SPACKED OUT Review: Engaging, Provocative Coming of Age in Hong Kong

Almost 25 years later, Spacked Out, a coming-of-age social drama by Lawrence Ah-Mon (My Name is Fame, Gimme Gimme, Gangs), still feels as fresh, insightful, and provocative as it did when it was released just a few years after Hong Kong’s reunification with mainland China.

A clear-eyed, sympathetic perspective that is empathetic toward the rebellious teens at the center of his complex, layered film, Spacked Out all but demands rediscovery and reappraisal by audiences eager to explore a different side of Hong Kong cinema.

Ah-Mon identifies his central quartet via nicknames -- Cookie (Kit Man Tam), Sissy (Wing Yin Cheung), Banana (Man Sze Au), and Bean Curd (Maggie Poon) -- they've given themselves. The slightest in terms of stature. and at least by personal experience and outward maturity, the youngest, Cookie doubles as the audience's viewpoint character.

Banana appears the oldest and most experienced, especially around boys her age, while Sissy and the possessive Bean Curd are caught in an awkward, vaguely defined, borderline romantic relationship. Sissy’s naturally flirtatious, self-involved nature creates constant friction between her and the jealous Bean Curd.

Through Cookie’s eyes, audiences get a glimpse of lower-middle-class life in Hong Kong circa 2000: Her parents divorced, her father rarely home, and her mother gone. In the plaintively heart-breaking scene that opens Spacked Out, Cookie leaves her mom a long, meandering message on the latter's answering machine. It’s unclear whether Cookie’s mother will hear it and, even if she does, whether she’ll respond in kind, leaving Cookie, much like her friends, to fend for herself after school, including meals and other self-care.

On the flip side of parental or adult neglect, the central quartet enjoys a level of freedom and independence most girls in their age group never do. As long as they have money, they’re practically free to do what they want and where they want to do it, including recreational smoking and drug use.

Using a flexible, improvisatory style along with a seemingly open-ended vignette approach, Ah-Mon follows the girls, individually and collectively, in and out of school. In school, they barely pay attention to whatever’s being taught, instead caught up with their respective boyfriend-of-the-week or what they’ll do after classes start.

Of the four leading characters, Cookie manages to run afoul of a stern, disciplinarian teacher when she arrives late to school one day, sloppily wearing her school uniform and the wrong shoes. Her punishment involves standing without a break in the school’s playground before her non-seriousness leads to the punishment dreaded everywhere and at every time by high school students: Running laps around the playground.

The slice-of-life, quotidian approach Ah-Mon takes proves incredibly rewarding both dramatically and emotionally. As the girls chat, occasionally bicker, and make up again, they resemble girls from any time and any place, albeit within a particular set of socio-economic circumstances. Loyal (mostly) to each other, they can be also petty, vicious, and unforgiving to others, including a rival girl group from another nearby school they encounter in a convenience store one day.

Spacked Out takes a more conventional narrative approach during the third act as the four girls venture to the next biggest city, Cookie to see a one-time boyfriend, Sissy to have photographs taken by a sleazy, exploitative photographer, and Banana and Bean Curd as tag-a-longs. The lightness and humor of the first two acts, however, give way to a more pressing, potentially impactful problem for Cookie: She’s likely pregnant and a life-changing decision awaits her.

Ah-Mon and his screenwriting team, Shiu Lin Au, Laoshu, and Sin Ling Yeung, handle the abortion question with a sensitivity, delicacy, and above all else, honesty that seems all the more bracing given Spacked Out was released almost 24 years ago. The girls might qualify as “troubled” or “delinquent” based on their in-school behavior, but they’re also smart and savvy enough to weigh the consequences of their actions or inactions without sentiment or sentimentality.

Employing a loose, handheld camera style, Ah-Mon unsurprisingly solicits uniformly grounded, persuasive performances from his young cast. Spacked Out asks a great deal of the cast, among them showing a wide range of emotions and giving dramatic beats a feeling of verisimilitude, and they deliver without hesitation, the likely result of a  truly collaborative process between the director and his young performers.

A new, 2K restoration of Spacked Out premieres today (Friday, December 29), at NYC’s Metrograph Theater for an exclusive one-week run and an exclusive two-week streaming release via Metrograph at Home.