One of the most significant trials teenagers in the United States go through are college entrance exams. I don’t know about you, but I still remember my teenage self sweating while trying to get through all the sections of the SAT — and to top it off, my period came out of the blue! That’s all to say I didn’t make it to the subject tests that day.
Some would say that these exams have all the makings of a thriller, and by some, I mean J.C. Lee, director of “Bad Genius.” The film is an American remake of a 2017 Thai film by the same name and largely follows the same plot. Lynn (Callina Liang) is a scholarship student at a prestigious college preparatory school. Her father Meng (Benedict Wong) owns a laundromat and works day and night to afford the opportunities his brilliant daughter deserves. When Lynn gets propositioned to pull off an exam cheating scheme, her ingenious nature comes into play and the film becomes almost heist-like.
Mochi Magazine talked to Lee, Liang, and Wong about the high-stakes high school thriller. Beyond the will-they-won’t-they-get-away-with-it plotting and action scenes, placing “Bad Genius” within the American education system where students with privilege seem to skate by, while scholarship students like Lynn and her Black peer Bank (Jabari Banks) face one hurdle after another makes this film feel more political than the original.
Lee states that he was looking to adapt the film he loved for an American audience and honor its original genius. “For me, whatever people take away in terms of political messaging, I love to leave that for an audience to discover on their own. I never want to be someone who’s saying ‘I’m telling a story, and I really hope that you agree with my point of view by the end of the film,” he says. “What I hope to do whenever I tell a story is to create a space for people to have conversations.”
Taking Risks for Your American…
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