"Take care of my cat"(TCMC) is another brilliant low-budgetted movie in Korea. It highlights most popular culture among Korean teenaged girls - cellular message transfer -, and purposedly evades most talked issue - sex. Several meaningful messages are transferred and shared among characters by visual way of cellular messages, and a young pussycat is also moved from one to another. The possession of cat signifies the change of woman's position in Korean society.
Once it belongs to Ji-young, a poor and bereaved girl who defies every condition of what she is and has. She gave the cat to her best friend Hye-ju, a negotiative and self-confident but ambitious OL. Hye-ju accepts it for a while, but returns to Ji-young. Ji-young is later sentenced legal detention due to collapse of her house and abrupt death of her grandparents. The cat is now sent to Tae-hi who is very heartful, inquisitive and day-dreaming family business helper. She suffers from the oppression of masculine-oriented family, and hopes to go far away to seek for her own life. Finally, Tae-hi picks up Ji-young out of detention house and trips with her to somewhere in Australia. The already half-grown cat is sent to twin sisters, Eun-jo and Bi-ryu, who are both care-free and have no interest in complex matters.
All characters have their own problems, and these problems neither can be shared nor cured by friendship itself. The destiny of pussycat is shifting from the place of defiance and silence of Ji-young, to negotiation and assimilation of Hye-ju, to curiosity and reservedness of Tae-hi, finally to indifference and ignorance of twin sisters. This route is a epitome of the trajectory of woman's attitude toward Korean major society. As the cat grows, its position also changes according to the growth of woman's recognition of the real world in Korea.
TCMC is quite a remarkable allegory of modern Korean society, and well-directed integration of short episodes that dialectically dissolves into a optimal but unsatisfactory finale. A must see for serious story watchers with open mind, but a bust for simple movie-goers.
Once it belongs to Ji-young, a poor and bereaved girl who defies every condition of what she is and has. She gave the cat to her best friend Hye-ju, a negotiative and self-confident but ambitious OL. Hye-ju accepts it for a while, but returns to Ji-young. Ji-young is later sentenced legal detention due to collapse of her house and abrupt death of her grandparents. The cat is now sent to Tae-hi who is very heartful, inquisitive and day-dreaming family business helper. She suffers from the oppression of masculine-oriented family, and hopes to go far away to seek for her own life. Finally, Tae-hi picks up Ji-young out of detention house and trips with her to somewhere in Australia. The already half-grown cat is sent to twin sisters, Eun-jo and Bi-ryu, who are both care-free and have no interest in complex matters.
All characters have their own problems, and these problems neither can be shared nor cured by friendship itself. The destiny of pussycat is shifting from the place of defiance and silence of Ji-young, to negotiation and assimilation of Hye-ju, to curiosity and reservedness of Tae-hi, finally to indifference and ignorance of twin sisters. This route is a epitome of the trajectory of woman's attitude toward Korean major society. As the cat grows, its position also changes according to the growth of woman's recognition of the real world in Korea.
TCMC is quite a remarkable allegory of modern Korean society, and well-directed integration of short episodes that dialectically dissolves into a optimal but unsatisfactory finale. A must see for serious story watchers with open mind, but a bust for simple movie-goers.