(This article was originally produced by Sir Films: dushetv)
Didn't expect it, didn't expect it.
A new film after the National Day is actually more surprising than the National Day file.
Although the National Day file is lively, before the blockbuster tide led by "Blade Runner 2049" at the end of the month, there are few new films, and it seems that there is autumn.
However, the blockbuster is absent, fortunately there are batches to make up.
(Note: The so-called batch of films is a film in which domestic film manufacturers buy back the screening rights from abroad at a fixed price and bear their own profits and losses)
Don't underestimate the batch film, compared to the much-anticipated blockbuster, the batch film is often more able to bring you the surprise of the world.
Remember being incited by "A Dog's Mission" and being incited by "WrestleMania! Daddy", the feeling of being startled by "The Invisible Guest"?
Well, this month, there is another small language high-resolution film waiting for you -
The Talented Gunner
That's right, a poor film that looks like a small fresh temperament.
The production cost is low, equivalent to less than 12 million yuan, which also includes the money for Australia's exterior...
But! People spend less money, but they make a feeling of commercial genre films.
This is still a youth film, but it actually... Don't fall in love.
Director Nathawu Pemperia, the second time to direct a feature film after the 80s, he broke the Thai school youth film selling cute and rotten routine - do not talk about love, talk about exams.
The "gunner" in the title, you know, is the person who cheated on the exam.
And it seems that the movie trailer also has a hint forbidden for teachers to watch.
Playing small copies, feeding answers, this file, presumably many people have done it in school... Cheating, and afraid of being discovered, don't cheat, what about the duck egg?
Therefore, this poor film has captured the tangled campus memories of many audiences, filmed the process of fighting wits and courage with the invigilator, and filmed the seemingly calm examination room with a sense of stormy blockbusters.
In a word, the static exam was made into a dynamic martial arts film by it!
Let's see how the director did it—
Reminder: The following contains some spoilers, please read with caution!
As soon as the movie starts, it's an interrogation, and the suspense is laid out:
Is there cheating? And, will cheating eventually be exposed?
According to the order of interrogation, the characters appear in turn.
What kind of actors is this?
...... It's all fresh meat flowers without box office appeal, but it's not just the value of the line.
Xiao Lin (Judimun Joan Charong Suyin), the legendary all-round bully.
She transferred to an aristocratic school, and the certificate of merit and transcript seemed to be the least necessary to cheat.
Remember this plain face, not the traditional standard of beauty, but the personality to never forget.
Judith was originally a model, and usually looks like this—
Grace (Isaya He Suwang), on the contrary, a high-value scum, a school drama club celebrity, can also shoot advertisements outside the school.
Because of the kind gesture when taking the entrance photo, she and Xiaolin became girlfriends.
The big exam is approaching, and the results will directly affect whether she can continue to participate in the drama club performance, so Grace asks Xiaolin for help.
Xiao Lin was dragged into the water... With a piece of eraser full of multiple-choice answers, a good girlfriend is completed.
This exam is very much like a martial arts movie—
The passing of the eraser, the coughing and purring of the teacher, the kicking of the leather shoes... Dozens of seconds of small things, filming is as exciting as the decisive battle at the top of the Forbidden Purple.
However, after the exam, it was out of control, and Grace's boyfriend Xiaoba (Pinajo Supan Pingyou) also came to ask for help.
Can't brush your face like Grace, so swipe your card:
Each exam is 3,000 baht (already calculated for you, equivalent to RMB 600), and 13 exams per semester.
Since there are still a bunch of scum in the class to join, then Xiao Lin counts...
Mommy! Earn 234,000 baht in one semester!
In this way, the poor child Xiaolin found a good business before graduating.
Her "gunner" skills have also been successfully upgraded, starting the second stage, turning single-player cheating into collective cheating.
This time I thought of the trick, only called a must:
In the name of the piano tuition class, the fingering of four international famous songs is used as a code, representing the four options of ABCD, and after the students remember, as long as they look at her hand in the examination room, everything will be fine.
Honestly, this method may not be the best (you must have a unique skill when you read it), but it is better than having a sense of rhythm, which is very suitable for film presentation.
This cheating scene has become even better-
Fingering rhythm, mirror rhythm, editing rhythm, with the flow of clouds.
If you pay a little attention, you will find that the camera in the examination room is almost all dynamic, either the camera is moving, or the main body of the picture is moving, turning the pen body, pressing out the pen head, separating the test paper, moving the chair, running the clock... Such small details are given a coordinated rhythm.
At the moment, you certainly don't think much about cheating right or wrong, only to be excited about their smooth delivery of the code (in some places even with telegraph sound effects).
however......
There are no impermeable walls. As Xiao Lin's reputation grew, variables came.
During a big exam, Geng's school bully Banks (Chanon Sanding Tenggu) senses that something is wrong, reports a certain scum, and also implicates Xiaolin, exposing this secret business.
Xiaolin thus lost the opportunity to study abroad, and the beneficiaries... It was Banks.
From here, simple campus life deteriorates.
Good classmates have become opponents, even enemies, and everyone's respective goals in life are slowly becoming clear...
The drama is finally staged - a heavyweight STIC international exam, which leads to the film's most attractive international cheating case.
The purpose of these scumbags is not only to pass the exam, but also to win huge sums of money.
This fire of cheating will go out of this small school in Thailand and burn the world.
(Note: STIC does not exist, the prototype is the SAT International Examination, a reference score for applying for studying in the United States.) ）
The Genius Gunner was inspired by the 2014 SAT cheating incident in Asia.
At that time, some people took advantage of the time difference, resulting in large-scale test question leakage, the official postponement of the release and cancellation of some results, and tens of thousands of test takers were affected by China, Japan, Hankook.
The film takes this big event as the background and tightly binds the fate of four students from different classes together:
Minibus, the second generation of the rich, the family hopes that he can go abroad for further study and take over the family business;
Grace, the girlfriend of the minibus, is also his accompanying student to Boston, and both are worried about not being able to pass the exam;
Xiao Lin, the daughter of a poor teacher, if she can successfully cheat for everyone, then she can go abroad and earn the cost of studying abroad;
Banks, who is supposed to be the poorest bully in the class, has a mother who washes people for a living. Because he missed the exam abroad, resulting in the failure of the full study abroad, he was reluctant to join the cheating battle.
Hearing about their battle plans, you're sure to be dumbfounded.
Because it is not a small fuss in the front, but a precise calculation of the time difference, tools, and various details. Just send you a picture, and you'll know it's powerful—
Not only is it well planned, but in the second half of the film, the director also creates a thrilling atmosphere through cross-editing between Australia and Thailand.
In Sydney's subway station, Xiaolin must avoid the "pursuit" of the invigilator, but also recall the answer she just memorized.
In Thailand's printing plants, scum anxiously wait for sms answers, while also struggling to cope with the sudden search for Lin's father, emotionally out of control cheating candidates, lost work lost motorcycle drivers...
That's all spoilers.
Wonderful positive film, wait for you to see.
Speaking of the surprise brought by "Genius Gunner", in Sir's opinion, it is not only a simple cheat, which is wonderfully exciting.
Rather, despite the pediatric behavior of young people, it points to some big social problems that are enough to plague adults.
We also have these problems in the world.
Most superficially, the inequality of money.
Xiao Lin did not want to cheat, but the high fees of the school made her feel that there was nothing wrong with earning money to supplement her family.
So even if the cheating was discovered by the principal, Xiaolin was not ashamed, but angrily questioned:
I don't think I'm the only one who uses school to make money!
This leads to a critique of the education system.
Schools collect money to educate people, but they can't treat them equally, rich students can buy answers, but poor students can only suffer.
The school accepts Xiaolin free of tuition, not out of consideration for honor students, but for the golden sign of admissions advertising.
Not to mention that even if the tuition fee is waived, there is also a sponsorship fee of 200,000 yuan... It is extremely difficult for families like Xiaolin and Bank to cope with.
So the deepest part of what this film means is obviously—
A class divide that is difficult to break.
As we all know, in this era, for children from ordinary families, the cost of education is becoming more and more expensive; opportunities are becoming more and more rare.
Xiao Lin's father is a teacher and the family is poor. My father hadn't worn a new shirt in years, and it was so long that he was talked about.
Forced by high tuition fees, my father even considered selling the piano to supplement the family.
The first time she was invited by the minibus and Grace to play, Xiaolin stood in the luxurious pool, watching the cart with champagne passing by, and her eyes longed.
In the film, the director also gave her a mirror lens more than once, whether it is the opening interrogation, or in the lobby of the luxury hotel, Xiaolin's constantly refracting figure hints at her anxiety about the positioning of life.
She had believed that studying hard would change her destiny.
But she gradually discovered that her modest efforts may never catch up with the rich.
The film is ostensibly inspirational.
For example, Xiaolin's yellow T-shirt is printed with the positive words "make it happen" on the back.
But looking down, it seems to say that even if it is depraved, I have no intention of turning back.
More than that, printed T-shirts are often used to map students' psychology:
For example, when the printing house plans to cheat, Xiaolin's T-shirt is printed with "heartbreak highway", suggesting that the long journey does not seem to be successful.
After Banks joined, the T-shirt was printed with "Boston," revealing his expectations for studying in Boston.
As mentioned earlier, Banks came from an embarrassing single-parent family, and his mother ran a laundromat, and the equipment often failed, often having to be hand washed.
In addition to studying, Banks also has to deliver part-time. His identity and style make him incompatible with his rich classmates, and he will even be violently bullied.
Still, he studied seriously, despised cheating, and followed discipline and rules.
Until Xiao Lin used cold words to puncture his fantasy:
Even if you don't cheat
Life still deceives you
Yes, the cheating in the film is not simply out of classmate friendship or financial obsession.
For poor children like Little Lynn and Banks:
It is not difficult to pass the international exam.
But if they want to get the opportunity and cost of studying abroad, they must cheat.
It is not difficult to find a job after graduation.
But only by going abroad for further study is their passport to truly change their destiny and change their social class.
Speaking of which, it is already admirable to the director.
But the director didn't stop there —
Unfortunately, in this game of changing her destiny, Xiaolin has always thought that she is the controller, but she does not realize that she is a tool used by the rich class.
From the moment Bob and Grace rejoice in passing the exam...
The class labels that were once unclear when they were also students became clearer after entering society.
She and them, poor children and rich children after graduation, will henceforth be like passers-by.
No, it is conceivable that although life is divided, rich children will be used in the future:
Since you are so good, why don't you come to work for my father's company?
Therefore, this film is inspirational on the surface, but in fact, it reveals an unsolvable tragedy.
Xiaolin and Bank's ending is not the same. One sublimates, one falls, but if you think about it, they are all losers.
Choosing to cheat, becoming the beneficiary of lies, may get rich or go to jail. The point is that the rich will eventually be enslaved.
Choose not to cheat, be a person of integrity, then from now on, there will only be poverty as a companion.
Film slogan: "We have the final say in this world. ”
But in the end, I found out that it was precisely:
No, nothing you do doesn't count.
The picture in this article comes from the network
Editorial Assistant: A mermaid eating in the water
Sir Movie Original, WeChat ID: dushetv
WeChat search follows: Sir Movie