| While bittersweet coming-of-age stories have long since become a staple of cinema around the world, it’s always refreshing to see directors from different cultures put a unique spin on the genre.
Take Care of My Cat (South Korea, 2001), the debut feature from South Korean writer-director Jae-eun Jeong, treats the subject with surprising depth and sensitivity as it relates the story of five young women struggling to both assert their independence and maintain their friendships after finishing high school. There’s Hae-joo (Yu-won Lee), who leaves behind her home in Inchon to take an entry-level job at a big company in Seoul. Her four friends, on the other hand, have few such opportunities, the worst off being Ji-young (Ji-young Ok), who lives in a dilapidated tin-roof shack with her ailing grandparents and struggles just to make ends meet. Stuck in the middle is Tae-hee (Du-na bae), who comes from wealthier stock, but is still forced to work for free at her family’s public bathhouse while her brother goes off to school. Rounding out the group are twin sisters Bi-ryu (Eung-sil Lee) and Ohn-Jo (Eun-joo Lee), slightly peripheral characters who provide most of the film’s much-needed comic relief.
Not to say that Take Care of My Cat is overly weighty in its tone, but while mostly focused on the subtleties of friendships among post-adolescent females, the film also contains subtexts about the socio-conomic realities faced by many women in traditional patriarchal societies. This is particularly evident in the contrasts that emerge between snobby, self-obsessed, ignorant Hae-joo and the sensitive, introverted, impoverished Ji-young. Neither of them is ever a mere representative of her class – the film isn’t a polemic in that fashion – but at the same time we are never allowed to forget where each of them comes from as the conflicts between them create permanent divisions within the group as a whole.
If you’ve ever been part of a tight-knit group of friends that has slowly disassembled over time, you may appreciate how Take Care of My Cat shows the barriers that can develop between even the closest of confidantes. The social hierarchies and pecking orders are best revealed through the cell phone calls and text-messaging that the characters almost constantly engage in with each other. In fact, Jeong’s film may eventually be remembered for its unique visual representation of text messages within the frame, an elegant and beautifully designed solution that skilfully avoids the problem of too many voiceovers.
Then again, no matter how well composed and photographed the images in this film may be, Take Care of My Cat should be remembered for much more than that. Ultimately, what the film says about the changing quality of friendship as time passes is worth a lot more than its whimsical cinematic innovations. Jeong has not only made a genuinely poignant coming-of-age film, but has also accomplished the great feat of saying something significant about the culture and society from which it emerged. |
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.