Cinematic Acculturation Of Nattawut Poonpiriya's Bad Genius: Higher Education Under Neoliberalism As An Educational Catastrophe Depicting Homo Economicus

Abstract

Homo economicus attempts to address this inquiry by finishing up with the assistance of hypothetical conversations and scholarly portrayals. The present investigation examines Nattawut Poonpiriya's Thai heist film Bad Genius through the lens of higher education under neoliberalism, an educational catastrophe. Nattawut Poonpiriya's parody of higher education, Bad Genius, spoofs how higher education under neoliberalism standardizes skeptical personal responsibility as the reality of society and human instinct around economic events. Bad Genius is a thriller cinema released in 2017 that shares many similarities with higher education under neoliberalism. This article investigates the dynamics and narratology of what the research scholar mentions as higher education under neoliberalism using higher education as a theory machine. It argues a case for higher education under neoliberalism with its properties like student debt, commercialization of education, or reduced access to quality education. However, a comparison proves very fruitful since higher education and the movie Bad Genius investigate the extent to which poverty, frustration, hopelessness, and humiliation play a role in the complicated factors that reincarnate humans into homo economicus characters. Higher Education transactions represent a spatial consciousness in which higher education under neoliberalism seeps into exams-cheating schemes, corruption, and revenge.

On the contrary, Bad Genius goes so far as to explain cheating on international standardized tests, crime, and corruption in higher education concerning the transgressions routinely performed by homo economicus as they rise to the top of the cheating racket, startling the world in the instance of the international standardized test scandal for university admissions. Thus, higher education under neoliberalism stimulates relationships with a twist, rewriting the cinematic acculturation to communicate society's advantages and disadvantages. The global civilization continues to prioritize neoliberalism; higher education has become a high-stakes game in the context of higher education under neoliberal policies, often leading to reduced public funding for universities, increased tuition fees, and a market-oriented approach to education where students are becoming customers. Bad Genius is a thrilling and thought-provoking film that combines elements of heist cinema with a social commentary on the education system and the lengths to which some individuals are willing to go to achieve success. The cinema Bad Genius serves as a means of cultural transmission or socialization through cinema, possibly conveying cultural or societal values, including those related to neoliberalism and the pursuit of economic success. Through the power of cinema, we can learn to navigate this world and come out on top.