Poorly animated yellow cows walking on two legs, raw voice acting, and extremely slow pace — these are characteristics of China’s most recent box office hit and viral phenomenon.

Released Aug. 5 after virtually no promotion, the movie, “Niu Lai,” or “Cow Comes,” is named for its titular character: a calf who struggles to stand. The film follows Niu Lai and his herd as they overcome a number of difficulties while migrating, eventually growing up into an able-bodied adult cow unfazed in the face of danger. Except, Niu Lai awakens, realizing that he is still a calf — but he is finally able to support his own weight. 

The movie, reported to have no financial backing, earned just 5,500 yuan ($815) at the box office in its first week. But after multiple viewers posted images of the film on social media criticizing it, that number suddenly surged to over 710,000 yuan on Aug. 15, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. As of Tuesday afternoon, it has taken in 20 million yuan, a figure projected to grow to 135 million yuan by the time it leaves screens.

The reason for its explosive popularity? Its absurdist visuals and overall crude production design have turned it into a word-of-mouth viral phenomenon. The characters’ legs rarely move in sync, making them appear like they’re sliding. Close-ups of their heads are overblown and blurry. Transitions between scenes are jarring and illogical, and the characters’ voices are poorly recorded and overly stilted. 

The effect has led to highly polarized ratings on domestic review platform Douban, with many giving it either one or five stars. As one highly upvoted comment on Maoyan reads, “You don’t have to watch bad movies, but when a movie is bad enough, you have to.” 

Wang Yunfei, the founder of a cartoon studio and an acting animated film judge at various film festivals, told Shanghai-based media outlet The Paper, “Professional animators couldn’t produce something this poorly even if they made mistakes. So from a professional standpoint, there’s really nothing to critique. It’s just spectacle-watching.”

The movie’s unexpectedly raw, homemade production has also been regarded by critics and viewers alike as a rebuke to high-investment but poorly reviewed films. 

“Niu Lai” was produced by Jingyuan Culture Film and Television Media, based in the northeastern city of Dalian, which was converted from a one-person renovation company, according to corporate data platform Qichacha.

The renovator in question is the film’s creator, 34-year-old Xin Yumeng, who made it alongside his mother, Sun Lifang. The pair reportedly had no background in animation and made the film over five years, without the help of AI. They also provided the voices for the characters, while Sun composed and sang the film’s theme song. 

On a domestic radio show, Xin said that he made the film out of a love for animated films, and chose a cow as the protagonist because his father was born in the Year of the Ox.

As for the quality of the film, Xin added that much of the equipment he bought secondhand for the film’s production eventually broke down. “Even the computer motherboards burned out ... The final result has a lot to do with the equipment used.”

Le Fumin, a 35-year-old security worker from Shanghai, told domestic media that he liked that “Niu Lai” was made by two ordinary people, rather than having large film-industry backing. “It shows a bit of rebellion against the assembly-line formula of mainstream filmmaking,” he said. “Why should I only be allowed to watch what the industry feeds me? The kind of happiness I choose for myself is worth the ticket price, too.”

Le said the atmosphere in the theater was particularly relaxed. “Over the course of two hours, the pressure of meeting KPIs at work, the exhaustion of commuting, and all the troubles of everyday life just melted away with the laughter of the whole theater,” he said. “It felt like returning to something simple and genuine — like the carefree feeling of watching random films in a video rental shop as a kid.”

As “Niu Lai” has risen in popularity, fan-made tributes to it have spread online and offline, with some putting up similarly rudimentary, hand-drawn posters outside cinemas in its honor. Others have placed Niu Lai into posters for recent international box office hits such as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.” 

Even stocks of three companies with “niu” in their names — Jinniu Chemical Industry, Goneo Group, and Tongniu Information — shot into the top five trending list on domestic finance data platform Tonghuashun over the weekend, as the film’s title can be interpreted as “the bull market is coming,” domestic media reported.

Other entities are also capitalizing on the film’s virality, creating their own animal-based animated shorts to promote products. On Monday, local authorities for Dongguan City in the southern Guangdong province produced a video titled “E Lai,” or “Goose Comes,” to promote the city’s local specialty — roast goose — garnering more than 26,000 likes on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.  

For most, however, the movie is simply about having fun. Mak SzeNing, a 27-year-old pet care worker from Hong Kong, watched the film in the eastern city of Hangzhou at a nearly sold-out screening. “I don’t think the movie’s value lies in its production quality,” she told Sixth Tone. “Its value is that it brings a group of strangers into the same theater, and suddenly everyone feels like they’ve found their kindred spirits and laughs together.”

“If a movie can make people laugh, then I think it’s a good movie,” she said.

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.

(Header image: A still from “Niu Lai.” From Douban)