Recently premiering in Locarno, Thai filmmaker Sorayos Prapapan's debut feature “Arnold is a Model Student” is a very interesting narrative amalgam, as it combines his own experiences from attending school (there is even a scene with a same named student repeating the multiplication element as a punishment inside a teacher's office) with the recent Bad Student movement, and an approach that moves more towards the comedy/satire despite the dramatic basis of the story.
“Arnold is a Model Student“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
The titular Arnold is a student in the last class of high school, who stands out not just for his shaved hair, but also for having studied in the US for a year and winning a gold medal at the Mathematics Olympiad, something that has deemed him a model student in the eyes of the school administration. His treatment as a star does not only extend to the faculty, but also to people outside school, with Mr Bee, an owner of a cram school, initially paying him to appear in an advertisement falsely stating that Arnold studied in his school, and later on asking him to take part to a sham he has been running for years, of bright students helping weaker, but rich ones, to cheat in the military entrance exams.
The only one who seems not to respect Arnold is Mrs Wanee, the “whip” of the school, a rather strict and old-fashioned teacher who is in charge of imposing discipline to the students, from the way they dress, to the way they act. Her behavior and the punishment he administers to three students with her whip, kickstart a protest in school, started by the female students, who seem to be the ones most pinned down by the rules of the patriarchy in their school, and the whole country in essence. In the meantime, Arnold is trying to find out where he fits.
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In an interview I had some years ago with Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, Jennis Oprasert and Soros Sukhum, director, protagonist and producer of “Where we Belong”, they all mentioned the issues with Thai education, also highlighting it as the reason so many people want to study abroad. Sorayos Prapapan gives a more thorough look to the same concept, by highlighting not just the lack of good teachers, but also a rather unfair, violently strict, corrupt and obsolete system, all students seem to suffer from. The ridiculous rules about bowing and specific kind of colors the students wear, even regarding their masks, a number of classes that seem to have no point at all, even more so for the way they are taught, how the star students get promoted as much as the rich ones, frequently to the expense of the rest, are all showcased in all their glory here, fully justifying the Bad Student movement.
The way Prapapan uses Arnold and his classmates to highlight the consequences of the aforementioned issues, and Mr Bee and Mrs Wanee to show how the system works, is one of the best aspects of the movie, also benefiting the most by the naturalistic acting of Korndanai Marc Dautzenberg as Arnold, Winyu Wongsurawat as Mr Bee and Niramon Busapavanich as Mrs Wanee, with the last one being the one who actually steals the show with her flamboyant performance. Also of note here is the lack of any key parent figures, with Prapapan essentially noting how parents seem to have no clue what is happening to their children inside their schools.
The approach the director implements here is a light one overall, which extends to DP Tech Siang Lim's rather polished approach, also including quite bright lighting for the most part, in a style that frequently points towards a TV production. The director's decision to keep the film light, however, is not exactly ideal, since it strips it from the impact it could have if the events were presented in a more dramatic tone, and if the music, which is scarce anyway, would be better implemented throughout the movie. The acting also seems to follow the same path, which only finds relief by the actual footage of people protesting and the movement that is started by the girls in the school, who do not become a factor, though, before the last part. Furthermore, his view on the events seem quite detached, while he has also fallen in one of the most common issues for first time directors, of including too many episodes in an 83 minute movie, again stripping most of them of their potential impact.
“Arnold is a Model Student” is not a bad movie, and the presentation of the educational issues Thailand faces is thorough, as it is intriguing. A different, more dramatic approach, however, would definitely benefit the source material, allowing the movie to rise to a much higher level than it is now.
