I Not Stupid 3 (Chinese: 小孩不笨3) is a 2024 Singaporean comedy film written and directed by Jack Neo, featuring child actors Zhou Yuchen, Camans Kong, Goh Wee-Ann and Joseph Ng Zhiyang. The film also stars Hu Jing, Jae Liew, Collin Chee, Cheryl Desiree Chan, Xixi Lim, Ben Logan Sng, Glenn Yong, Terence Cao, Selena Tan, Patricia Mok, Anna Lin Ruping, Xiong Lingyi, Lee Kin Mun and Chew Chong Tak. It is the standalone sequel to I Not Stupid (2002) and I Not Stupid Too (2006).

Plot

Wang Zi Hao (Zhou Yuchen), a Chinese Primary 6 student from Shanghai, China residing in Singapore, performs badly in school and plays games at home excessively, while his mother, Wen Ting (Hu Jing), forces him to study in various ways, such as memorizing an English dictionary and a novel, and tuition classes. Over time, Zi Hao's grades gradually improved and was about to surpass his class' top student, Jayden Lee Jun Wei's (Camans Kong) grades. Jayden's mother, Sophia Chew (Jae Liew) notices this and warns Jayden to Not study with Zi Hao anymore. Due to this, their friendship is strained, and Jayden views Zi Hao as a foe. Meanwhile, a new teacher named Mr. Lee (Glenn Yong), takes over the class as their Form and Mathematics Teacher, and impresses the class after solving a high-difficulty and complicated mathematics algebra equation and is quickly loved by the class due to his handsome appearance. Wen Ting signs Zi Hao up to an English speech competition while she was dealing with marital issues with her China husband, who is reluctant to financially aid them, and eventually Zi Hao and Wen Ting got evicted and reside in a smaller apartment. While moving in, Zi Hao's father sent a text message to Wen Ting regarding to his desire of a divorce, and this majorly affected Zi Hao and his mother. The day of the English speech competition has arrived, and among the contestants are Jayden, Zi Hao, and a few other students from their class. During Jayden's speech, he struggled with speaking about his topic of "My Mother", due to his uneasy relationship with her and gets last place. Next up is Zi Hao, who was chosen with the same topic and received fifth place. Jayden's mother, Sophia is enraged after hearing Jayden got last place, so she ordered Jayden to sneak cheat notes in Zi Hao's pencil case. During the preliminary Science Examination, Zi Hao was caught red-handed by their Science Teacher (Terence Cao) and was interrogated by Mr. Lee; since the handwriting on the cheat notes and Zi Hao's handwriting had a major difference, it turns out fellow classmate Rachel wrote the cheat note to do Jayden a favor. During Jayden's interrogation, he reveals that the mother often canes and verbally abuses him for losing Zi Hao in grades, and Zi Hao overhears this and decided to intentionally lose to Jayden by crossing out his correct answers during the math test. A few days later, Sophia and Mr. Lee meet for a discussion about how she mistreats Jayden, but she reported Mr. Lee, mistaking him for interfering with her marital affairs and Mr. Lee resigns. The next day, Sophia and Wen Ting got into a heated argument after Sophia believed that Zi Hao intentionally lost a few marks to Jayden was a rumor and confronts Wen Ting about it. Sophia returned to her car and attempted to report Wen Ting to the agency and get her deported, but Jayden stopped her from doing so, which caused Sophia to slap him across the face. Jayden runs out of the car and onto the streets as Sophia chases him. However, during the chase, Jayden accidentally got struck by an oncoming vehicle and was rushed to the hospital in a coma. After this incident, Sophia sincerely regrets her actions and tearfully apologizes to Wen Ting. After the Primary 6 students completed their PSLEs (Primary School Leaving Examination) they parted ways and head to their desired schools. The movie ends with Jayden waking up from his coma and decided to enroll in a neighborhood school instead, since no matter what, the point is just to study hard and get good results.

Cast

Zhou Yuchen as Wang Zi Hao Camans Kong as Jayden Lee Jun Wei Hu Jing as Wen Ting, Wang Zi Hao's Mother Jae Liew as Sophia Chew, Jayden Lee's Mother Goh Wee-Ann as Chen Jia Yao Joseph Ng Zhiyang as Andy Lim Collin Chee as Kelvin Lee, Jayden Lee's Father Cheryl Desiree Chan as Ada, Chen Jia Yao's Mother Xixi Lim as Andy Lim's Mother Ben Logan Sng as Andy Lim's Father, the CEO of all the handmade fishball noodles stalls in Singapore and also in neighbouring foreign country being Malaysia. Glenn Yong as Mr. Lee, Class 6A's form teacher and Mathematics Teacher. Terence Cao as Mr. Lim, Class 6A's Science Teacher. Selena Tan as Mrs. Tan, the school principal of the primary school, similar to her role from I Not Stupid Too as the school principal of Tom Yeo (Shawn Lee) and Lim Chengcai's (Joshua Ang)'s secondary school, and both of them are Not part of this film either. Tan previously portrayed the role as the mother of Terry Khoo (portrayed by Huang Po Ju, who isn't part of the prequel and this film) from the first installment, in which she spoke a majority of English dialogue during the first film, and spoke inarticulate Mandarin Chinese, as seen in the second film that she was attempting to speak fluent Chinese while mixing some with English. She is also the only cast member who has appeared in all 3 installments of the franchise thus far. Patricia Mok as Mdm. Mok, the discipline mistress of the primary school, similar to her role as Miss. Tan from I Not Stupid. Anna Lin Ruping as Class 6A's English Teacher, Not to be confused with her role as Mrs. Alicia Tan, the school principal from another secondary school from I Not Stupid Too. Xiong Lingyi as Xiao Hui, a Chinese mother and Wen Ting's best friend from Shanghai, China. Lee Kin Mun, better known as mrbrown, as the director, CEO and school principal of Xin Yuan Fei Edu Hub, one of the tuition centres in Singapore. Chew Chong Tak as Class 6A's Chinese Teacher. Richard Low as Jerry Khoo Bee Guan reprising his role from I Not Stupid (cameo) Jack Neo as Mr. Liu reprising his role from I Not Stupid (cameo)

Production

Lensing ceremony was held on 13 June 2023. In an interview, director Jack Neo said that the education system in Singapore has gone through numerous changes since the release of I Not Stupid in 2002 and I Not Stupid Too in 2006, and the film will explore the consequences when certain things remain unchanged. 90% of the filming took place onsite at a local school, with filming taking around 10 hours per day and with no night shots. The film centres around the four child actors Zhou Yuchen (age 11 as of July 2023), Goh Wee-Ann (age 12 as of July 2023), Camans Kong (age 12 as of July 2023) and Joseph Ng Zhiyang (age 11 as of July 2023). More than 2,000 people reportedly participated in the auditions for the film. Among the 4 main cast members, the film marked the acting debut of Joseph Ng Zhiyang. Filming began from late June and lasted until early August 2023. The screenplay was partially written by two Chinese scriptwriters who are based in Singapore. On the cast members, Hu Jing is a Chinese actress from Chuxiong, Yunnan, China and child actor Zhou Yuchen is also from Shanghai, China. Child actor Camans Kong is from Malaysia while newbie child actor Joseph Ng Zhiyang is from Singapore and previously resided in China for a couple of years. Child actress Goh Wee-Ann is active in the local television scene and has won the Star Awards for Young Talent twice.

Release and reception

Neo revealed that the film was released on 6 June 2024 during the school holidays in Singapore. It was also released in Malaysia on 13 June 2024, in China on 16 August 2024 and in Taiwan on 20 September 2024.

= Critical reception

= Tay Yek Keak of 8days gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, opining that the film, "despite good performances from both sets of mothers and sons, is long, long-winded and, like a dreaded year-end exam, it gets stuck kinda in the same old loop", and that the long-windedness of the film feels "like an exam checklist and sends [the storyline] to an average, unremarkable graduation."

References