After five long years, “Have a Nice Day” director Liu Jian returns to New York with his newest project, “Art College 1994.” This hotly-anticipated feature checks off all the boxes. It cements Liu Jian's stamp as a rising animation auteur in China; it marks the completed its world tour at Berlinale, Annecy, New York Asian Film Festival, and more; and, what's more, the film features a star-studded voice cast that spans intellectuals, musicians, and other movie directors, including Jia Zhangke and Bi Gan.
Here, we catch a glimpse of a group of students at the Chinese Southern Academy of the Arts. Like many students, they seem to be suspended in a daze of malaise, and of them, Zhang Xiaojun (Dong Zijian) is especially lost. His best friend, Rabbit (Shaoxing), encourages Xiaojun to expand his practice to conceptual art. His crush, the soft-spoken piano student Hao Lili (Zhou Dongyu), is swayed by a university student promising her a life abroad. His Walkman is populated with cassette tapes by American bands like Nirvana; his classes are peppered with comments on Enlightenment thought; his shared room is plastered with posters of Michael Jackson, Sylvester Stallone, the Mona Lisa. The only problem is, he is a student trained in traditional Chinese ink painting – and his professor expects him to commit to the ways of the past.
In comparison to Liu Jian's previous crime thriller, “Art College 1994” looks mellow. The changes, however, are just as dramatic, if not more so. Between conversations, we soon catch on that the world seems to be shifting under their very feet. China is opening to the West; the enterprising students must find ways to make bread after graduation. The student dilemmas echo as synecdoche of China's larger existential crisis of the 1990s. Should we sell out to the pressures of capitalism, or work on their craft true artists? Should we remain faithful to their home traditions, or should we keep up with the modern West? What does it actually mean to be original or true to ourselves, when even we do not know who we are?
These anxieties are not new. We see echoes of these tensions across many examples of Asian cinema, like Jia Zhangke's “The World” (2004), the Korean “Reply 1988” K-Drama series, and even in the golden age of millennial Bollywood movies. “Art College 1994,” however, is able to handle these larger questions of globalization with a degree of tongue-in-cheek finesse. In one iconic scene, for example, Rabbit and Xiaojun wander into an art exhibition. Tired of walking around, Rabbit sits on a mattress that he finds on the floor – only to find out that it is installation art. He jumps up and in disgust, cries, “Installation art? Then our dorm is full of installation art. And better installed than this!”
In this way, an emphasis on dialogue and situational humor allows plenty of room for satire, while also seriously considering the worries of the time. Strangely, the film would pair well with Hungarian animator Milorad Krstić's self-reflexive art heist, “Ruben Brandt, Collector” (2018). Both films take on tropes in movies about the world, poke fun at art historical jargon and witticisms, but – much like the generation of art mentors before us – still hold a deep affection for their worlds all the same. Stylistically, both films are also incredibly committed to their brand. Krstić sticks to his zany brand of Cubism, and Liu Jian – much like “Have a Nice Day” – underscores his deadpan, unshaded traditional cel animation.
While a general audience may find the plot discombobulated or boring, those in on the art and film world will certainly delight in Liu Jian's latest feature. If there are any downsides to “Art College 1994,” perhaps it is just that the character designs for many of the male characters look awfully similar. This makes them difficult to parse apart at times. But perhaps, this is just another part of the film's larger provocative question. What makes us all unique, anyway?
“Art College 1994” will return to New York in its week-long exclusive theatrical run at the Metrograph In Theater, beginning this Friday, April 26, and “Have a Nice Day” will play in Metrograph at Home. Distribution is managed by Dekanalog.
