Take Care of My Cat 고양이를 부탁해
Details Released: 2001 Director: Jeong Jae-eun ( 정재은 ) This ‘coming of age’ movie follows the lives of a group of friends - 5 young women - a year after they graduate from high school, showing the heartbreaking changes and inspiring difficulties they face in their friendships and work.
Awards Though critically acclaimed, the box office returns were poor, prompting a 'Save the Cat' movement in which film-industry professionals tried to increase viewership before its run finished. The film went on to many international film festivals as well, where it received awards and special mentions.
Cast Tae-hee Yoo (Doo-na Bae) Hae-joo Shin (Yo-won Lee Ji- Young Seo ( Ji-young Ok) Bi-ryu (Eun-shil Lee) Ohn-jo (Eun-joo Lee) Chan-yong Uhm (Tae-kyung Oh)
Jeong Jae-eun ( 정재은 ) Screenwriter and director Born: 1969 Debut: Take Care of my Cat One of the first graduates of the School of Film and Multimedia at the Korean National University of Arts. Yujin' Secret Codes: Grand Prize, Seoul Women's Film Festival
Jeong Jae-eun ( 정재은 ) The Aggressives ( 태풍태양 ) (2005) If You Were Me (Segment: The Man with an Affair) ( 여섯 개의 시선 ) (2003, Short) Take Care of My Cat ( 고양이를 부탁해 ) (2001) Yu-jin's Secret Codes ( 도형일기 ) (1999, Short) Girl's Night-out (1999, Short) After School (Short) Coming of Age Ceremony (Short)
Synopsis Five girlfriends in their early twenties live in the dingy port town of Incheon. A close-knit circle in high school, their paths begin to diverge as they step into the adult world. At the center is the beautiful and vain Hae-joo, who dreams of becoming a successful career woman. She leaves Incheon for an apartment in Seoul and a junior position with a brokerage firm.
Synopsis The other girls are left behind in solitude and unease. Tae-hee works for her parents and takes dictation from a poet suffering from cerebral palsy. Ji-young seeks a job, while caring for her grand- parents in their dilapidated apartment. The twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo buffer themselves from change with constant togetherness.
Synopsis The cellular phones ring as the girls coordinate their meetings. A lost cat, Tee tee, enters the lives of these young women, passing from one owner to the next as circumstances pull lives and friends apart and others together.
More information The story of the 3 main characters contains important themes of modernity and how it affects the city of Incheon. The twins are of Chinese descent, as we see when they drop off a regard gift to their grandparents, who speak Chinese. We do not know if the twins can speak or even read Chinese.
More information Incheon once had a sizable Chinese community and the characters are perhaps all of Chinese descent except possibly the girl with the cat. The director alludes to this through hints - one of the girl's father loves Chinese dumplings and one of the girls models a Chinese traditional red dress that fits her perfectly.
More information It is the poorest of the girls who is the real native of Korea. The story shows how alien Seoul is to this group of young women and how alienated the actual Korean girl is in this group of women who embrace the ethos of city life.
More information The young girl with cat is scholarly, artistic and filial (though she chides her grandparents she takes great care of them through her actions). Her character is representative of the Han spirit. Yet her virtues mean little in the face of modern culture and times. She represents traditional Korea and finds that old Shamanistic and Confucian values have little impact on today's success.