Alternative Culture: Bad Genius Review

Bank (left) confronts Lynn (right) over her cheating plan.

At the moment I am enjoying Netflix. Netflix had brought to my attention a slew of films I would have otherwise missed out on as they are non-Hollywood or widely advertised in Singapore. I have mainly been watching Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, the Wandering Earth and Modest Heroes. The film I do want to do a theological review today is the 2017 Thai film Bad Genius.

The paper chase

In Asian society, formal education is highly valued. Thus the competition for grades and scholarships is highly intense in Thailand. Seeing a business opportunity, poor Thai student Lynn decides to help her schoolmates cheat using a code system in return for cash. To increase her earnings, she decided to include more clients into her cheating scheme.

Later in the movie, she was engaged to help cheat during the international standardised university test called the  STIC (analogous to the SAT or GRE). Realising she could not come up with a cheating system alone, she decides to recruit Bank (another smart student) into her schemes.

The surest way to hell

Interestingly Lynn, who had prided herself in her intelligent and practical schemes, started to feel increasing guilty as her participation in cheating deepens. On the other hand, Bank who had earlier held fast to his morality, was willing to dive deeper and deeper into cheating.

The movie seems to make the following statement: People who are most sure about their goodness are more likely to fall into the path of evil. Those who recognise their sinfulness are more likely to be take the path of redemption.

Parable of the debtors

I am surprised to see this movie's parallels to the parable of the debtors (Luke 7:40-47):

Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."

He said, "Teacher, say on."

"A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they couldn't pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?"

Simon answered, "He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most."

He said to him, "You have judged correctly." Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

Let's us not take pride in our self-righteousness and remind ourselves that we too have potential for great good or evil.

Alternative Culture: Spectral review

Overcoming the odds

Ever so in history we encounter a black swan event, or an out-of-context problem. The Japanese of World War 2 knew they were outclassed when they faced atomic annihilation. The warmongering New World Aztecs had no counter to the visiting Spanish steel and horses. The medieval Europeans experienced it as when they had their first encounter with Black Death.

No amount of thinking could have prepared them for the disasters that followed. After all, how could you fight a problem that did not even think exists?

That is the premise of the 2015 film Spectral, which I caught on Netflix recently. Military scientist Clyne travels to war-torn Moldova as reports of soldiers dropping dead mysteriously reach him. Using advanced visual equipment, Clyne discovers that the soldiers were being attacked by spirit-like entities called "spectrals". After deducing the composition of the spectrals, Clyne and the remaining soldiers have to come up with a plan to counter the spectrals before they overrun the world.

Analysing the situation

At one point of the film, Clyne argued about the solution to defeating the spectrals. The local villagers believed the spectrals were supernatural entities. The CIA analyst, on the other hand, concludes that the spectrals were a form of advanced camouflagued. Clyne, however suspends judgement till more evidence is gathered. He accurately points out that his counterparts were more interested in solutions rather than actual problem identification, leading the team to implement faulty methods to deal with their new threat.

Later in the film, Clyne notices that the spectrals had human forms yet intangible, could move through walls yet not ceramic, and had no compulsion in killing children yet felt pain. This helped him construct an effective counter against the spectrals.

Unlike how Clyne's counterparts often read their biases into the situation, we Christians must be cautious about interpreting the Bible according to our fancies. I have seen too many a time where my fellow Christians haphazardly apply the Bible verses from Jeremiah and Habakkuk into their lives. Bible verses should be read with little personal bias as possible with much prayer and understanding of context.

Making moral decisions

Late in the movie, Clyne also had to make a decision to end the generation of spectral. Acknowledging his decision was beyond science, he delved into the realm of morality before making his decision.

Similarly, we Christians must acknowledge that we are incapable of making all decisions rationally. Ultimately if we honest with ourselves, there are things beyond the pure reason. Thank God He is charge of everything.

Conclusion

Spectral is a thrilling movie, with predictable plot twists. Do watch it if you have the time.