TAKE CARE OF MY CAT (Goyangileul butaghae) -------------------
Five girlfriends in the Korean port city of Inchon share relationships that reconfigure with time and the personal values which become better understood by when circumstantial changes make several demand, "Take Care of My Cat."
Writer/director Jae-eun Jeong showcases four distinct personalities (twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (Eung-sil Lee and Eun-ju Lee) share one) among his group of girls struggling into womanhood in modern Korea. 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.
After a flashback of the five as schoolgirls, each is presented in their post-school world. Tae-hie (Du-na Bae) is a thoughtful independent who types for a poet with cerebral palsy and works at a convenience store which fronts a crudely modern hot stone spa. Ji-young (Ji-young Ok) finds a small kitten which her grandmother informs her is supernatural. Hye-ju (Yu-won Lee) is a self-absorbed office girl. The twins are a giggly duo without much depth who mostly exist on the film's sidelines - they're introduced in an amusing scene that finds them rationalizing with their grandfather over an intercom.
The five gather at a club to celebrate Hye-ju's birthday. In the first of a running cultural gag, the friends serenade Hye-ju with a song synchronized on their cellphones. (Cellphones are a prominent and varied means of communication throughout.) Ji-young presents her with the kitten. Their occasional male buddy Chan-Yong notes that 'Men who hate cats can't meet a good woman.' The next day Hye-ju matter-of-factly returns the kitten to Ji-young, not wishing to take on the responsibility. Hye-ju borrows money from her friends without repaying it and Ji-young begins to see her friend is a user. When Ji-young is jailed because of her behavior after the loss of her home and grandparents (this makes little sense as presented), Tae-hie takes her cat in and is there to greet her on her release. Leaving the cat with the good-natured twins, Ji-young and Tae-hie set out to make a new life for themselves.
"Take Care of My Cat" is a charming look at different women defining themselves in an evolving culture. Connections to older generations are presented on the peripheral, but mostly these women stand on their own. The three main actresses create three distinctly different characters with the twins equal parts of a fourth. Harsh realities of the film's latter scenes drastically shift it's mood, which begins to sour during a trip to a mall that makes Hye-ju's selfish nature apparent.
The opening credits create an eye-catching pattern of colored cubes against the blinds of office window buildings. Jae-eun Jeong repeats the visual motif, perhaps representing positions into which the girls can slot themselves, late in the film when Ji-young takes out her frustration on a dance/music arcade game. Ji-young is also shot in arresting close-up softly lit one second and harshly the next as she rides a bus in deep thought with a new, short haircut. Although the friendship dynamic changes among the girls, only Ji-young undergoes a radical shift in her perceptions.
B-
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