Have a Nice Day

Part of China Art x Film Series, co-presented with Creative China Festival and Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation.

Dir. by Liu Jian
2017. 77 min. Digital. Color.
Saturday, October 20, 2018, 5:00 pm
Followed by Q & A With the director

Known for his painstakingly stylized animations, Liu Jian brings his signature dark comedy to his second feature-length animated film, Have a Nice Day. In a small city in southern China, the protagonist Xiao Zhang robs his boss at knife point in a desperate effort to salvage his relationship, by paying for his girlfriend's plastic surgery. A series of intersecting misadventures ensue, all within a single day. Liu's simply drawn yet emotionally complex characters and his detailed, gloomy background rich in social commentary, construct a vision of contemporary China complete with its worldly woes beyond the glamorous facade of coastal cities.

Liu Jian (b. 1969 in Jiangsu province, China) established Lejoy Animation Studio in 2007. His first feature-length animated film Piercing I (2009) was well-received in animated film festivals across Asia and Europe. Previously he collaborated with film directors Meng Jinghui and Feng Xiaogang on animation in their films Chicken Poets (2002) and Big Shot's Funeral (2001), respectively. Liu graduated from Nanjing Art Academy with a degree in Chinese painting.

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