Screened recently at the Fantasia Film Festival, we saw the new film from Jian Liu “Have a Nice Day” (Hao ji le) where the saying “You never know who you work for” fits like a glove in this old school-style animated film. Using the neo-noir genre, this film brings us a story of cynicism, irony and black humor with the reminder that behind any smile and compliment, there always can be an immoral, ruthless person ready to screw you over if the price is right.
In an very ordinary day, Xiao Zhang, a low level driver that works for an small criminal in a nameles city of China, decides to steal the money from a recent job, as you might guess, his boss “Uncle Liu” decides to send “Skinny”, his most effective assassin (a Rocky fan, to boot) not only to find the money, but also to use Xiao as an example to dissuade other employees from having any more bright ideas.