Jeong Jae-eun’s debut film, Take Care of My Cat has everything and nothing to do with its title, as the cat serves as a link between five post-grad girls who pass it off between each other over the course of the story. But Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants it ain’t—this film is a darker, honest portrayal of a difficult period in life by one of the few Korean females presently working from the director’s chair.
The five, illustrated in the very first scene, are the best of friends in high school, enjoying life together as equals without real world worries. Although it would have been a bit more convincing to see them at the height of their friendship, this coming of age film is a keen portrayal of how they drift apart.
Take Care of My Cat has no real plot, but is more of a portrait of an important transition in these girls’ lives as they struggle to keep their friendship alive over busy schedules and rapidly widening social gaps. Three of the five girls take the center stage, as two best friends seem to bitterly grow apart. Out of the whole group, only Hye-ju has a paying job (perhaps due to affluent parents), and while it’s not too high paying a one at that, it’s still enough to make her appear like a princess in the presence of her best friend from high school, who lives unemployed with her grandparents and struggles to get by. In the middle of this conflict stands Tae-hee. A middle class girl with family issues, whom despite being a later addition to the group, always serves as the coordinator for planning the next meeting and preserving the friendships.
Take Care of My Cat simply floats about without a structure and relies on both the subtlety of character change and the universal nature of the story—this stage in life where everything suddenly seems daunting and real—to move its viewers. With innovative on-screen text messaging digital effects and a moody electronica soundtrack, Jeong wonderfully evocates an empty atmosphere and the alienating, disconnected direction life goes in when we leave the comfortable community of school. The lack of a structure sometimes results in unwanted tangents, or a slow scene here and there, but for the most part, Jeong puts this freedom to good use and crafts an effective exploration of the inevitability of change.
Reviewed by Tarun
