SLIFF 2017 Review – HAVE A NICE DAY

HAVE A NICE DAY screens Monday November 6th at 9:10pm and Saturday November 11th at 2:00pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information for the 11/6 screening can be found HERE and ticket information for the 11/11 screening can be found HERE

A hard rain is about to fall on a small town in Southern China. In a desperate attempt to find money to save his fiancée’s failed plastic surgery, Xiao Zhang, a mere driver, steals a bag containing a million yuan from his gangster boss. News of the robbery spreads fast within the town and, over the course of one night, everyone starts looking for Xiao Zhang and his money. Liu Jian delivers a whirlwind neo-noir, cementing his place as a pioneering force in independent Chinese animation. Indiewire enthuses: “If Quentin Tarantino remade ‘Pulp Fiction’ as an animated movie set in modern-day China, it might look something like ‘Have a Nice Day.’ Throw in some jarringly modern reference points — Trump, Brexit — and this exuberant, Tarantinoesque display of violence and suspense presents deep perspective on the ripple effects of troubled times around the world. A mesmerizing portrait of despair and the capitalist instincts created by it.”

Review of HAVE A NICE DAY by Stephen Tronicek

Coming at you like a cavalcade of Coen Brothers comedy, Have A Nice Day is one of the most unique experiences to be had at the St. Louis International Film Festival this year. For one, it is of great quality, a comedy about what drives people and whether or not it can be defined. For another, it is so expertly directed that one cannot even imagine if it being in live action would actually benefit the experience, the personality of its animation being so distinct and defined. This is one of the most densely packed, hysterically bolstered absurdities of the year and it is not one to miss. HAVE A NICE DAY starts with a young man taking a bag of money, but this inciting incident isn’t the real driving force behind the entire of the actions of the movie. That comes in a great scene where two characters talk about there being two types of people: madmen and fools. The madman tries hard to get more money, unsatisfied with life and the fool settles for what he has, happy. This is ultimately paradoxical, a damned if you do, damned if you don’t type of situation, which makes the film even funnier as it goes along. The fact that the characters believe in this logic and the push and pull of the insecurities informing their actions create an experience that gets crazier and more amusing over time. Have a Nice Day is a movie that leaves you asking why all this violence had to happen, a question that really isn’t too hard to answer.

What ties all of this together are moments of solemnity, pictures of the world around the characters as it exists, underscored by beautiful music. This may be the film’s answer to the question of whether or not the logic that the characters employ is actually correct, with the world existing in absolute calm around these people, their own agency and actions being the driving force of anything terrible happening. These quiet and beautiful rests from the merry go round of insanity that is the rest of the movie are wonderful and act as a perfect breather to support the thematic depth of the film.The animation style of the film allows the film to take on a meaningful transparency that live action may have kneecapped. Have a Nice Day exists in a world where the characters are only two-dimensional beings motivated by misguided goals and romantic aims that lead them into trouble. It’s hard not to imagine how an ultimately empty and two-dimensional world would shape these characters ideas of their world two, giving the animation aspect of the film an even deeper, more tragic connotation. The film is also directed quite classically, with the animation not being used to such expressionistic heights so it is obvious that the motivation of using animation is a feature, not a bug, bolstering the already excellent film. HAVE A NICE DAY is a beautiful film about interesting characters, that soaks you into its gorgeous animation and keeps you there with its intelligent screenwriting. Running 67 minutes, it is worth that short amount of time, winning with almost every single creative decision.