The Bad Kids

Set in a coastal Chinese town in the summer of 2005, the story follows three children from troubled backgrounds—Zhu Chaoyang, Pupu, and Yan Liang—who accidentally capture a brutal murder on camera during a hike. Instead of going to the police, the kids, in desperate need of money for their own survival and motives, decide to blackmail the killer, Zhang Dongsheng, a mild-mannered mathematics teacher turned murderer. As the children attempt to navigate the dangerous game of extortion, Zhang Dongsheng tries to outsmart them while covering his tracks. However, the unexpected alliance between the children and the killer begins to unravel, exposing the deep-seated trauma, dark family secrets, and moral ambiguity hidden beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary lives.