Film Series: Have A Nice Day 大世界 2017, Liu Jian, China, 75 min. Show Times • Fri, Feb 16th 8:15pm • Sat, Feb 17th 3:00pm • Sun, Feb 18th 5:15pm • Mon, Feb 19th 6:00pm • Tue, Feb 20th 8:15pm • Wed, Feb 21st 6:00pm • Thu, Feb 22nd 8:15pm First Chicago run! “A stunning, provocative work It’s like no other Chinese film you’ve ever seen.” — Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily “A markedly fresh window into modern China, told with a hypnotic visual style, spiked with lively pop songs, and a winding plot that never sags into predictability.” — Eric Kohn, Indiewire. A seedy small city in Southern China is the site of a frantic scramble for a bundle of cash in this politically provocative, entertainingly cynical animated neo-noir. The pulp-fictional plot is set in motion when a low-ranking mob bagman swipes a satchel containing a million yuan in order to finance plastic surgery for his girlfriend. An assortment of hit men, opportunists, double-crossers, and smalltime dreamers follow the bag’s erratic, corpse-strewn trail as it passes from hand to hand amid a sharply etched urban wasteland of cracked walls, peeling posters, and flickering neon. The recurring image of Mao’s smiling face on bright red 100-yuan banknotes serves as an ironic reminder of how far free-market China has strayed from the Chairman’s communist ideals. It’s little wonder that nervous Chinese officials pulled the film from the prestigious Annecy Animated Film Festival, although its topical references to Brexit and Trump serve as a reminder that mercenary mindlessness is far from a local Chinese phenomenon. In Mandarin with English subtitles. (MR) Play Trailer. Again this year, Denver Film Festival artistic director Brit Withey is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest — including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today he spotlights selections for November 3, 4 and 5: Have a Nice Day, Vigilante and Strad Style. Directed by Liu Jian 9:15 p.m. Friday, November 3, 6:45 p.m. Sunday, November 5, 3:45 p.m. Monday, November 6 Sie FilmCenter ' Have a Nice Day is a Chinese film that's animated but not anime — and it's animated in a very strange and wonderful style,' says DFF artistic director Brit Withey. 'It's kind of a flat, two-dimensional style, but it's drawn in a way that's really cool.' Publicity descriptions for films don't often paint an accurate picture, but the Have a Nice Day hype crew offers an exception to this rule. 'The press kit said it was as if Tarantino made a James Bond film in the Blade Runner style — and I get why they said that,' Withey says. 'It's dark and bleak, and nobody comes out of it good in the end.' Be warned: This isn't kids' stuff. 'I think everybody has had the opportunity to see a lot of feature-length anime work. But you don't get a lot of animated films that are this different. It's really amazing.' Directed by David Wexler 6:45 p.m. Friday, November 3, 3:45 p.m. Have a Nice Day in US theaters January 26, 2018 starring Xiao Zhang, Lao Zhao, Fang Yuanjun. Set in a small town in Southern China and follows the journey of a young. Liu Jian’s remarkable HAVE A NICE DAY is a stylish animated film that doesn’t hold back its punches. The film centres around a bag of million yuan that a driver (Xiao Zhang) steals from his mobster boss, Uncle Liu. Saturday, November 4, 8:45 p.m. Sunday, November 5 Sie FilmCenter 'Curtis Sliwa is a character,' Withey says of the main figure in this documentary, which he calls 'a film that's pretty simply put together. The majority of it is him talking and telling his story — and he's riveting.' Here's the trailer for Vigilante. 'There's some crazy stuff in there,' Withey maintains. 'He talks about John Gotti putting hits on him, being pulled into a taxicab and being shot multiple times: story after story after story from the beginning of the 1970s, when he wanted to start this Guardian Angels group.' As Withey points out, 'No one wanted him to do it. The cops didn't want him to, and the criminals didn't want him to do it. But he and a group of friends threw on these T-shirts and berets and started walking around the subways of New York confronting people — and the idea blew up. It's all over the world now.' The archival footage and photos in the film are first-rate, Withey allows — and as a bonus, Sliwa will actually be in Denver for the screenings. 'It's going to be a fascinating Q&A,' he says. Directed by Stefan Avalos 4 p.m. Friday, November 3, 9:15 Saturday, November 4, 6:15 p.m. Sunday, November 5 UA Pavilions The 'Strad' in Strad Style's title 'is short for 'Stradivarius,' the famous violin,' Withey says. 'This guy Danny Houck is a semi-self-taught violin maker who lives in this gigantic old house in Ohio. The place is run down; it doesn't have any heat, and he has no money. But he goes online and befriends this guy in Europe who's a professional, serious violin player — and he convinces him he can make a Stradivarius-style violin.' Unfortunately, Houck isn't exactly a master instrument builder. In Withey's words, 'He's not very good at it.' Here's the Strad Style trailer. You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! The musician for whom Houck has been asked to make the violin 'has an upcoming concert and a new album coming out,' Withey continues. 'He's played Stradivarius violins before and he likes that sound. And the film shows us the many months of Danny trying to make this violin, which he's ill-equipped to do.' The results of his toils 'are really funny, but completely charming. It's absurd to see him doing this in his house during winter when he's got no heat, no tools, none of the things he'd really need to lead you down the road to thinking he can pull this off. It's just the weirdest scenario.' How did everything turn out? Audiences will hear directly from Houck and director Stefan Avalos, who are scheduled to appear at the screenings. Click to access.
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