Teenage Dreamers

Teenage Dreamers , released about the same time as the more notorious Lonely Fifteen, is an example of New Wave filmmakers' attempt to balance social and artistic inquiry with box-office appeal. It's the story of four school girls, all dreamy lasses but each a little different, shrewdly offering a vague cross-section of teenage Hong Kong. The film never strays far from the teen-film formula of softcore entertainment and gentle lyricism, especially the requisite veneer of doe-eyed romanticism. Yet it's also not without touches of social awareness, especially in the contrast between two of the girls, one with a sheltered middle-class upbringing and the other from a poor family, working in the sex trade with a cavalier attitude, routinely flaunting a ready flow of cash while never showing any trace of guilt or shame.

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