Borrowing from Thailand’s Bad Student movement, this irreverent comedy is at once satire, a coming-of-age story, and manifesto for a frustrated generation.
Arnold becomes the school darling after emerging champion at a math Olympiad. His success attracts a shady tuition centre owner who invites him to join an exam cheating racket. Meanwhile, trouble brews on campus when a disciplinary incident propels a group of students into action.
Since 2020, Thailand’s students have been standing up to their schools, inspiring Sorayos to take on the institution and its banal, baffling workings. In Arnold, schools are a source of muted exasperation, other times the butt of a good joke or, as a student declares, “our first dictatorship”. With a storytelling style that marches to the beat of a country’s defiant changemakers, the comedic drama reveals a deep agitation and solidarity.
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