Pusan
Take Care of My Cat
Goyangireul Butakhae (South Korea)
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With: Bae Du-na, Lee Yo-weon, Ok Ji-yeong, Lee Eun-sil, Lee Eun-ju.
Despite strong support from local critics, the movie bombed spectacularly on release last month, pulling a mere 35,000 admissions. Since then, however, a mini-cult has grown up around it and a re-release, with a new campaign, is being mulled for December. It was certainly one of the best-liked Korean pics by foreign guests at the recent Pusan fest, where it won the Netpac Award and a special mention from the New Currents jury.
After a jazzy opening and scenes of the girls together, characters take a while to swim into focus, with their various backgrounds sketched piecemeal as the movie progresses. Group includes two wacky half-Chinese twins (Lee Eun-sil, Lee Eun-ju) but core of the movie centers on the other three, whose friendships are redefined as they try to find paths in the real world.
Glamourpuss of the band is Hae-ju (Lee Yo-weon), who's got a job as an assistant in a smart brokerage firm, where she takes a liking to one of the senior staff. A self-confessed "princess," she blows hot and cold with her b.f., Chan-yong, and when she moves away from Icheon to an apartment in Seoul, the others feel rejected.
Smarting especially is the artistically talented but introverted Ji-yeong (Ok Ji-yeong), who lives in a semi-shanty dwelling with her aged grandparents. Once close to Hae-ju, she's now befriended by Tae-hee (Bae Du-na), a rebellious middle-class dropout who also can't find a regular job and spends her time trying to hold the group together. The cautious, deeper friendship between these two is one of the best things in the movie, cemented when Tae-hee becomes the first to pay Ji-yeong a visit at her impoverished home.
Helmer Jeong chose to set her movie in Incheon rather than more fashionable Seoul as the port better reflected the flux and unease in the girls' lives, as well as their dreams of escape abroad. Certainly, the cold, bright wintry colors and ramshackle, everyday settings give the film a freshness and realism removed from glossier youth pics. Jeong's avoidance of cliches like sex, drugs and discos keeps the focus tight on the girls' fluctuating friendships, whose ties are held together by that special Korean obsession, the cell phone.
Pacing is smart without being rushed, and wonderfully fluid, with small vignettes and character quirks blending one into the other. There's no real plot to speak of -- aside from a last-minute drama involving Ji-yeong -- but the three main characters are so well drawn that interest never flags, with Bae (from "Barking Dogs Never Bite") and newcomer Ok especially good. Tech credits are smooth throughout. Title stems from a stray cat that's passed around among the girls.
Camera (color), Choi Yeong-hwan; editor, Lee Hyeon-mi; music, M&F; art director, Kim Jin-cheol; sound (Dolby Digital), Im Dong-seok. Reviewed at Pusan Film Festival (New Currents), Nov. 15, 2001. Running time: 111 MIN.
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