Bad Genius

Bad Genius
Thai theatrical poster
Directed by	Nattawut Poonpiriya
Produced by	Jira Maligool Chenchonnee Suntornsantool Vanridee Pongsittisak Suvimon Techasupinan Weerachai Yaigwawong
Written by	Nattawut Poonpiriya Tanida Hantaweewatana Vasudhorn Piyaromna
Starring	Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying Chanon Santinatornkul Teeradon Supapunpinyo Eisaya Hosuwan
Music by	Hualumpong Riddim
Edited by	Chonlasit Upanikkit
Production company	Jor Kwang Films
Distributed by	GDH 559
Release date	3 May 2017 (2017-05-03) (Thailand)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	Thailand
Language	Thai

Bad Genius, known in Thai as Chalard Games Goeng (ฉลาดเกมส์โกง, rtgs: Chalat Kem Kong),^{[lower-alpha 1]} is a 2017 Thai heist thriller film produced by Jor Kwang Films and released by GDH 559. It was directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya, and stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying in her acting debut as Lynn, a straight-A student who devises an exams-cheating scheme which eventually rises to international levels.

Inspired by real-life news of students cheating on the SAT, the film transplants the heist film structure to a school-exams setting, and features themes of class inequality as well as teen social issues. The young main cast consist of relative newcomers Chanon Santinatornkul, Teeradon Supapunpinyo and Eisaya Hosuwan as Lynn's classmates Bank, Pat and Grace, while Thaneth Warakulnukroh plays her father. Filming took place on location in Thailand and Australia.

Bad Genius was released on 3 May 2017 to critical acclaim, placing first at the Thai box office for two weeks and earning over 100 million baht, making it the highest-grossing Thai film of 2017 so far. The film has been screened at several international festivals, earning praise for its engaging storytelling despite the mundane setting, as well as the acting, especially Chutimon's. It has won multiple awards, including Best Feature at the New York Asian Film Festival and Best Director at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Plot

Lynn, a straight-A secondary school student living with her father, is accepted into a prestigious school, earning a scholarship for her academic achievements. There, she befriends the good-natured but academically challenged Grace. Lynn begins helping Grace cheat in exams after finding out that their teacher has been leaking questions in private tutoring sessions. She is then approached by Grace's rich boyfriend Pat, who offers payment in exchange for also helping him and his friends. Although at first reluctant, Lynn agrees when she finds out that the school took payments of "tea money" from her father, who earns a modest income as a teacher. She devises a system of hand signals, based on certain piano pieces, and uses them to send answers during exams. Her base of clients eventually grows; however, her cheating is inadvertently revealed by Bank, another top student. She is reprimanded by her father and the school, which suspends her scholarship, as well as her chance to apply for an international scholarship at the university level.

Lynn is brought back into the cycle when Pat and Grace ask her to help them cheat in the STIC—an international standardised test for university admissions. Pat will recruit enough clients to earn them millions of baht from the scheme, which involves Lynn flying to Australia in order to get a head start on the exams—which are held globally on the same day—and send back answers. However, Lynn tells them that she can only do it with Bank's help, and Bank would never consider such dishonesty. Incidentally, though, Bank—who is from a poor family and is staking his future on the same university scholarship—is attacked by thugs in the street, and misses the exam. Lynn approaches him with the offer, and Bank reluctantly agrees.

Together, they make preparations for the final operation. Lynn and Bank will memorise the answers to the test and send them via text message during each break session, using phones hidden in the toilets. Pat and Grace will then print the answers on fake bar codes, attach them to pencils, and distribute them to the clients before sending them off to their test centres. However, on the eve of their flight, Pat lets slip that it was he who ordered the thugs to beat up Bank, forcing him to join their scheme. Enraged, Bank attacks Pat and leaves, and Lynn, shocked at the revelation, begins rethinking her actions. However, Bank returns to confront Lynn, telling her to take responsibility for the situation and finish what she started.

Lynn and Bank's relationship further develops as they fly to Sydney. On the day of the STIC, they complete the first sections of the test according to plan, but Bank is overcome by anxiety and is caught. Lynn struggles to memorise the final section herself, but pulls through by imagining the choices as musical notes. She is pursued by the test administrator after feigning illness and leaving the test centre early, but is released when Bank tells the staff he doesn't know her.

Returning home, Lynn finds that their scheme was great a success, but, broken by the experience, turns her back on her co-conspirators. Some time later, she visits Bank, who has invested his share in revamping his mother's laundry business. Bank, now changed, invites Lynn to start a new, different scheme. She turns him down, telling him that she's made her choice. Lynn finally decides to come clean, tearfully confessing to her father, who comforts her and helps her redeem herself by submitting a formal confession to the STIC organisation.

Production

Development

Bad Genius was produced by Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak, executives and veteran producers at GDH (previously GTH). Jira came up with the film's premise when he heard on the news that SAT scores were being cancelled in China due to a cheating scandal. The producers then invited Nattawut Poonpiriya to direct the film. Nattawut had previously directed the company's 2012 thriller Countdown, and the producers believed his abilities would lend itself to developing Bad Genius as a heist film. Nattawut was immediately intrigued, and agreed to direct the project, which was developed under the working title "2B Come Won" (a reference to the 2B pencils used to fill in test choices).^[1]

Nattawut wrote the script together with Tanida Hantaweewatana and Vasudhorn Piyaromna, researching the format details of current standardised tests as well as actual methods of exam cheating seen in the news.^[2] The script took about  1 ¹⁄₂ years to complete.^[3] The story was developed as a Hollywood-style heist/caper thriller, but the writers made efforts to ground it in a context that would still be relatable to a Thai audience.^[4] A major challenge, according to Nattawut, was telling the story of students taking exams—"perhaps the most boring activity on earth"—in a compelling manner.^[2] The film's secondary theme, that of the characters' contrasting social backgrounds, emerged during the writing process.^[1]

Casting

Actors Chanon, Chutimon and Teeradon at the EmQuartier Fierce Fashion event on 31 May

The film's main cast is relatively inexperienced—none of the four young main actors had prior film roles in productions by a major studio before 2017. Lead actress Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, who plays Lynn, is a fashion model making her acting debut. Chanon Santinatornkul plays the role of Bank, and Pat and Grace are played by Teeradon Supapunpinyo and Eisaya Hosuwan, respectively. According to Nattawut, casting for the four main actors took a long time before arriving at the four final choices, who were virtually perfect fits for their roles.^[5] He was so impressed with their work that he allowed them considerable room for improvisation during filming.^[6] The chemistry underlying Lynn and Bank's relationship, for example, was unscripted,^[3] and part of Pat's sales pitch speech was ad-libbed by Teeradon.^[5]

The only veteran actor in a major role is Thaneth Warakulnukroh, who plays Lynn's father. Primarily a singer and songwriter, Thaneth had been absent from acting for over thirty years when Nattawut came across a magazine interview of him, and invited him to cast for the role.^[7] Thaneth brought a special warmth to the character, leading Nattawut to modify the script and make the father less controlling, resulting in a more profound father-daughter relationship.^[8]

The actors underwent acting workshops for a couple of months before filming commenced. Romchat Tanalappipat served as acting coach, and worked with the actors before and during filming.^[9] Special preparations by the actors include Chutimon having to practice writing with her left hand, as her character is left-handed, and Chanon memorising the value of pi to over the 30th digit.^[10][11]

Filming

Redfern railway station was the location for a particularly challenging scene.

Most of the filming took place in Thailand, while about 30 percent was shot on location in Sydney, Australia.^[12] About ten crew members flew to Australia from Thailand, while most of the Sydney filming unit was sourced locally. Filming in Sydney was subject to many more restrictions than in Thailand, including strictly limited shooting times.^[5] A particularly challenging scene to film was a chase scene which took place at the underground Redfern railway station, which had to be fitted into the trains' normal running schedule.^[13]

Stylistically, Nattawut says he was inspired partly by 1970s thrillers such as The Conversation, The Parallax View and All the President's Men, leading him to mix in a certain '70s retro/vintage style in Bad Genius.^[14] Stills from The Godfather were used as a colour palette reference during post-production work done with Kantana Post Production.^[15] Nattawut also used 2011's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as a reference.^[8]

The film was officially announced by GDH at a press event on 20 April 2017, along with the release of the song "Mong Chan Tee" (มองฉันที, rtgs: Mong Chan Thi, translating as "Look at Me") which accompanies the film. Performed by "Image" Suthita Chanachaisuwan, the song is a rearrangement of the song "Why Can't You See" by Thai indie pop band Fwends, with new lyrics by "Stamp" Apiwat Eurthavornsuk.^[7]

Release and reception

Release

Director Nattawut in a promotional video for the film's Taiwan release

Bad Genius premiered in Thailand on 3 May 2017 at 20:00 (a special early release, as normally films are released in Thailand on Thursdays). It earned 44.15 million baht at the box office over its opening weekend, and placed first in Thailand's box office for two consecutive weeks.^[16][17] It passed 100 million baht—a common benchmark for a successful Thai film—on 20 May, and by the end of its theatrical run on 14 June, had earned 112.15 million baht ($3.3 million), making it the highest-grossing Thai film so far of 2017.^[18]

Bad Genius was screened as the opening feature of the 16th New York Asian Film Festival on 30 June 2017; it was the first Southeast Asian film to be chosen to open the event.^[19] The film was also screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada and the New Zealand International Film Festival, both of where it sold out and received encore screenings, and will be shown at the Fukuoka International Film Festival in September.^[20][21][22] The film is being released internationally in several Asian countries, including Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.^[23]

A limited edition DVD was announced on 31 July and will be released in Thailand on 21 September.^[24]

Critical response

The film was met with critical acclaim in Thailand, and was also well received internationally. Critics praised the film's concept and design, which tackled a familiar, mundane subject and turned it into an exciting caper thriller—something never before seen in Thai cinema. Chutimon and Thaneth in particular were commended for their portrayals of Lynn and her father. Praise was also given to the editing and the script—many noted the film's subtle critique of Thai society's inequality issues and problems with its education system—although some found fault with the ending and the somewhat far-fetched plot. Most agreed, however, that despite any flaws, the film succeeded in providing excellent entertainment value.^{[25][26][27][28]}

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on eight reviews, with an average rating of 9/10.^[29] Kong Rithdee, writing for the Bangkok Post, observed, "An academic test is the most boring activity on earth. The film's conceit is to turn it into a gladiatorial ring, a place of risk, wit and sublime deception ... and against the odds it works."^[30] Nation TV's Natthapong Okapanom, said (translation), "Bad Genius is a work of craft that will help raise Thai cinema to another level of diversity."^[31] Reviewing the film for The Hollywood Reporter, Clarence Tsui wrote, "Bad Genius scores high marks as a ceaselessly entertaining thriller that cedes little ground to the cheap comedy and sentimentality of recent Thai hits."^[32] And according to Variety's Maggie Lee, "Bad Genius deserves full marks for a whip-smart script that makes answering multiple-choice questions as nail-biting and entertaining as Ocean's Eleven."^[33]

Accolades

Bad Genius won the Best Feature award at the New York Asian Film Festival, and lead actress Chutimon received the festival's Screen International Rising Star Asia award at the film's screening.^[34][35] Competition jury Kristina Winters spoke of the film, "[Bad Genius] re-envisions the heist movie with grades instead of gold and proves that commercial films can still be innovative and remind us why we love movies. With a complex plot, relentless pacing, driven editing, and strong performances, it makes test-taking exciting and had us on the edge of our seats."^[36]

At the Fantasia Film Festival, the film won two jury awards: the Cheval Noir (main competition) Award for Best Director and the Séquences Award for Best Film. It also won gold prize in two Audience Awards, those for Best Asian Feature Film and Most Innovative Feature Film.^[37]

Notes

References

External links

• Official Facebook page
• Bad Genius on IMDb