Take Care of My Cat

A "wonderfully fluid" (Variety) film, TAKE CARE OF MY CAT tenderly and unsentimentally charts the paths of a quintet of modern South Korean women as they navigate the hazards of young adulthood. First time director Jae-eun Jeong brings a beguiling freshness to a coming of age story (Kevin Thomas, LA Times) with panache and visual poetry. Kino takes great pride in presenting a smash international festival hit that the Chicago Tribune's Michael Wilmington gushed, "is so breezy, pretty and gifted, it really won my heart."

While twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (Eun-shil & Eun-joo Lee) cheerfully resign themselves to the diminished expectations and drab realities of bleak Inchon, narcissistic Hae-joo (Yo-won Lee) surrenders to the seductive undertow of office ladder-climbing at a Seoul brokerage. Melancholy Ji-young (Ji-young Ok) desperately staves off an avalanche of big-city bad luck, leaving the charismatic but circumspect Tae-hee (Doo-na Bae) to spiritedly hold the group together even while challenging the family that exploits her.

Director Jae-eun Jeong's meticulous, deeply moving examination of courage, loss and yearning on the perilous threshold of maturity demonstrates she is "as savvy about young women as she is about cinema." (Chicago Tribune) Doo-na Bae's multiple award winning performance has a rich ring of truth and engages the heart with an assuredly crafted simplicity virtually extinct in youth films. From the title cat that passes from girl to girl to the cell-phone text-messages that appear on screen as the five friends seek to stay connected, TAKE CARE OF MY CAT blossoms into both a sincere, emotionally lucid cinematic vision and a brisk pop-movie treat.