A crude, low-tech animation about a cow and a skylark has become a sleeper hit at China\u2019s box office, sitting alongside blockbusters such as The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day in cinema revenue rankings.<\/p>\n
Niu Lai, which translates to The Cow is Coming, is an 86-minute budget animation about a newborn calf and a skylark whose relationship develops over the course of an abstract dream sequence.<\/p>\n
Released on 5 August, the film reportedly made just 7,700 yuan (\u00a3842) in its first 10 days of screenings, with fewer than 300 people nationwide buying a ticket. It did not have any promotional tour, pre-release publicity or even a trailer.<\/p>\n
But discussion online about how bad the film was turned it into a meme, which drove hordes of film fans to the cinema. It has now made more than 14.9m yuan, according to the movie tracking site Mao Yan, making it one of the top-performing films of the year.<\/p>\n
The Odyssey earned 192m yuan (\u00a321m) across its official three-day opening weekend<\/a> in China, coming in second place to the homegrown film Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, which tells the story of a Chinese chef who opens a restaurant in the Middle East as conflict erupts. The Chinese film took in 477.9m yuan between Friday and Sunday.<\/p>\n Niu Lai\u2019s success appears to stem less from its merits and more from its \u201cso bad it\u2019s good\u201d energy. Made by just two people over five years, it is the antithesis of the slick, bedazzling animations that have drawn in huge crowds in China in recent years, such as Ne Zha 2<\/a>. The film\u2019s writers, directors, voice actors and producers are Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang, who are reported to be a mother and son team.<\/p>\n Niu Lai\u2019s distributor was quoted in Chinese media as saying he had been advised against releasing the film because of its quality. But he persevered because he was a friend of the director, he said.<\/p>\n Some film fans have praised the shoddy animation as a welcome tonic in the age of artificial intelligence. One user wrote on the film review website Douban: \u201cIn an era where AI is so popular, did the creative team choose a handcrafted, somewhat crude visual style to convey a sense of \u2018returning to one\u2019s true self?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n One film industry professional, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said Niu Lai was unique because it was \u201cbad in every aspect imaginable, including the story, special effects and almost every element that a movie is expected to have\u201d. \u201cIronically, this is exactly what attracted audience curiosity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n