Happy-go-lucky Koey (Miki Yeung) has left high school to join the workforce, and she finds a job in a knickknack store. Her colleague there is Simon (Ben Hung), the effeminate son of the shop’s owner, and a boy who has been secretly following Koey both on the streets and online for the past year. Introverted Simon had missed his chance to approach the girl when he was a 12-year-old ballet student, and he’s not keen to see her slip away a second time. But Koey’s not at all interested in him: she’d rather go out with Willy (Sam Lee), an ex-racer who has kept to himself for the past couple of years, and a curious love triangle starts to take shape as a result.
Filmed as a collaboration between two Hong Kong universities, and with funding raised by first-time director Mathew Tang himself, B420 develops at a careful pace and prepares for a strong finish. Set against the attractive backdrop of Macau and bookended tidily, the story of the trio brings out differing outlooks on life - living for the present, looking forward, being caught in the past - and Koey’s home life with her grandma makes for the most developed of the three’s tales. An independent production with clear commercial leanings, B420 makes for a thoughtful, light youth film, bringing plot devices like Internet chat into the narrative and adding gangster action for good measure. Miki Yeung is constantly bubbly in the lead role, her optimistic teenager positioned in stark contrast to Ben Hung’s bland secret-admirer character and Sam Lee’s downbeat, stuck-in-a-rut Willy, and able to bring about major changes to both of their lives.