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.
This film was included in the 31st New Directors/New Films 2002 series presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Department of Film and Media of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
