Goyangileul butaghae aka Take Care of my Cat (JEONG Jae-eun, 2001)
"Cat" tells the story of five young women, one year after their high school graduation. It focuses particularly on three of them: Tae-hee (played by BAE Doo-na -- an upper middle-clas girl, who feels trapped by her rather philistine family -- who works for free for the family business and as a volunteer typist for a young poet afflicted with severe cerebral palsy), Hae-joo (played by LEE Yo-won -- a somewhat lower middle-class girl, who has a job as a trainee in a brokerage firm, and has dreams of unencumbered upwards mobility, with all the attendant opportunities for conspicuous consumption) and Ji-young (played by OK Ji-young -- an orphan who lives with her impoverished grandparents in a rather squalid slum dwelling, who wants to study textile design, but currently can't find any work at all to help supplement the meager family income). The other two girls are the twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (played by LEE Eun-shil and Eun-joo, currently working as street vendors selling home-made jewelry "all strung with the highest grade fishing line").
Like Ozu's films this movie SEEMS virtually plotless -- but beyond describing the overall situation (which I did above), I find it impossible to say much about the plot content that couldn't spoil a new viewer's enjoyment of the many little twists and turns of the story. Let it suffice to say that all three of our key characters suffer a number of vicissitudes during the relatively short time span covered by the film.
After watching this a second (and third) time, I noted something that had not registered at the time of my first viewing. The film very much reminds me (in a number of ways) of recent Aki Kaurismaki films, especially "Drifting Clouds" and "Man Without a Past" (which was released AFTER "Cat"). JEONG and her cinematographer CHOI Yeong-kwan (also a relative beginner) show the same ability to present what OUGHT to be ugly urban settings in a way that gives them an unexpected sense of beauty (with no trace of artificial prettification). The humor is JEONG's script is mostly rather dead-pan, passing by with no attempt to "play it up". And she shows a deep affection and respect for her characters (even for Hae-joo, who can test the patience of both her friends and the viewers of the film with her arrogant self-centeredness). Finally, the finale of the film is rather reminiscent of that of the Kaurismaki films I mentioned already (saying more would definitely be a spoiler -- if this vague circumlocution is a spoiler in itself -- accept my regrets).
One final word, the five young actresses featured here are absolutely splendid, one and all. And, if there is any justice is the cinematic world, at least one of them BAE Doo-na should be destined for "greatness".
"Cat" tells the story of five young women, one year after their high school graduation. It focuses particularly on three of them: Tae-hee (played by BAE Doo-na -- an upper middle-clas girl, who feels trapped by her rather philistine family -- who works for free for the family business and as a volunteer typist for a young poet afflicted with severe cerebral palsy), Hae-joo (played by LEE Yo-won -- a somewhat lower middle-class girl, who has a job as a trainee in a brokerage firm, and has dreams of unencumbered upwards mobility, with all the attendant opportunities for conspicuous consumption) and Ji-young (played by OK Ji-young -- an orphan who lives with her impoverished grandparents in a rather squalid slum dwelling, who wants to study textile design, but currently can't find any work at all to help supplement the meager family income). The other two girls are the twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (played by LEE Eun-shil and Eun-joo, currently working as street vendors selling home-made jewelry "all strung with the highest grade fishing line").
Like Ozu's films this movie SEEMS virtually plotless -- but beyond describing the overall situation (which I did above), I find it impossible to say much about the plot content that couldn't spoil a new viewer's enjoyment of the many little twists and turns of the story. Let it suffice to say that all three of our key characters suffer a number of vicissitudes during the relatively short time span covered by the film.
After watching this a second (and third) time, I noted something that had not registered at the time of my first viewing. The film very much reminds me (in a number of ways) of recent Aki Kaurismaki films, especially "Drifting Clouds" and "Man Without a Past" (which was released AFTER "Cat"). JEONG and her cinematographer CHOI Yeong-kwan (also a relative beginner) show the same ability to present what OUGHT to be ugly urban settings in a way that gives them an unexpected sense of beauty (with no trace of artificial prettification). The humor is JEONG's script is mostly rather dead-pan, passing by with no attempt to "play it up". And she shows a deep affection and respect for her characters (even for Hae-joo, who can test the patience of both her friends and the viewers of the film with her arrogant self-centeredness). Finally, the finale of the film is rather reminiscent of that of the Kaurismaki films I mentioned already (saying more would definitely be a spoiler -- if this vague circumlocution is a spoiler in itself -- accept my regrets).
One final word, the five young actresses featured here are absolutely splendid, one and all. And, if there is any justice is the cinematic world, at least one of them BAE Doo-na should be destined for "greatness".