In the port city of Icheon, five female friends struggle to stay close while forging a life for themselves after high school. When one of the groups, upwardly-mobile Hae-ju, moves to Seoul, the other girls deal with the loss in different ways. Feeling most rejected, shy Ji-yeong finds comfort in her new friendship with rebel Tae-hee.
Jeong's evocative visuals of the urban landscape and her savvy deployment of appliances only deepens the resemblance such stories have to our own lives.
The problems and characters it reveals are universal and involving, and the film itself -- as well its delightful cast -- is so breezy, pretty and gifted, it really won my heart.
Jae-eun Jeong's Take Care of My Cat brings a beguiling freshness to a coming-of-age story with such a buoyant, expressive flow of images that it emerges as another key contribution to the flowering of the South Korean cinema.
The episodic film makes valid points about the depersonalization of modern life. But the characters tend to be cliches whose lives are never fully explored.
A world in small, subtly acknowledging larger economic and cultural forces one moment, and in the next patiently observing the way a bowl of medicinal tea, seen turning in a microwave carousel, begins to describe its own slow epicycles.
Jeong's women often interact via cell phone messaging, and one of the film's primary themes arises in the way contemporary relationships exist through wireless communication.
["Take Care of My Cat"] is an honestly nice little film that takes us on an examination of young adult life in urban South Korea through the hearts and minds of the five principals.
The film engages with the divergent paths taken, linked by childhood friendship and a mewling kitten, but a third act event is presented so abruptly it confuses the viewer until it rebounds somewhat with a satisfying closure.
Multidimensional, coming-of-age drama about the evolving friendship between five female high school friends in the port city of Incheon, Korea who have high hopes of staying close but the harsh realities of work, family, and finding their place in the world get in the way while keeping in touch as best they can.The
film wins points for avoiding all of the contrived dramatic pitfalls such as 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 cliche's. One of the most interesting things of the film is the major role given to cell phones in the characters' lives and the way text messages are displayed during the film. The cat in question is a birthday gift that is quickly returned because one of the girls doesn't have time for a pet, so the cat is passed from friend to friend.
March 23, 2008
El Hombre Invisible
Super Reviewer
A refreshingly touching film about friendship which doesn't turn all sappy and cringeworthy. Highlights the division of friends as they adapt into adulthood with a lot of spirit and a slow paced but enticing script. Wonderful performances bring the characters and their relationships alive. Beautifully done.
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