Hmmmm where to start? Tiny Times is based off a popular romance novel of the same name, and was directed by the author. This is typically a dream come true for the fans of the books, because who else knows the book better than the author, amiright? Yet…Guo Jing Ming fell a little flat with the movie. Sure, it was pretty to look at, but it never really had any punch to its plot. The girls are shown in high school, and then the first year of college. The narrator manages to get an impossible PA job for the boss at a magazine (Devil Wear’s Prada anyone?) within 10 minutes, and spends the rest of the movie doing odd jobs for him, including throwing a fashion show. What? Her quiet artsy friend practically has no role but to be pretty, and although we know she has an abusive boyfriend from one small moment in the movie, we don’t know anything about the backstory or why she keeps returning to him. The queen bee of the friends is flighty and sharp-tongued, her role is to provide the characters with a place to party when they all end up single on christmas. The “chubby” athletic friend acts as the token piece of comedic relief, which (albeit delivered in an amusing way), is a bit annoying when she has no substance apart from that. This is sex and the city meets gossip girl, without any support as to why the girls are friends and a lack of relationships ( including two sudden, ill-thought out breakups). Honestly, the main appeal of this movie is the cast - or rather, the packaging. Music was decent but forgettable and the acting was difficult to judge because I felt like they were all limited by the poorly written script. Will I watch Tiny Times 2? Probably. This movie is literal eye-candy, and sometimes you need an hour of fluff. Unless I really start to hate the characters or the plot (or lack of), I’ll continue watching the series!