'Bad Genius' Scores an A

Lynn is an intelligent, high-achieving secondary student who dreams of studying in the US.  She gets a scholarship in a prestigious school and transfers to it, and, as usual, she excels in her studies.  One day, during an exam, she helps her bestfriend Grace, whose acting aspirations are hindered by her poor grades, by providing her with the answers.  Afterwards, Grace’s extremely rich boyfriend Pat asks Lynn to also him and their other classmates in their exams as well, in which she will be paid handsomely for.  She’s reluctant at first.  But then she feels that the teachers are exploiting students, especially the well-off and academically challenged, so she agrees and develops a system that will allow her to send the answers to her classmates during exams.  As the school year progresses, as her clientele grows, so does her bank account.

Eventually, the operation escalates into the next level: she masterminds an elaborate plan to cheat in the STIC, an international standardized test for admissions to American universities, which will net her and her friends a lot of money.  But in order for the scheme to work, they must recruit Lynn’s rival, another genius student named Bank.

Such is the plot summary of Bad Genius, the new hit Thai movie.  It reminded me of the 2000 movie Cheaters.  Both are somewhat inspired by real-life events about students cheating, but I thought that the former’s execution as a heist film made it feel more original.

Nattawut Poonpiriya is the name of the guy that directed this film.  And he did a tremendous job.  The film has humor, drama, and suspense, and he embedded all these elements flawlessly into its narrative.  He utilized the tropes, styles, and ambiance inherent in heist films to create genuine white-knuckled, heart-pumping tension in the exam scenes.

This is the first film experience for the main cast – those who played Lynn, Bank, Grace, and Pat.  Honestly, I’ve seen better acting, but they nonetheless did well.  They did justice to their well-written characters.

Lynn and Bank particularly have great arcs.  They are basically the linchpins of the operation, and it’s interesting that the two ultimately have different takeaways from the experience.  I also appreciate that there’s no unnecessarily sappy romantic subplot between them.  Sure, romance was hinted, and it even arrived at a point where a romantic development would have felt organic.  Now, whether the narrative followed it through or not, let’s just say I was satisfied with how things turn out.

On the other hand, I have this one key observation on Grace and Pat.  If they have exerted into studying the same diligence, creativity, and cleverness they displayed in performing their roles in the cheating scheme, there’s a good chance that they would have become more academically successful on their own, and that there won’t be a need for any cheating.  Now, I don’t think it’s a flaw in their characterizations.  It’s simply an amusing irony, which was probably even intended by the writers.  (It reminded me of some high school classmates of mine who were pretty smart, but nonetheless resorted to complicated cheating techniques that were simultaneously impressive and hilariously needless.)

The story is immersive, polished, and profound.  It thoughtfully tackles a couple of relevant social and ethical themes, like disparity in opportunities due to class inequality; pressure arising from school, family expectations, and peers; and the institutionalization of corruption.  And in their handling, there’s a balance of cynicism and optimistic idealism.  Most importantly, though there’s thrill and fun to be had from the planning and execution of the cheating scheme, it doesn’t necessarily celebrate cheating.  There’s a legitimate sobering lesson to be had in the end.  And that is, no matter how you rationalize it, and even if you get away with it, cheating always comes with a damaging, high cost.

Bad Genius is virtually perfect.  If it had been up to me, there are some tweaks I would have made in the script.  There are some parts I wished had been stressed upon or expounded a bit more.  But this doesn’t mean the movie has shortcomings that need to be fixed.  Any hypothetical changes I would make are simply out of my personal preference.

I found no flaws in the film per se.  However, I have a huge problem with its trailer, which already spelled out the main plot points.  I basically knew what the movie was going to be about.  Gone was the surprise.  I definitely would have enjoyed the movie more if I hadn’t seen the trailer.

So if you somehow had the good fortune of not seeing the trailer yet, don’t anymore!  Proceed to watch the movie immediately.

Bad Genius is definitely the best Thai film I’ve ever seen.  However, to be honest, I've only seen a handful – mostly Ong Bak films – so I don’t have much of Thai cinema to compare it with.  But even so, I have a strong gut feeling that it is one of Thailand’s all-time best films, if not the best.  At the very least, it could be the most worthwhile.