As most animation aims to create a fantasy world, the director Liu Jian uses animation in his second film Big World (Have a Nice Day) as an approach to represent the reality of the time and the world he is living. His choice of animation avoids the collaboration with other people and compromises with the commercial market and allows him the complete freedom of expressing his subjective view. In his film, the money is the definitive protagonist, who is the object of desire by all characters and the cause of the tragedy. Besides examining money’s magic and corrupting power in today’s capitalism world, the director explores the metaphoric meanings of money for the marginalized people in China’s urban and thus represents their struggling under the inequality of big city and small city, rich and poor under the modern China.
The film displays the paradox that people’s desire using money to achieve the freedom restrains their freedoms in reality. In the commercial world, freedom is tightly related to the personal wealth, as Lao Zhang believes that more money corresponds to more freedom. People’s passion of the money is both substantial and spiritual. As Big Head asserts he will worship whatever is powerful, and through the film the most powerful thing is the bag of money. In today’s world, the money is the new god, and the worship of the money is the new religion. Money for the characters in the film has the potential to achieve every wish. It does not speak or act, but it is the incarnation of people’ desire of change: Xiao Min’s girlfriend wants the money to change the appearance of his girlfriend; Shou Pi wants to use the money to change the fate of his family by sending his daughter to the US. The unrealistic hope of what money can bring is intensified through the couple’s imagery of their leisure life in Shangri La after getting the money. The Mao-ism portray of their ideal country life proves that such a dream is a utopia that they can never achieve. Rather than benefiting from the money, people become the slave of the money. Though characters are always moving to place to place, but wherever they go, they are constrained in the dark, small rooms. More important, their movings are manipulated by the bag of money. Character’s chasing of money is a vivid representation of how money deprive people’s freedom.
People’s desperation to change is due to their disappointed life in the decaying small city in China. The unique art style of the movie serves for displaying the desolation of China’s third- tier city. While the minimized style of people in this film assimilates the characters into the residents of a small and unknown town in China, the elaborate depiction of the background puts the city into the foreground. In the beginning, the sequence of the city’s sketches indicates the lifelessness of the city. Though the shinning neon light signals the city Is still functioning, the city gives the audience a post-apocalyptic feeling as we either see no people on the screen or people in perfect stillness. Beside, the entire movie starts at the dawn and ends at the night, which indicates the city is moving from its dawn to its night of death. The staggered motion of the character further shows the lack of motivation of residents in the city. Contrary to the slowness of the people, the flashing cars and trains prove that the majority of people are actually moving. More precisely, the people there have a strong intention to move out of the city. From the conversation, we learn there is a development zone near the city, and the new city is taking away all the opportunities and resource from the old city. As a consequence, the city is being forgotten and stops its growth a long time ago. The posters of movies and games are those popular decades ago. The hitman’s classic line, “I’m only passing by” represents the attitude of people in the city. Though they live and die in the city, they do not have a sense of belonging in this city. Instead, it is a nightmare that they die hard to escape. Thus, the million yuan money is the key for them to escape the lifeless and hopeless land. They are willing to risk anything to get it because their current life is not better than dead.
The dysfunction of the legal system dramatizes the solidification of the social class and intensifies people’s urgency to get the money. Ironically, the serial murders, in the end, happens besides a sculpture of a cop. As the cop sculpture can do nothing to stop the crimes, the legal system in the city turns a blind eye to the various corruptions and crimes. In fact, there is no way to get rich except the unlawful way, as we see how the unlawful or immoral behaviors are normalized in the film. The boss clearly uses the money to engage in some unlawful business; The artist gains his fame through the frauds on the auction; The hitman considers killing as his job without much moral concern, but when he shows some kindness to Xiao Zhang, it follows up with his death. The city is like a jungle where the tiger eats the sheep and has no place for mercy and kindness. On the opposite, people’s hard working and talent are disrespected. Yellow Eye, who is talented in inventions, cannot transmit his talent into commercial value due to his low academic qualification. Education, a seemingly fair game for rich and poor, has the inequality since the more family resource devoted to their children predict a better education. When they find no valid approach to get rich and move to a higher class, they expect some miracle to help them finish the leap of the class. As the money can serve as the capital for Yellow Eye’s start up, the million money opens up a tunnel to the richness and upper class. From the debate about the quotes such as “Everyone has a beast inside” and “Everyone has a dream”, we know that the dream is sometimes a beast. In the jungle of the city, the beast is unchained and motivates people to conform to violence to achieve their dream of getting rich.
In conclusion, the film balance between its international inspiration and its Chinese origin. While Liu adopts the style of Quentin Tarantino, the local people’s dubbing, the depiction of China’s town, and the Chinese black humors make the story only possible in China. Besides exploring the universal theme such as the money’s status in the capitalist world, Liu uses the money as a mirror to reflect the social problems in the urban China. As the film quotes the phrase, “The spring is still spring”, the director more likely transmits his optimistic expectation of the future than critique on the depressive present through the film. In the end, when the rain is washing the dirty town, the director leaves an open door to let audience to decide whether Xiao Min goes to reach the money. Personally, the director treats the tragedy as the mental rebirth of Xiao Min and the town and as a lesson for the audience.