Take Care Of My Cat (2001)

I wouldn't call this a coming of age movie but more of what happens to friendships as we get older. These four young ladies have been friends for quite awhile and as you watch them in their daily lives, each different from the other and facing their own struggles. Hae Joo is the most fortunate one and is kind of inconsiderate of her friends whose circumstances are not the same as hers. Ji-Young seems to be the one that is the most dire as she lives with her grandparents in a dilapidated home in Inchon and she is feeling the pressures just to get by with life everyday. The others pretty much try to maintain their friendship but as you watch, you can see them drifting slowly apart. The cat, or really kitten which was a gift to Hae Joo from Ji-Young, kind of symbolizes the demise of their relationship as Hae Joo gives her the kitten back because she really doesn't want to care for it and so Ji-Young internalizes that as a rejection of their friendship. No, this is not a comedy by any means but a drama on friendships.

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Take Care of My Cat is a statement to describe these three friends. These young adults are faced with reality after graduation. It tests their friendship as much as it tests them.

Each with defining personalities of their own also come to find their own places.

Yoo Tae-Hee (Doona Bae) is the peacemaker, I'm-not-ready-for-reality so she works for free at her family's business. But she longs for companionship and for connection, which she tries to find with from a poet with cerebral palsy whom she volunteers as a typist for.

Shin Hae-Joo is working as an office lady but without a proper degree. She seems to be dating but isn't really. A little bit full of herself, Hae-Joo longs to climb the social ladder; thus, settles for what she's thrown at.

The outcast, Seo Ji-Young is an orphan, living in a squatter with her grandparents and studying textiles—she longs for escape, to study in another country.

The cat, like these three girls, are adapting to changes—from being passed from owner to owner. Once a stray cat, it in a way, shows how they too, want to find their place somewhere.

Ultimately, the one who ends up taking care of the cat are the ones who have already found their place long before.

Take Care of My Cat is a subtle coming-of-age. It doesn't try to exaggerate nor does it try to be overly dramatic at its subject matter. There are times when it does hit the heartstrings but at times, it stays true to what it chooses to portray. If any, it's straightforward without being overly sentimental.

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