Jian Liu’s second animated feature, Have a Nice Day, is a sardonic, stylish crime thriller. The film begins as a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes, depicting the residents of a dreary industrial cityscape in southern China. However, once a briefcase filled with one million yuan shows up, the characters move closer and closer to one another until they intertwine in shocking fits in violence.
Considering the film’s run time of just 75 minutes, there’s a lot going on here. Each character is swept up into the action, and like the criminal networks depicted in the film, the lines are a bit blurred as to who knows who and why. What is clear, however, is that the characters of Have a Nice Day are motivated by selfishness and greed.
This all makes the film sound like a joyless, grim look into China’s criminal underworld, but Liu injects the story with surprising and biting humor. The criminals in Have a Nice Day are as incompetent as they are cruel—at times their narcissism overpowers their desire, resulting in as much laughter as there is bloodshed.
Liu’s film, although action-packed, is fairly contemplative. Scenes play out with quiet patience, beginning or ending as still life paintings. Liu manages to give the viewer space to breathe—the calm before the storm.
The universe of Have a Nice Day is also a painfully recognizable one. Direct references are made to both Brexit and Donald Trump, serving not so much as explicit political commentary but rather as heavy sighs, indicators that, in addition to their own plot-driven struggles, the characters of the film are just as burdened with the real-life chaos, instability, and turmoil that ceaselessly rocks our day to day lives.
Have a nice day.
Have a Nice Day will be screened at New Design High School on August 12th. More information can be found here.