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Growing up in South Korea17 July 2002
REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHEN
Take Care of My Cat
Take Care of my Cat delves insightfully into the difficulties and challenges facing young women growing up in South Korea today. Set in Seoul, it follows the lives of five friends who finished high school the year before. After graduation, their lives begin to take different directions. Hae-joo (played by Lee Yo-won) pursues a career in an investment firm.
She seems happy and is proud of her success. She is a little impatient
and dismissive of her friends' difficulties in finding work. Reality catches
up with her, however, and she has to come to terms with sexism and career
barriers. Tae-hee (Bae Doo-na) works for her father and volunteers her time to help disadvantaged people, yet she is searching for a more fulfilling direction in life. Her care and concern for others is a pleasant contrast to Hae-joo's self-obsession. Ji-young (Ok Ji-young) is an orphan who lives with her grandparents in a slum area of Seoul. She becomes alienated from her friends. She finds it very difficult to get work and is worried about her future. She adopts a stray kitten whose company she finds more of a comfort than her friends and family. Take Care of my Cat is only the second female-directed film in recent years from Korea. It is Jeong Jae-eun's first feature-length film. At times sad, the film is a sobering yet compassionate and down-to-earth exploration of the uncertainties of life in Korea following the 1997 economic crisis. Take Care of my Cat exudes a real warmth and humanity which makes it a real joy to watch. From Green Left Weekly, July 17, 2002.
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