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September 5th, 2002 Day One |
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First evening of the film festival and all is good. It's a beautiful evening with unseasonably warm weather. Rebecca, Don, Pauline and a few others have a film chosen from the South Korean programme at the festival called "Harvest: South Korean Renaissance". The screening is let in on time, but the film actually starts a bit late as the show is sold out and several ticket holders show up late after the Rush Line has already been let in. Word of advice to ticket holders: read the fine print on Page 67 of the film schedule. The guide very clearly states: "Ticket holders are guaranteed a seat only until 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the screning." A little disruptive, but not nearly as much as last year's opening night. On with the review...
Title: Take Care of My Cat [Goyang-ileul Butag-hae] Summary This film set primarily in Incheon, South Korea tells the story of a group of five young woman and their challenges dealing with adulthood after leaving high school. Friendships are strained and as each of the characters struggle with finding direction in their lives. Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, the five that had been united by popular culture, ubiquitous cell phones, and school uniforms find that they suddenly have less in common as they move into the adult world. Tae-hee (Bae Doo-na) is likely the most impoverished of the group, an orpahn living with her grandparents in a shanty town introduces the titular cat, Titi to the group when she gives it to the beautiful and popular Hae-joo (Le Yo-woon) as a birthday present. The cat is soon passed to other friends of the group as each of them realizes they are unable to care for the cat. While not centeral to the plot the cat does underline the tenuous relationships between the girls and their attempt to take on adult responsbilites. Ji-young (Ok Ji-young) is only marginally less improverished than her poor friend Tae-hee as she is forced to work in her family business for free and as a part of large family chaffs under the strict rules of her father. The remaining two friends are twin sisters, Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (Lee Eung-sil, lee Eun-ju), whose bubbly care-free attitudes make them the token "air-heads" of the group. What I liked about the film The story covers some interesting ground taking a look at the group dynamics of such a diverse group of friends. Director Jeong jae-eun's first feature shows a lot of promise with good pacing, interesting characters and some unique visuals. Nice story arc with some positive resolution at the end. Enjoyable but Disappointing -- I enjoyed elements of the movie, but was disappointed with some aspects. |