed this film. I especially liked the innovative way that the director used the cell phone usage between the girls graphically. The way when they were texting each other, he would incorporate it in writing on the side of a building, or across a table. It fit perfectly with the film and didn't jar it or seem out of place. He also incorporated this for when one of the girls scenes when she is typing for a poet with cerebal palsy. A really unique use of how to truly convey the daily use of text messaging in Korean society.

Like I said, I really enjoyed this film. A stimulating break from most of the choices I find myself having to watch in this country and a great coming of age/dealing with the pressures of identity and the grown up world film.



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dave-658
California, USA

Date: 21 February 2003
Summary: Good story, quite subtle remarks on women in korea

This movie works on two levels, basically the story that happens and also as a subtle progressive social commentary about the state of korea and how women are somewhat confined and the "minor" injustices they face all the time. I wouldn't go so far as to call it feminist because what alot of the movie is dealing with is just the basic struggle for existence, and how each of the girls can fit into the world somehow.

The story at first begins somewhat boring as its unclear what the purposes of the movie are, but around 20 minutes into the movie when Hye-ju rejects JiYoung's gift of the cat, and then later fails to meet her on time at a restaurant, it is clear that the movie is finally starting to move with its plot in some noticeable direction. And the way it does so is very smooth and well directed you slowly become immersed in the intricate details of thier world, which is a fundamental quality of a of a good movie. As a drama, it does its job of immersing the viewer in the emotions of its characters. I think it is a definitely progressive style drama as many other coming of age styled dramas are, and is enjoyable to watch throughout because you are always getting a realistic look at modern korean life as the story moves.

Worth watching!


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Michael Lindberg (junta@knight-sabers.com)
Los Angeles, CA

Date: 25 November 2002
Summary: Beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted

What a wonderful film. Take Care of My Cat has been something I've been eyeing for a long time, and I finally bought the DVD of it. I thought it was an excellent film, and was very well made.

The film is directed by newcomer JEONG Jae-eun. The movie stars BAE Doo-na (the Ring Virus) as Tae-hee, LEE Yo-won (Attack the Gas Station) as Hae-joo, newcomer OK Ji-young as Ji-young, and twins LEE Eun-sil and LEE Eun-ju (Asako in Ruby Shoes) as Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo. All five of the girls are relative newcomers, but they all played their parts with great confidence. I was especially impressed with BAE Doo-na and OK Ji-young. Their characters' relationship, seemingly formed out of necessity and circumstance, grew stronger through shared thoughts and misfortune.

In the film, Ji-young discovers a stray cat and soon takes it into her care. At Hae-joo's birthday party, Ji-young gives the cat to her as a gift. Not even a week after, Hae-joo, a busy corporate girl who is doing the best to survive in a less than satisfactory position, gives the cat back to Ji-young. Throughout the course of the film, the cat eventually makes her way through the hands of all five characters; each giving her up when changes in their lives force them to do so. The cat is used not to move the plot forward, but to externalize the movement of struggle in the lives of the girls. The girls left with the cat in the very end, the twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo, are the only ones whose lives require changes that are already present in their lives. Their ending up with the cat symbolizes their confidence with their position in the world. To the others, the cat remains a part of the world that they are leaving behind.

The movie itself works extremely well. The five girls are all very realistically portrayed, all trying to find their place in a world that is different than they had hoped it would be. Both Tae-hee and Ji-young live in less than satisfactory conditions, and the viewer observes these two trying to make the best of what they have. Nothing is dwelled on forever in this film. Director JEONG Jae-eun instead uses simple observation of events in the present lives of the two to frame the characters' past existence and give them a reason to leave their lives and move into the world. Sometimes this can be through tragedy, or sometimes by choice, but the justification to pack up and leave is always given.

I especially liked the music, done by M&F. It was almost German sounding, and fit the mood of the film perfectly. Although most of the music was diegetic (or coming from a source on screen, like a radio), the non-diegetic M&F music was used during turning points in the character's lives, or to frame their existence in the world.

Some may consider Take Care of My Cat a chick flick, and with no less than five main female stars and a very confident female director, this could easily have turned into another Sex in the City, focusing on nothing but men and sex. It doesn't, however, and instead loses itself in the complexities of everyday life, and the struggle between one's dreams and the reality one must face on a daily basis. The films ending, while abrupt and a little too open, shows that one must take chances in life instead of remaining where one has been told is the right place to be.

Overall, this is a great film. It may not be a film for everybody, but I found it to be very beautiful to watch. The directing is superb, with great framing and pacing. The acting is also very good, and seemed very natural. I highly recommend it. It also looks like it will be getting a US theatrical release as well, so be sure to check it out. The Korean DVD set is also worth it, and includes two short films by the director.

10/10


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Yongwook Yoo (yyoo1@po-box.mcgill.ca)
Montreal, Canada

Date: 21 May 2002
Summary: Four ways from girl to woman in Korea

"Take care of my cat"(TCMC) is another brilliant low-budgetted movie in Korea. It highlights most popular culture among Korean teenaged girls - cellular message transfer -, and purposedly evades most talked issue - sex. Several meaningful messages are transferred and shared among characters by visual way of cellular messages, and a young pussycat is also moved from one to another. The possession of cat signifies the change of woman's position in Korean society.

Once it belongs to Ji-young, a poor and bereaved girl who defies every condition of what she is and has. She gave the cat to her best friend Hye-ju, a negotiative and self-confident but ambitious OL. Hye-ju accepts it for a while, but returns to Ji-young. Ji-young is later sentenced legal detention due to collapse of her house and abrupt death of her grandparents. The cat is now sent to Tae-hi who is very heartful, inquisitive and day-dreaming family business helper. She suffers from the oppression of masculine-oriented family, and hopes to go far away to seek for her own life. Finally, Tae-hi picks up Ji-young out of detention house and trips with her to somewhere in Australia. The already half-grown cat is sent to twin sisters, Eun-jo and Bi-ryu, who are both care-free and have no interest in complex matters.

All characters have their own problems, and these problems neither can be shared nor cured by friendship itself. The destiny of pussycat is shifting from the place of defiance and silence of Ji-young, to negotiation and assimilation of Hye-ju, to curiosity and reservedness of Tae-hi, finally to indifference and ignorance of twin sisters. This route is a epitome of the trajectory of woman's attitude toward Korean major society. As the cat grows, its position also changes according to the growth of woman's recognition of the real world in Korea.

TCMC is quite a remarkable allegory of modern Korean society, and well-directed integration of short episodes that dialectically dissolves into a optimal but unsatisfactory finale. A must see for serious story watchers with open mind, but a bust for simple movie-goers.




===========================




tmcintyre
Seattle, Washington

Date: 14 May 2002
Summary: an interesting look at life after high school.

Take Care of My Cat focuses on five South Korean teenagers who have recently graduated high school and are now dealing with adapting to the adult world and trying to keep their friendship alive. The film follows their day to day lives and the difficulties as they try to adjust. Jeong's direction is very observational, you feel as though you are following the characters through their daily routines as nothing really happens except the decisions and challenges that are faced everyday. This film is not for the easily bored and I did find myself losing interest a couple of times, but overall it is a very interesting look at everyday life in South Korea.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0296658/

[ Last edited by 阿韩 on 2004-7-10 at 03:12 PM ]

阿韩

Reviewed by Shelley Cameron

The Truth About Cats and Dogs




Doo-na Bae: Tae-hee  
Yo-won Lee: Hae-joo
Ji-young Ok: Ji-young

Director: Jae-eun Jeong  
In Korean with English subtitles.  Coming of Age drama.    112 minutes.




This refreshingly unsentimental film from Korean director Jae-eun Jeong portrays the bumpy road into almost-adulthood of five young women.  Beginning with a snapshot of their carefree, giggling school days, they have been best friends in the industrial seaport city of Incheon, a commuter train ride away from the big city mecca of Seoul.  During the first years following high school, their paths diverge ever wider.  With tenderness and pathos, they get some hard lessons about the fairness of life and the nature of friendship.  At times deceptively gentle, it carries an ache that rings with sturdy authenticity of that bittersweet time when adolescent friends, who had so recently shared almost every waking moment, retreat into the past.


Hae-joo has landed an entry-level job at a brokerage firm in the city.  She is the prettiest, and has left a boyfriend back in Incheon.  She relishes the dream that she will soon be one of the hip young professionals.  Thoroughly self absorbed, she enjoys seeing her friends but prefers it on her terms and on her turf.  When they get together for Hae-joo's birthday, Ji-young gives her a kitten she has found on the street.  The cat gets passed from one home to another and becomes a metaphor for the lives of these young women whose lives have been set inexorably in motion.  Once the closest two members within the group, Ji-young and Hae-joo are rapidly becoming polar opposites.


Without parents, Ji-young lives with and cares for her ailing grandparents in a dilapidated shanty.  She's had no luck finding a job.  Her situation and prospects are the most dismal of the five, even though her talent as a graphic artist displays the truest promise.  Tae-hee lives with her large family and works without pay in her autocratic father's spa.  She has her best moments since school talking with and typing poetry for a gentle young man with cerebral palsy.  She talks of leaving the family home but feels trapped by economics and duty.  The other two members of the group are Bi-ryu (Eun-shil Lee) and Ohn-jo (Eun-joo Lee), twin sisters who have formed a little business making jewelry and selling it on the street.  They seem to cope mostly by maintaining Pollyanna smiles and good cheer at all times.  They round out the genuineness of the group but the film revolves around the other three.


The sometimes brutal, sometimes amusing and always sincere actions and encounters of the girls, as they face the realities of life after leaving the protection of childhood, are drawn with affection and not without some humor.  They strive to make the best of things but director/writer Jeong doesn't attempt to sugar coat the legitimacy of their concerns.  Making this particularly effective is the fact that there is little intrusion from the typical teen preoccupation with boyfriends or parents to cloud its touching core. The sometimes dreary mood, created as much by the setting in the gray streets, alleys and waterfront of Incheon, is almost as much another character as are the ubiquitous cell phones always at hand.  The text messages from one friend to another are displayed on the screen almost as prominent paintings on the wall.  The changing relationships between the friends as they try to move forward knowing they are losing the intimacy and camaraderie they once shared, is like Tee Tee the cat who is using up some of his nine lives and yet survives.  Although dogs are more highly prized in Korean culture, Jeong chose a cat to punctuate the emerging wanderlust and independence of these heartfelt characters.  In her first feature film, she strikes a sweet and satisfying, but never saccharine balance and is a director to watch.
http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/Movies20031Q/id1895.htm

阿韩

Year: 2001     
  Director: Jung Jae-eun   
  Cast: Bae Doo-na, Lee Yo-won, Ok Ji-young, Lee Eun-ju, Lee Eun-jil   
  The Skinny : A beautiful surprise. Short film director Jung Jae-eun's first feature manages to recreate the life and relationships of young women in Korea in a remarkably realistic way. It's often quirky and silly (with inventive ideas, like cell phone text messaging onscreen), but underneath all that a much deeper message emerges. Bae Doo-na keeps improving, and with luck, she'll become a big star.   
  Review
by LunaSea:       Though it was acclaimed as one of the best films of the year by several Korean film magazines, Take Care of My Cat didn't make an impact on the box office and was pulled just a few days after its release. This is unfortunate, as few recent films have been so smart in depicting the limbo between one's graduation and their first job. It also shows how relationships evolve over the years without resorting to melodrama. In school, they were best friends...then suddenly they grew up and lost contact. How many times have you seen this, or experienced it first hand?
      The main characters come from all walks of life: we have the upper class, bratty and beautiful Hye-joo (Lee Yo-won), who's working at a brokerage firm in a high-paying, low-skill, but unstable job. She finally moves to Seoul from Inchon, a city which she hated. Tae-hee (Bae Doo-na) is the most idealistic of the group. She grew up in a "model" family, complete with a tacky group photo in the living room. Her parents expect her to continue in their footsteps and become a good citizen. In turn, she wants to run away from this middle-class conformism and find real freedom. There's also Biryu and Onjoo (Lee Eun-ju & Lee Eun-jil), twins of Chinese descent who live alone, and spend their time trying to teach people how to them apart. They're also starting to realize how their roots are shaping their role in society, and their ability to find decent jobs. Completing the group is Ji-young (Ok Ji-young), a textile student who lives with her grandparents in a dump and is trying to find a solution to her poor financial situation.
       In school everything seemed to be fine. They were all too young to think about the future, society and the reality of what's out there. Their relationships were based on simple things, like playing together, seeing each other every day and not worrying about tomorrow. Now things are different. Hye-joo and Ji-young hardly talk to each other, and the reason seems to be only social: one has everything she wants - nice clothes, a good job in the capital, a loving boyfriend and the latest brand of cell phone. The other has nothing and worries if she'll end up a wandering homeless woman.
       Their efforts to keep their friendship strong (meeting every month, drinking together and having fun) seem like an admission that something is changing. They're becoming adults, and now everything is becoming harder to understand and more painful to cope with. While the central character seems to be Tae-hee, time is given to everybody to build their characters properly and make us understand their situations. Perhaps only the twins are underdeveloped, but it's not a major flaw as their characters aren't crucial to the film's central message, which involves Tae-hee, Hye-joo and Ji-young.
      Bae Doo-na and Lee Yo-won are two of the hottest young actresses in Korea, and their performances are not surprisingly very strong. Bae has come a long way since The Ring Virus in 1999, and after an excellent performance in Barking Dogs Never Bite, she seems ready to reach the top. Her facial expressions are often priceless, and she is able to convey emotion and situation in a manner that's easy to connect with. Lee is equally excellent in a demanding role. This is a film whose strength is based on its message, its pace, and its characterization, so the subtle performances don't stand out easily.
     This is not a film that will revolutionize the industry (like Christmas in August for melodrama, or Shiri for blockbusters), but it's one of those small, intelligent works that you can relate to. That's because it presents life without embellishments, and shows the way friendship evolves when clashing with reality. It teaches you to value your friendships, and just makes you appreciate your childhood and teen years a bit more (Enjoy them while you can, kids.). This is a delightful, charming, smart work which sadly wasn't seen by enough people, and deserves to be enjoyed by many more. One of the best of the year. (LunaSea 2002)   
Availability: DVD (Korea)
Region 3 NTSC
enterOne
2-disc Special Edition
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Korean Language Track
Dolby Digital 5.1
Removable English Subtitles
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/take_care_of_my_cat.htm

阿韩

Review by John Wallis

Take Care of My Cat (2001) is a coming of age drama about the slow undoing of a clique of Korean girlfriends in their early twenties . The five girls were close friends in high school but upon graduating their lives slowly begin to diverge in different directions (or no direction at all). Often communicating via cell phone, the girls try to meet regularly despite the groups unraveling.

Hae-joo is pretty, but image obsessed, superficial, and works in an office, reveling in the corporate life style and worrying over her advancement among the workplace ranks. Tae-hee, the instigator of the most get-togethers, is the daughter of a middle-class, make no waves family, and she spends her free time typing poems for a disabled poet. Ji-young is a sullen, poor, wannabe designer, who lives with her fragile grandparents in the slums. Twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-joo seem to be the most happy, selling their handmade jewelry on the street corners, and always having each other to lean on.

The film finds its main focus on Ji-young, the most introspective and troubled member of the group (a US remake would probably aim at a Christina Ricci type). She is the one with the most talent but the least opportunity, and her story has the most foreshadowing. Tae-hee is probably the most relatable to anyone who remembers or is in the midst of those post teen years where you are considered an adult but may not yet know what you are going to do with your maturity. Hae-joo seems to be the reflection of Korea’s modern age, a young woman trying to get a foothold, who worries over her appearance and status above all else.

The cat in question is a birthday gift to Hae-joo from Ji-young. The kitten is quickly returned because Hae-joo says she just doesnt have the time for a pet. As Ji-young's situation worsens, the cat is passed from friend to friend.

The film opens with the girls fresh out of high school taking a group post-graduation photo. Their jumping around, screeching, and giggling made me brace myself for a bubbly, candy-coated, coming of age, chick flick. However, as the film settled in, I was quite surprised and very relieved to find Take Care of My Cat was a much more mature and interesting film about an often cliched subject matter. The film does have its weaker points. The running time could be trimmed a tad, some bits don’t help the progression, especially with the underdeveloped Bi-ryu and Ohn-joo adding little, if anything, to the story. The disabled poet, with his cluelessly funny self pity prose, reminded me of the cerebral palsied writer/boyfriend in the “Fiction” segment of Todd Solondz’s Storytelling. Though, because they were both made the same year, I’d chalk the latter up to coincidence.

Still, first time feature writer/director Jae-eun Jeong wins many admirable points for avoiding all of the contrived dramatic pitfalls. The film unfolds with very little drama/melodrama and forsakes the three act, there-must-be-conflict, grab-your-hankies structure, and instead simply lays out its events and characters with no grand tearjerker scenes or emotional grandstanding. Conventional drama storytelling wold insist there has to be some situation where they confront each other about how their lives are changing, however Take Care of My Cat remains more truthful to the subject, there is no such scene because they are, in fact, growing apart (in distance, in lifestyle, in personality). True to growing up, to getting beyond your childhood friends, as they find themselves, they simply find some of their friendships diluted and some strengthened.

The DVD: Kino

Picture: Non-Anamorphic Widescreen. With its gritty urban locations, imaginative use of text messages, and well composed cinematography, the film is a visual winner. Contrast is nice and deep. Colors are a bit on the muted side. The level of grain and some print spots are disappointing on such a recent film but do not really deter from enjoying it.

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Korean language with default English subtitles. The low key techno score is quite warm and get the best boost. Dialogue is well rendered and clear. No complaints.

Extras: The Korean release features some deleted scenes, non-English subbed directors commentary, and other goodies. Sadly all Kino offers is a stills gallery, trailer for the film, plus trailers for Blind Shaft and The Return.

Conclusion: It’s a shame they didn’t port over some of the extras from the Korean release and, likewise, make the transfer anamorphic. Still, for Asian cinephiles, the film is a nice little drama worth giving a casual look.
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=11102

阿韩

http://img.movist.com/?img=/x00/00/37/87_5.jpg

DID YOU KNOW?

    Ji-young Ok is a Korean fashion model and Take Care of My Cat provided her first acting role.

  Asked about the recurring use of a cat in the film, Jae-eun Jeong replied, "I had hoped for the girls to be like cats - flexible, independent, complex... to have the tendency to leave if they are not happy with their owner".

===============================

TAKE CARE OF MY CAT (GOYANGILEUL BUTAGHAE)
Jae-eun Jeong, South Korea, 2001
Saturday 17 January 2004 9pm-10.45pm; rpt Saturday 24 January 12.05am-1.55am (Friday night)   

  
When a film opens with five carefree schoolmates, laughing, linking arms and having their photograph taken on a sunny day, it's inevitable that their friendship is set for a stormy period. And so it proves in Jae-eun Jeong's debut feature which charts the lives and relationships of the quintet after they leave education and begin learning about the world of work, wages and increasing remoteness from the innocence of youth。

The film's strength lies in its characters and setting. Taking their first, frosty steps away from the sanctuary of school, all of the main figures seem like lost children, each faking a semblance of confidence in ways which simultaneously expose their strengths and weaknesses.

Hae-joo acts as the group's nominal leader, selfishly putting her whims above the needs of her friends and emerging from school determined to fill her life with beautiful people and expensive clothes. Shortly after securing a reasonable job in a brokerage firm she characteristically reflects on her ambition, "I can't live my life running errands all the time. I'll fix my nose, learn English and I will definitely succeed." Of the other four friends, a pair of twins are present largely for comic relief while the compassionate Tae-hee and Ji-young act as a counterpoint to Hae-joo's blinkered vanity.

In terms of setting, the action unfolds in an eye-catchingly dismal city in South Korea, ostensibly scarred by shantytowns and over-lit bars playing over-loud music. "Inchon is on the outskirts of Seoul, the capital city," explained Jae-eun Jeong. "I felt that this matched my characters who are also outsiders."

The script never sacrifices honesty for sentimentality, raising this drama above a standard coming-of-age story. It's a sharp, poignant reminder which accepts that everyone changes and that those smiling friends on the school photograph, once so close and well loved, will invariably grow distant and half-forgotten.

Gavin Collinson

Previous films on BBC Four
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/take-care.shtml

阿韩

Director Jeong Jae-eun's debut feature, TAKE CARE OF MY CAT, is a slick but sensitive portrayal of girlfriends on the cusp of adulthood. Hollywood films about recent high school grads tend to focus on sex, partying, and planning for college. These Korean girls have their share of fun, but they have critical life issues to deal with, and the film presents them in a painstakingly realistic way. The fashionable Hye-joo (Lee Yo-won) is focused on her career at a brokerage house. She’s making a decent living, but her co-workers look down on her. Tae-hee (Bae Doo-na) is sick of living under the thumb of her domineering father. She spends her time doing volunteer work for a poet with cerebral palsy. Sullen Ji-young (Ok Ji-young) lives in poverty with her grandparents and struggles to find work. The girls, close friends in high school, find themselves drifting apart as their adult lives begin to take shape. Jeong gets flawless performances from her young cast, as her film shows how clashing values effect friendships as one grows older. Visually, she makes original use of onscreen text (and ubiquitous pagers and cell phones) to shrewdly emphasize the prevalence of technology in the girls’ lives.
http://www.scarecrow.com/sales/item.asp?ProductID=002887

阿韩

by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
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How Lovely to be a Woman

Cinematic depictions of girls growing up in anything like a real world tend to be few and far between. Ugly girls made over for prom night, hot surfer chicks, and horror movie scream queens may make for guilt-complex entertainment, but they rarely speak to recognizable concerns. When Ginger Snaps, a bloody, werewolf movie and metaphorical take on puberty, is the most honest depiction of girlhood in the past year's cinema, there's an obvious void waiting to be filled.

This is why Jae-eun Jeong's debut feature, Take Care of My Cat, a sensitive depiction of a close-knit group of Korean girls living in the depressed industrial sea town of Inchon, is so refreshing. If it breaks no new aesthetic or structural ground, Take Care of My Cat is honest and tender, remarkably specific about girls' experiences -- leaving high school behind, the difficulties of holding friendships past childhood, and the collapse of communication in the advent of technology. Best of all, the characters are three-dimensional and alive, their problems real: they lose friends, leave home, and feel gypped by a world that is not nearly so enticing as they were promised.

Hae-joo (Yo-won Lee) is a vain social climber who works in a brokerage firm in Seoul, carries a Louis Vuitton bag, and is oblivious to the abuses heaped upon her by her coworkers and upon her friends by herself. Ji-young (Ji-young Ok) is a sullen, ghost-eyed depressive who lives with her grandparents in a cramped, crumbling apartment, has no job, and, more than anything, wants to draw elaborate, detailed textile patterns. And Tae-hee (Doo-na Bae) works for her father's steam baths for free and dreams of sailing away, to any place that's far from her domineering family. She's painfully aware that running from your family is "so tacky" and teenager-ish, which makes her desperation all the more compelling.

Each girl seeks escape from the depressed town of her childhood, and none is exactly sure how to get away. This desire to leave home and childhood behind signals an inevitable loss of their closeness. As Take Care of My Cat begins, Tae-hee complains that it's increasingly difficult to get the group together, and their friendships only break further apart from there. The need to move on eventually dominates all of their decisions, including the choice of homes for Ti-ti, the beloved titular cat who has, by the film's end, lived with each girl.

Ti-ti's movements represent the girls' shifting identities and relations. In an interview on the film's website, Jae-eun Jeong says, "I wanted my characters to be girls who possessed nothing permanent and therefore were able to leave." More than any face to face (or, more likely, cell phone to cell phone) communication, the cat represents the girls' remaining ties to each other, illustrating how close relationships provide stability and stagnation at the same time. It's hard to watch the girls lose their connections with each other, but it's harder to watch them live unhappily in Inchon. Part of Take Care of My Cat's appeal is its refusal to provide easy answers: leaving home, losing friends, and, really, growing up, are never simple events, but they're also inevitable.

The film, however, is not wholly "realistic," as the girls' communication methods are, in a way, "anti-real." When the girls type text messages to each other on their cell phones, floating text appears in bus windows or on building walls, imbuing their environments with traces of impersonal technology, both chilling and beautiful. Intimate messages, like Tae-hee's concern for Ji-young's well-being, are reduced to electronic code; the cell phone, which supposedly keeps us more in touch with each other, here enhances distance between the girls by replacing face to face communication with sterile text. Communication by cell phone represents a dichotomy, connection and disconnection at once. It's not inherently good or bad, but both and in-between.

Although a final plot twist makes Take Care of My Cat a little melodramatic, its overall frankness is affecting. Adolescent girls, take heart: someone is paying attention to you. Best of all, Jae-eun Jeong has put you and all your frustrations, hopes, inconsistencies, and confusion on screen.

— 24 October 2002
http://www.popmatters.com/film/r ... are-of-my-cat.shtml

阿韩

TAKE CARE OF MY CAT



A string of broken promises, uncomfortable get-togethers and adult rivalries slowly eclipse every woman’s childhood memories of camaraderie. She realizes girlfriends aren’t forever. Like the five friends in Take Care of My Cat, women in their 20s reluctantly and painfully abandon the relationships that once sustained them. In this vivid, emotionally complex ensemble piece, Korean writer-director Jeong Jae-eun portrays this extraordinary turning point in every woman’s life. For her characters, adulthood looms like the towering cranes of their port city.



The five young women, who eventually embark on very different paths, are not unlike American women their age. Cell phones appear permanently attached to one ear, and life is one momentous decision after another. As Koreans, however, the characters also find themselves in that discomforting middle ground where the pull of tradition is as strong as the appeal of contemporary womanhood. Tae-hee (Bae Doo-na), the friend who plays the role of group peacemaker, lives in a family dominated by boorish men. She works, for free, in the family’s bathhouse. To protect her sovereignty, she’s placed locks on her bedroom door. Ji-young (Ok Ji-young), an orphan, lives in the shanty town of Inchon with her grandparents. An aspiring designer, she is continually torn between her family obligations and her dreams of abandoning them to study abroad.



The weight of the characters’ desires is balanced by Jeong’s quirky visual style, and her Renoir-like humanism. She likes these women, the moody Ji-young, the rebellious Tae-hee, the fun-loving twins, Ohn-jo (Lee Eun-joo) and Bi-ryu (Lee Eun-shil), even the beautiful but self-involved Hae-Joo (Lee Yo-won). Jeong punctuates their interactions by sprawling their text messages across the frame, as if in the characters of the Korean alphabet she hopes to uncover some secret code that might resolve the women’s dilemmas. In the flights of these kanji across cyberspace, the filmmaker finds a metaphor for the way life scrambles its messages, and then somehow sends a clear signal indicating the path, however temporary, to fulfillment.



Jeong’s ensemble cast is excellent, with especially memorable performances from Ok Ji-young and Bae Doo-na, the latter a fledgling star of Korean cinema. The characters’ gritty hometown of Inchon, a declining suburb of Seoul, provides just the right setting for that in-between ground the women occupy; its impermanence comes to symbolize what each of them has to overcome. The title of Jeong’s film, which alludes to the beloved kitten Ji-young leaves behind, is also a testament to the wanderlust of cats—and of young women.



            —Maria Garcia
http://www.filmjournal.com/Article.cfm/PageID/61722118

阿韩

"Koreans don't like cats," says director Jeong Jae-eun. "Cats are fussy, independent, and don't listen to what you tell them. If they don't like their home, they simply leave." For Jeong, an avid cat lover, the animals are also a fitting symbol for the vitality and attitude of Korea's young women. Take Care of My Cat tells the story of such women (and their cat) with a freshness and originality that places it among the best films of the year.

Take Care of My Cat is the first film directed by a Korean woman to be released in close to three years. Although a large number of women directors are poised to debut in the near future, this is nonetheless an indication of how male voices have continued to dominate Korean cinema. "There have been no movies in the past that have depicted well how young Korean women think, how they play and what they worry about," says the director. "I hope that this film can give audiences a sense of what young Korean women are like and how beautiful they are."

The film tells the story of five women who are just beginning their lives after graduating from high school. Each of the women face different challenges, be it family or money, but they are united in their need to try new things and to be taken seriously. The plot traces several stories at once, but highlights the conflicts its protagonists face both among themselves and with a society that largely overlooks them.

One of the most exciting aspects of this film is the new talent it highlights. This is the first feature film by director Jeong Jae-eun, following a string of award-winning short films. This movie will hopefully be only the start of a long and interesting career. Many of the actors in the film are rising stars as well, particularly Bae Doona (poised perhaps to break out into a major star in 2002) and Lee Yo-won.

This movie seems to get on the inside of what it is like to be young. From its ultra-cool soundtrack to its clever use of text messaging, the film is filled with memorable details that remain long in the viewer's memory.     (Darcy Paquet)

http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm01.html#cat

阿韩

Sep. 11, 2002


Take Care of My Cat (Goyang-ileul Butag-hae)


By Kirk Honeycutt
TORONTO -- Toronto International Film Festival

The South Korean film "Take Care of My Cat" takes the measure of five female secondary school graduates adrift in the outskirts of Seoul and the port city of Inchon.

Dissatisfaction lurks in each one's soul, but options and opportunities appear limited. Unfortunately, the tedium of their daily existence is all too well expressed in the film's lack of dramatic urgency and its insistence on scrutinizing the quotidian with labored intensity. This "Cat" will undoubtedly make further festival appearances, but commercial appeal outside its native turf will be slight.

To her credit, first-time director Jeong Jae-eun focuses a youth picture on young people's hopes, dreams and despair rather than giddy romance or easy-to-sell violence. But a melancholy tone and deliberately drab milieu make the 113-minute film a tough sit. Relief comes mostly from her five actresses, who give strong performances that expose sharp differences among a circle of close friends.


Fashion-conscious Hae-joo (Lee Yo-won) gets caught up in the busy turmoil of her job at a brokerage firm. Only gradually does she realize that she mostly fetches coffee and is advancing nowhere.

The group's moody loner, Ju-young (Ok Ji-young), who first discovers the kitten that gets passed among the young women, lives with parents in an aging apartment that is literally crumbling around them.

Pert and somewhat naive Tae-hee (Bae Doo-na) mediates any differences among her set of friends, but seems lost after high school. The twins Bi-ryu (Lee Eung-sil) and Ohn-jo (Lee Eun-ju), who are Chinese, are most cheerful and the least ambitious of the group, seemingly content to sell trinkets on the street.

Jeong picks apart the young women's lives with gentle but surgical skill, locating the most telling moments and details to express their discontent -- a discontent of which they may not always be aware. Yet a sluggish pace and lack of genuine narrative hem the movie in every bit as much as life hems in the spirits of these young women.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com ... _content_id=1677985