Tiny Times is Modish

The past five years has not been short on movies celebrating careerism, the new consumerism and how these can impact on personal friendships - often in rom-coms set in the business (Go! LaLa Go!, Dear Enemy ) or fashion worlds (Esquire Runway , Love In  Cosmo , Color  Me Love ). In that respect, there\'s nothing especially new about Tiny Times which, like recent hit So Young   - though at a much more glossy, superficial level - follows four female friends from their teens to mid-20s, through boyfriend problems and ups-and-downs at work.

Adapted from his own 2008 novel by first-time director Guo Jingming , a celebrity writer who also owns several teenie magazines, Tiny Times  has cartoony characters and zero emotional depth but doesn\'t take itself at all seriously and gets by on production values, visual style and a young cast, led by Mini Yang , that shows an infectious sense of fun.

Unlike most lifestyle rom-coms, Tiny Times is pitched at a female teen audience, with acres of fashion statements, lots of girl talk and bitching and dreamy interludes, and handsome guys. Guo\'s script, which omits several characters from the book and TV drama, leaps here and there without much dramatic continuity and climaxes (of course) at a fashion show. None of the characters are remotely believable, and the underlying message that "poor" people can also make it in life is pretty token. But it\'s the ride that\'s important - capped by end credits that show the whole cast fooling around, as themselves, on a dance floor. It\'s all very modish, very aspirational, and very Shanghai.