We all go through a transitional period in our lives. There is a time when our closest friends drift away and we find new one's even though it feels like that bond is going to last forever. In those moments when you're with your best friends nothing else really matters, because you have each other, and you're impenetrable to the fact that relationships evolve and change. Life always gets in the way, and it's no one's fault. Random events, sudden deaths, jobs, everything shifts and sometimes you're left wondering where did everyone go? Ji-Young feels that way. She's stuck in a run down place she calls home with grandparents who seem like they're from an entirely different world. She has her friends, but they are moving past her. It's scary and she's unsure of where her life is headed. Tae-hie is the one person in her life (her best friend undoubtedly) that makes an effort to see her and make her feel better about her current surroundings. This kind of representation of sisterhood through female friendship is the sort of thing I gravitate towards in cinema. You could call it one of my personal biases, and this is absolutely a film about friendship from the perspective of young women. What I love about this movie is that it shows friendship as something that perseveres in spite of real life problems. Tae-hie and Ji-Young keep their friendship alive and the final grace note of the movie shows them supporting one another. While relationships often crumble due to unknowable circumstances I think there is something extremely powerful in films like Take Care of My Cat where sisterhood is shown as eternal. I'm always going to live for those moments in cinema where Frances and Sophie share a knowing glance in a moment of success, a slow dance to a Cyndi Lauper song at a High School reunion, or Ji-Young and Tae-Hie deciding to run away together. Sisterhood for life. I said goodbye to the only close friend I had in the last four years this week. I'm getting ready to move and start another chapter of my life, and I think I watched this movie at the perfect time. She was extremely important to me before we drifted away a little bit after she went to a college out of state. We still love each other and whenever we're in the same room it's like no time has passed at all. I've made friends that I'm closer towards in years since, but she's probably the closest thing I had to a best friend in my day to day life. In a time of severe doubt where I was unsure if I'd ever see her again I watched this movie, and it told me everything was going to be okay. I'm sure I'll see her again, and I'm always going to believe that even if we're thousands of miles away from each other. We may drift away and our lives are going to change, but connections like that never truly sever. Not in the movies. Not in real life.
