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There’s a touch of graceful tranquillity to the banal story of Glamorous Youth, a surprisingly assured directorial debut by local film critic Philip Yung. Set in roughly a year’s time, in the run up to the tenth anniversary of the Handover, this realist drama offers an episodic portrait of a group of loosely connected people in the life of Hong (Nelson Yung), an ordinary student in his last year of high school.

While finding support from his literature teacher (Joey Leung), facing friction with his fickle girlfriend (Louise Wong), and getting a bit of both from his two closest buddies (Kwok Hiu-fai, Cameron Lau), Hong must also live with his increasingly estranged parents. Some of these characters lose themselves in carnal pursuits over the border; others are too confused with their lives to be pursuing anything at all.

Regularly casting its characters in shadow with some meticulously designed lighting, the film provides an understated portrayal of alienation and loneliness, while rejecting the notion that there’s inherent meaning in life. (The story’s passing references to Kafka’s The Metamorphosis are far from subtle – yet aptly on point.)

Glamorous Youth is one of those rare slice-of-life dramas that actually resemble life: capricious, bittersweet, and filled with irony. As these characters drift through time in aimless trajectories, their quiet resignation is more devastating than any amount of melodrama can otherwise provide.

Edmund Lee

Dir Philip Yung, Category III, 133 mins, now showing