“Youth is something young men waste away. That’s their prerogative.” In the epilogue of this film, where “youth” is to be defined by various interviewees, none other than the director says so. This is a story about a bunch of young boys and girls brilliantly wasting away a year in their lives. The scene is brightly lit Hong-Kong, the sixth floor rear block of a boardinghouse run by a inimitable old lady, where a group of youths move in. A Tarot card reader, a celebrity interviewer, a student who ran away from an American medical school to pursue a career in rock music, a lunchbox delivery boy... they have only one thing in common, which is youth itself. They spend almost a month throwing raucous housewarming parties and playing endless games of Truth or Dare. One day, something that started as a practical joke becomes a serious bet that gives a fresh meaning to the idiomatic phrase “eat shit.” Now the viewers are in for a treat; that being an inside look at the real lives of these seemingly thoughtless, reckless young people. They get to watch what the youths want in their lives and what kind of painful frustrations they have to face. The film might have turned out to be yet another mosaic of the reckless wanderings of frustrated youths, had it not been for the episode involving Karena, which gives this film a solid dramatic frame and an exceptionally mature perspective. Karena starts to write a proper book on the lives of her friends living in the sixth floor rear block, and hopelessly falls in love with the faceless editor who guides her writing by telephone. This is where this film differs from other “youth” films. It not only asserts the “autonomy” of the youth, but also acknowledges the important role of the “adults” who lead the young to maturity. It also embraces the poignant and complex view of a grown-up fondly looking at these young people’s wanderings and blunderings. When the youth gets connected to the maturity, the present starts to hatch the future. Then it can never be “wasted” away. (KIM Sun-hyung)