The 2017 Chinese animated film Have a Nice Day (大世界) and the ten films comprising the Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival will continue in Pittsburgh through April 19.
The distributor offers a summary of Have a Nice Day:
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 1 million from his 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.
A 2017 Variety review adds:
Against crisply drawn yet richly textured backgrounds, the actual animation (as in, those things that move on screen) is relatively minimal and fairly crude: Often, it is only a flat, 2D car zooming by in the foreground or the blink of an eye in an otherwise static frame that gives any sense of motion at all. But not only does that keep the proceedings simple and linear, it has the effect of focusing the attention where Liu wants it to go: either on the dialogue, which grazes against topics petty and profound while remaining in an ingratiatingly characterful chatty register, or on those backgrounds in which even the plainest wall is peeling with torn fliers and cracked plaster, and every alleyway is a jumble of signage and wiring and trash.The movie will play twice a day, at 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm, on all dates but April 16th. General admission tickets are $8---students and seniors $7---and are available for purchase at the theater. The Harris Theater is located at 809 Liberty Ave. in downtown's Cultural District (map).
The lineup for the third annual Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival includes 10 films:
- Antiporno (アンチポルノ)
- Neko Atsume House (ねこあつめの家)
- Godzilla (ゴジラ), 1954 version
- Sailor Moon: Live Musical
- Sanjuro (椿三十郎)
- Stray Cat Rock (野良猫ロック セックスハンター)
- The Day of the Western Sunrise
- Urotsukidoji: Legend Of The Overfiend
- Wild Zero (ワイルド ゼロ)
- Yojimbo (用心棒)
- Your Name (君の名は)
Additional highlights include "Bombs, Godzilla, Pittsburgh: The Making of An Animated Film" on the 15th and Kurosawa, Sushi, & Beer: Sanjuro on the 17th.
Tickets and showtime information is available at the festival's official website. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).
