Young adult films are mostly under-appreciated. But the ever-critical MTC marked it as a ‘must-see film of the year’. And you’ll never believe it. The director of the film is actually familiar to many of you. It was directed by Olivia Wilde, the sexy Olivia Wilde who became famous for her role as ’13’ in ‘Dr. House’. She is both gorgeous and talented.
God is not fair. This is her feature film debut, which she has been working on for many years, “acting but directing”. Most of the youth films today revolve around ‘rebellion’. If you are not rebellious, you are not young. Whether it is the flamboyant Miss Bird, the literary The Boy with the Wallflower, or the understated The Youth Pie. They all tell the story of a protagonist who is at odds with his surroundings and grows up to perfect himself. And The Highly Gifted goes in the opposite direction, setting its protagonists as two schoolboys. Amy, the lace girl. Outgoing, simple-minded and bent on reading only the sage books, she has been accepted to Columbia University. She plans to confess her love to her long-time crush before graduation, followed by a social practice trip to Africa. A very fulfilling holiday schedule too.
Another girl, Molly, has an even brighter resume. President of the student council for many years and with an early offer from Yale University, these two have been best friends for a long time and are known as the school’s academic girlfriends. The two can even communicate in a plastic-flavoured Mandarin Chinese. Not bad for a school bully with all the skill points. Unfortunately, outstanding grades are not linked to popularity. In the eyes of other students, they are pretentious school whores, nerds who refuse all extracurricular activities, and flatterers to their teachers. Strictly speaking, these negative comments are not denigrating. Amy and Molly do despise the students around them and conclude that they are bound to have failed lives. There was a disdain in their faces, a hidden arrogance. But this arrogance will come crashing down as their high school career comes to an end. For according to Murphy’s Law, something extraordinary always happens at the last moment. On graduation day, Molly overheard some dudes making fun of her. The words were hard to hear.
It was the last day anyway, so let’s just tear it up! Molly suppressed her anger and walked up to them. With her usual “I despise you” schoolboy smile of contempt, she put on a high-profile display of her status as a prospective Yale undergraduate. I thought I had scored a perfect score and could leave the stage in style. But the next words from the three ‘Losers’ across the room made her question her life. The simple-minded Asian boy had already gotten into Stanford University with his sports expertise. The long-haired guy with the lowest grades, who didn’t get into university, was recruited by Google for his programming skills. Sitting on a six-figure salary. Most irritating of all. Molly’s nemesis, scandal-ridden bimbo Anna, also got into Yale with a high SAT score of 1560. This means that soon the two will be alumni again. Molly went crazy and started asking each of her classmates where they were going after graduation. The resultant blowback was one after another. Many of the seemingly uneducated students had actually been accepted to some of the best universities. And the girl who was normally the craziest of the bunch would even be enrolled at Harvard.
Molly was dumbfounded, she couldn’t believe that the group of underclassmen she had despised for years had all had enviable homes. It’s not scientific! They were so out of touch, partying and drinking all day, they didn’t care about their studies. It was Anna’s sarcastic comment that woke her up. “It’s not that we don’t care about school, we just don’t care about school!” Molly realised that for over ten years she had spent almost all her time in endless study. She had never enjoyed her youth as a normal teenager. Now, there was only one day left in her high school years. She decided to make the most of this last chance to put aside her honours student act and go to her classmates’ graduation party with her best friend Amy.
It’s important to at least experience what it’s like to be a normal high school teenager. But when these two schoolboys make their decision, they have no idea what kind of madness they’re in for. And so begins a hilarious party …… The plot of this teenage film is not really complicated, or even weak in terms of dramatic conflict. Neither is there a Miss Bird who is so rebellious that she jumps out of the car after a couple of arguments with her mother. nor is it a wallflower teenager with a tragic life, ravaged by depression. Just two ordinary people desperately trying to catch the tail end of their youth.
But it is this ‘realness’ that has won the praise of many critics. How can youth be so gripping? Whatever the education system, there are few students who have their heads in the sand and keep to themselves. They are the ones who believe that work is better than play and give up all entertainment for good grades. “If you work hard now, it will be easier when you get to university. This is a saying that high school students in China apparently hear more often. But are study and play really opposites?
Not really. It’s just that many people don’t try to do it. Many adults, especially parents of students, feel that school is an underdog society where you have to come out on top in terms of grades to be successful. When the importance of grades is over-valued, it is natural to fear any distractions. This is why children are paranoidly taught to give up all entertainment and focus only on their studies. Oh no, it’s about getting better grades. But they seem to forget that learning is not all about grades.
If you see exams as a battle, if you see all your classmates and colleagues as competitors, then you are bound to make yourself a trapped beast. To become an island that no one likes. But studying should never be about comparing yourself to others. Does the fact that you scored a few points higher than the other person really prove that you are better than them? Maybe someone else has been elsewhere, running ahead of you. And you’re still in a state of self-righteous superiority, unaware of it. Showing up to the party well dressed, Amy and Molly discover that their once hostile classmates actually mean no harm at all, and instead welcome the pair warmly. It’s not the bullying that people resent, it’s the blindness.
It is the blind pursuit of grades that is the root cause of the divisions encountered by the student body. A life with only one face is monotonous and boring. Study well when you should study and let loose when you should let loose. Too often, we define life too narrowly. A person can have a colourful life. Amy and Molly, for example, saw this later. The staff that they normally come into contact with in their studies also have different faces. The unsmiling headmaster by day, but the enthusiastic internet taxi driver by night. The female teacher who has not been teaching for long is just a shy teenager when she steps off the podium.
Of course, The Highly Gifted is not an anti-intellectual work that promotes the ‘uselessness of learning’ theory. It is merely an exhortation, through the experiences of two nerds, to learn to combine work and play. Students work hard to get into a good university so that they can live happily ever after. But that doesn’t mean they have to sacrifice their youth. The parties in the film don’t involve any drugging or promiscuity. The simple pleasures of partying, drinking, karaoke, and eating and drinking are enough to soothe a restless heart. Because a spring can be twisted if it is constantly stretched. Everyone needs to relax, and it’s not a sin.
It is also when Amy lets herself go and leaps into the pool that we join her for the most beautiful shot of the film. In the blue water, young boys and girls stretch out their beautiful bodies. At that moment, she realises that this is what youth should be like.
For many years, the Ministry of Education has repeatedly stressed quality education. Although at this stage, primary and secondary school students still fail to reduce their burdens attracting many, people accuse quality education of being formalistic, or even heavy burdens in disguise. However, the authorities concerned have never changed their tone. Since it is not possible to implement it under the current system, let’s continue to work on it for 20 or 30 years. But please don’t give up on the possibility of a happy youth for the children. And for those of you who have already gone through the arduous journey of the college entrance examinations, the road is long and the journey will be long. You have crossed a difficult hurdle on the road to school, but the journey is not over yet. There are countless peaks waiting to be conquered. Please set off with the same tenacity and a new smile.
