When mainland youth films are still using the same model to sigh in derailment, abortion, car accidents, and love triangles, "Genius Gunner" typifies "Youth Campus Films" from a brand-new and alternative perspective. It was a bold subversion, and it set off a wave of movie viewing frenzy in pan-Asia. As the most talked-about Thai film in 2017, "The Genius Gunner" is not only the annual box office champion in Thailand, but also successfully broke the box office records of Thai films in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and other regions.
Type Hybrid Triumph
Director Natav Pempiria has only directed one horror feature film and two romance shorts before. As we all know, romantic comedies and horror films have always been the more mature film types in Thailand. In "Genius Gunner", the director has skillfully integrated the youthful comedy elements of Thai love movies and the suspenseful and thrilling atmosphere of horror movies. Especially the exam cheating scene in the film, the director's sharp editing and excellent rhythm control make the cheating scene smooth, complex and organized, and the thrilling look is better than most gangster films in recent years. And nothing less.
There is no excessive use of the soundtrack, but a large number of ambient sounds are used to set off the tense atmosphere, such as the teacher's footsteps, the sound of the clock hands turning, and the tense breathing of the students, all used by the director to create a tense and thrilling atmosphere. The thrill is also felt by the audience. And a lot of oppressive close-ups and the actors' excellent performances make the audience more perfect to bring themselves into the characters. Especially in the last cross-sea crime, the director used cross-montage to explain the development of events in Thailand and Australia through cross-editing. During this period, there were also motorcyclists' strikes, students' noise and the sudden appearance of Lynn's father. The incident makes the plot even more twisted and exciting. And the tension caused by Lynn's subway chase scene in Australia at the end reminds me of Brian De Palma's masterpiece "Dawn of the Owl".
The cheating method in the film is also very cleverly designed. The gesture of playing the piano is used to transmit information, and the answer is hidden in the barcode. And the three key cheating scenes are constantly escalating in terms of the pattern and the difficulty and method of cheating. From ordinary exams to the international exams to the international exam STIC, the number of cheaters has changed from one person to the entire class and finally to cheating across the sea, using Hollywood The way the spy film is filmed to show cheating is amazing.
Dramatic flaws limit thematic expression
Regrettably, the textual flaws make it difficult to achieve a higher level of completion on the "Genius Gunners" play. The most criticized part of the film is the very hasty ending. When the audience has established an emotional connection with the protagonist, the two protagonists suddenly undergo a huge transformation, which makes many audiences instinctively unacceptable. The reason for this is to a large extent that the script lacks an effective foreshadowing of the motives of the two protagonists, and the hasty understanding of the fate of the characters is reasonable but unreasonable. On the other hand, after the cross-sea cheating reached its climax, the development of the story gradually went out of control, and the chaotic sense of rhythm made the influence of the cross-sea cheating on the protagonists not greatly demonstrated, only a simple and one-sided explanation, so that This creates a disconnect between the audience and the characters.
Another shortcoming of the play lies in the shaping of the supporting characters. The film focuses a lot of writing on the male and female protagonists, but sacrifices the supporting characters, resulting in the characters of the rich second generation represented by the male and female characters being too flat. , and this approach also causes them to become absent at the end, unable to effectively promote the development of the ending. Of course, it is understandable that the 130-minute movie time limit makes the director not have enough space to show more psychological changes of the characters after the climax, which also makes the ending too far-fetched, and ultimately leads to the movie being too much in the expression and sublimation of the theme. stiff.
The cruel reality behind the "mold"
You can see my school grades, I don't need to cheat.
Compared with "Genius Gunner", I prefer the Taiwanese translation of this movie "Mold Cultivator". And Lynn, the protagonist of the movie, has gradually become a "model student" from a model student in everyone's eyes. She is excellent in both character and study. It is impossible for her to have no judgment when facing cheating. However, in the face of money and morality, she chose money. And it's not just because of the family's situation, but also because of what she saw and heard after entering the new school that changed her values. The math teacher violated regulations by conducting private tutoring and leaking exam questions to his friend Grace. The principal secretly collected 200,000 "contribution money" from parents, and even called it a donation to the school. The father even needed to sell a car to raise money. The teacher's sanctimonious appearance, the principal's taking the opportunity to accumulate money, and the school's hypocrisy made her disappointed with everything around her, but also distorted her values of money and morality. She no longer believed that "the school is a place to learn, not to make money." place" .
The male protagonist Bank, who was also born in a poor family, originally hated Lynn's cheating behavior and did not want to get involved, but in the end he had to take the risk because he missed the scholarship to study abroad. The deformity of the education system and the insurmountable social class made Lynn and Bank understand that money is the only way to achieve class leap. There are three scenes of Lynn beside the mirror at the beginning, middle and end of the movie. The countless Lynn in "Mirror Abyss" seems to let people see her inner struggle on the edge of good and evil. The continuous expansion of the three cheating scenes also implies that they are sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of cheating.
People like us want to do well.
Contrary to Lynn and Bank, the wealthy second-generations headed by Grace and Pet maintain their survival in prestigious schools by paying donations to schools and privately spending a lot of money to find teachers for tutoring. And the principle of the supremacy of marks also forces them with poor academic performance to find ways to get higher marks, and even use wealth to lure others to be gunmen. In addition to the deformed education status quo, parents are also responsible for their path to cheating. Lynn's father transferred school for her daughter regardless of her feelings for her grades, and raised money to buy a car for her daughter's study. And Pet's parents lured him with rewards such as luxury cars and set him unrealistic goals such as studying abroad, which virtually increased their learning burden.
Scholars run schools for the sake of money, fame and fortune, but they don’t pay attention to preaching, teaching, and solving doubts. Scholars only focus on grades and scores, but have no intention of mastering new knowledge. It is ironic that "Genius Gunner" was adapted from the 2014 incident of mainland Chinese candidates cheating on the SAT test in the United States. 10 mainland candidates from the same training institution were found to be cheating collectively in the testing room in Thailand, and they had the correct test questions of the day on their mobile phones. The answer, the training institute uses the time difference between Australia and Thailand to provide answers to cheaters as shown in the movie. In addition to the SAT, mainland candidates have also been collectively cancelled for cheating in the IELTS test. Therefore, in a sense, the film's criticism of Thailand's education system and class differences is more applicable to the mainland where exam cheating is more rampant and is also dominated by higher education. Should we, who have grown up under exam-oriented education, reflect more?
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