TAKE CARE OF MY CAT
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Near Seoul several women near age twenty have romantic and social adventures. The culture in Korea is surprisingly like that in Europe or the United States and the story could have been set nearly anywhere. However, the production values are high, but the print that has been made has been so poorly subtitled I want to disqualify myself from rating this film.
When I write a letter, before I send it I read it over to make sure I did not make typographic errors. In general, it is always a good policy to look over one's work before it is read by others. I hope this does not come as news to anyone reading this. It apparently does come as news to people entrusted to subtitle foreign language films. I am not talking here about spelling errors, though they are not uncommon in subtitling. I am speaking of visibility. Subtitles have to have enough contrast the background behind them to not fade into that background. A surprisingly large proportion of subtitled films are subtitled with indifference to whether all the subtitles will always be readable. TAKE CARE OF MY CAT is filmed with bright white being the most common color in the pallette. It is then subtitled in white. This makes much too many of the subtitles illegible.
The problems I had with the subtitles I will blame on the releasing company. I will take some blame for not being able to sufficiently tell apart the major characters, all Korean women in their early twenties. In any case, I cannot be sure of my value judgments about TAKE CARE OF MY CAT and I will not rate this film.
The film follows the lives of several women, all friends, as they interact socially and romantically as they move toward what they will do with their lives. We see their lives unfold over the course of some months in modern day Seoul and Inchon, Korea. Heejou works in a modern office building. Though her work touches many of the workers, she is basically a functionary. Jiang is not so lucky. She lives in a ramshackle room and she cares for a grandfather who lives in an apartment made partially of old newspaper. These and several of their friends interact. Tae-hee goes from one job to the next trying to find the right career.
Most Americans have seen films of this sort since at the latest the 1950s. However, the film also gives a picture of modern day Korea in the consumer electronics era. Korea surprisingly looks at least as wired and wireless as the United States. First time director Jeong Jae-eun points us to a Korea of cell phones and microwaves and PCs we will not see in the National Geographic. At least one scene seems to be an homage to the film BREATHLESS.
Mark R. Leeper mleeper@optonline.net Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper
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