The Sleeper Korean Cult Favorite ‘Take Care of My Cat’ Comes Back to Theaters in 4K — Watch the New Trailer

A Korean cult classic from 2001, writer/director Jeong Jae-eun’s coming-of-age favorite “Take Care of My Cat” is coming back to theaters for its 25th anniversary, courtesy of Kani Releasing. Only a modest success at the time despite critical fervor, the film nonetheless built up a passionate fan base known as the “Save the Cat” movement to try and keep it in theaters longer. Ahead of the July re-release of “Take Care of My Cat,” IndieWire shares the exclusive new trailer below.

A patient, delicately told story in the vein of Edward Yang, “Take Care of My Cat” centers on five friends who’ve begun to drift apart only a year after graduation. They include brokerage firm employee Hae-joo (Lee Yo-won), wanderlusting artist Ji-young (Ok Ji-young), the eccentric Tae-hee (Korean superstar Bae Doo-na, who’s starred in films by Hirokazu Koreeda, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, and the Wachowskis), and the twins Bi-ryu and Ohn-jo (Lee Eun-ju), who are descendants of Chinese grandparents while living in a segregated community.

More on the film from the synopsis here: “A sleeper hit at the time of its release, Jeong Jae-eun’s perceptive debut ‘Take Care of My Cat’ chronicles the lives of five graduating friends whose bonds begin to fracture as they contend with their share of squashed dreams and unequal opportunities. Director Jeong sets the lives of her protagonists (among them Bae Doona and Lee Yo-won in breakout roles) against the industrial backdrop of Incheon, a port city adjacent to Seoul and bearing the brunt of South Korea’s ruthless globalization efforts. In the doing, her film expands to accommodate notions of class, solidarity and privilege – in what is now a timeless snapshot of a rapidly evolving society. Alternately bleak and sunny, realistic and effortlessly cool, suffused with the joys of girlhood yet clear-eyed about the uneasy transition into adulthood, ‘Take Care of My Cat’ offers a tender and a multi-faceted portrait of young women at the turn of the new millennium.”

“2001 was the first year of the new millennium, and releasing this film then holds great significance for me. I wanted to show that these kinds of women exist in the world, and I hadn’t seen it before on film,” said director Jeong Jae-eun. “Hearing that another distributor is releasing it in North America after 25 years makes me incredibly happy.”

“Take Care of My Cat” has rarely been shown in the U.S. since its quiet theatrical release stateside in 2002. The release follows a December 2025 Metrograph series celebrating the films of star Bae Doona.

Kani Releasing’s 25th anniversary re-release of “Take Care of My Cat” opens at Metrograph in New York on Friday, July 17.