How a low-budget fever dream sparked a Chinese box office revolt

BEIJING: A crudely animated, homemade movie about ​a baby cow has become China’s most unlikely box-office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joyful ‌rejection of slick marketing and artificial intelligence by a younger generation.

Made on a shoestring budget and with hand-drawn posters and a reported cost in the thousands of dollars, “The Bull Comes,” or “Niu Lai” in Chinese, grossed the equivalent of more than $4 million as of Thursday.

In China’s daily box-office rankings, it placed immediately behind “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” a Marvel ​Studios sequel that reportedly cost some $225 million to produce.

“Niu Lai,” which tells the story of a newborn calf, his mother and a leopard ​cub, flopped in its first week, grossing just over $1,000, according to local media reports.

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Then, with a boost from social ⁠and local media, the movie’s wonky animation, awkward storytelling and discussion of its unlikely creators – an amateur animator and his supportive mother – made the ​movie a viral sensation.

At a recent packed screening in Beijing, bursts of laughter rang out before the movie started.

“I can’t believe the theatre is full!” ​one audience member shouted, triggering cheers and laughter from the crowd.

“Other than envying how much money this piece of junk has made, I have no complaints,” said a popular movie blogger on Weibo, a social media platform. The embrace of the movie has become a kind of inside joke for the young, the blogger added.

“And I say - let ​them laugh. There aren’t that many things left that we can joke about.”

‘Don’t tell me what to do’

The DIY project tapped into a kind ​of rebellious mood of the moment, said Remo Zhu, a Chinese director.

“It’s a mood of … don’t tell me what to do, to watch or eat - I’ll decide that ‌for myself,” ⁠he said.

“In a packed theatre full of strangers, it becomes a genuinely interactive, immersive communal experience.”

The movie tells the story of a frail and exhausted newborn calf who struggles to stand up. It is a tale of friendship, courage and loss as the herd faces danger on its journey to find greener pastures. Spoiler: It also may - or may not - be a dream.

The dialogue is slow. Action sequences are clunky. The animation is heavily pixelated.

“It’s not ​even a movie,” said one reviewer on ​Weibo. “To call it bad is ⁠an insult to bad movies.”

Movie or not, it has become a cultural touchstone and sparked a frenzy of people trying to cash in on its unlikely appeal. There are Niu Lai toys, Niu Lai-masked robots, social media memes ​and cosplays.

Companies with the word “bull” in their names also saw an increase in their share prices on Monday, ​drawing an unusual ⁠warning from China’s central bank against meme stock investing.

“Going to the movies for a bit of fun is harmless enough, but … pinning one’s hopes on the word ‘bull’ is not rationality - it is wishful thinking,” a journal run by the People’s Bank of China said on Tuesday.

Aspiring animators hoping to repeat the low-budget flick’s ⁠success might also ​be out of luck.

“These are usually low-probability events: hard to predict and impossible to ​replicate deliberately,” said Liang Xia, an animation producer based in Shanghai.

“More often, they are driven by a swell of public emotion rather than the content itself. The content may simply serve ​as the spark that ignites.”