A coming-of-age movie with a difference, director Jeong Jae-eun's film is the kind of gently paced character study that rewards patience.

Set in contemporary South Korea, "Take Care of My Cat" charts the changing relationships between five twenty-something girls. The film follows them as they graduate from school and prepare to take their first steps in the real world of adult responsibility.

Hae-Joo (Yo-won) has already taken a seemingly glamorous office job, while tomboyish Tae-hee (Doo-na) dreams of breaking convention by becoming a sailor.

Ji-young (Ji-young) is too ashamed of her poverty-stricken background to find herself, while the twins (Eun-shil and Eun-joo) are happy just to spend time with anyone other than each other.

Capturing the uncertainty that accompanies the shift from the teens to the 20s, "Take Care of My Cat" offers a refreshingly different slice of Asian cinema. An all-female lead cast offer some brilliantly convincing performances.

Effortlessly teasing out the economic realities of contemporary Korea - Jae-eun's sense of the class differences underlying this group of friends informs much of the drama. "Take Care of My Cat" is set among the dark industrial spaces and brightly lit neon shops of South Korea's Inchon port district.

Best of all, Jae-eun captures the impact of technology on Korea's youth culture. He is perfectly attuned to the way in which friendship is mediated by text messages and mobile phones.

She sets aside on-screen boxes to capture the girls' constant texting, uses quad split-screen frames for their conference calls, and employs a soundtrack that's constantly interrupted by ever-changing ring tones.

"Take Care of My Cat" revolves around a nicely played irony. Despite all the different means of communication at their disposal, each of these girls is still tongue-tied by the inarticulateness of youth.

In Korean with English subtitles.