Poonpiriya himself is an aficionado of Hollywood thrillers from the 1970s and the film is taut and tense with nail biting moments. In this it is typical of new trends in Thai cinema which treat contemporary issues from different angles, through a variety of genres. But generically it is a heist thriller.īad Genius is topical and deals with endemic cheating in Thai education. Bad Genius is topical and deals with endemic cheating in Thai education.
At the same time Thailand’s production and post-production companies offer state of the art services to an increasing number of international films, television series, commercials and video games. Traditional genres such as epics, melodramas and horror films, which has always been a staple of Thai cinema, have given way to independent cinema.
Thai cinema today is one of the fastest growing and most internationally renowned film industries in the region, not just in terms of creativity but also as business. Nattawut Poonpiriya, the director, is very young himself, only 35-years-old. Bad Genius was produced by GDH 559, an independent production company. It expresses the increasingly global sensibility of Thai generations born after Thailand became an upper-middle income economy. It is the highest grossing Thai film on the international market so far and it won the award for Best Film at the New York Asian Film Festival in 2017. Bad Genius (Chalard Game Goeng), released in 2017, is a milestone in new Thai cinema.