Asia's biggest international movie, Bad Genius, finally hits Philippine cinemas this week. Directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya and based on true events, the film follows a straight-A student who plans an exam-cheating scheme which eventually rises to international levels. It stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying in her acting debut, Chanon Santinatornkul, Teeradon Supapunpinyo and Eisaya Hosuwan.
The film has been hailed the #1 highest-grossing Asian film in Cambodia, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, and has received critical and commercial success during their screenings at different film festivals around the globe. Two stars — Teeradon Supapunpinyo who plays Pat and Chanon Santinatornkul who plays Bank — were in Manila last weekend to promote the movie and attend the premiere night at Robinsons Movieworld Galleria.
At a round table interview, we got to talk to two stars of the movie, Teeradon and Chanon who shared a few details about the much-talked about Asian film:
Question: If you had to change anything in the movie, which scene would it be?
Chanon Santinatornkul (Non): I would say I wouldn’t want to change it but I would like to have two endings. First ending would be this ending and the second ending would be another thing but I don’t want to say anything because I might spoil it.
Teeradon Supapunpinyo (James): I don’t want to change anything because I think it’s already as good as it is.
Question: Are you scared that the people who will watch your movie will learn how to cheat?
Non: No, not at all. We’ve already showed it in the movie that it’s too hard to cheat; even teachers watch the movie so they would know. We don’t encourage them to cheat but show them that if you do it, you must be prepared to face the consequences.
If you could portray another character in the movie besides your own character, who would you choose to play?
Non: I would like to try Lynn because she’s smart and to tell you the truth, she’s the leading character so I would like to experience the pressure of being the lead because if you’re not good enough, you can’t carry the whole movie.
James: Lynn because I want to be as clever as her.
I haven’t seen the movie yet so I don’t know what happens but do you think the movie deserves a sequel?
Non: I would love to but I really can’t answer this question but we don’t know because the person who has the authority for this is the director. But I would definitely want to have a part two.
James: I don’t want a sequel. One is enough because, sometimes, when you make the first film good and when you try to create a sequel, people don’t like it as much.
If you weren’t actors right now, what do you think would you be doing?
Non: I’m still a student right now and I’d still want to be acting after I'm done with school because it's what I really want.
James: Maybe I’ll start my own business. A restaurant or a hotel!
Do you have any future projects that we should look forward to?
James: YES! We are in the same project right now. It’s called Project S; S for sports.
Non: It’s a tv series focused on sports: volleyball, badminton, skateboard and archery.
James: You can actually watch it on YouTube! I hope you can support us on this.
Bad Genius opens in cinemas on October 18, 2017 and is distributed by Silverline Multimedia. For more info, you may like their Facebook or follow #BadGeniusMoviePH.