Why Chinese film-goers are flocking to a movie they hate

Niu Lai’s runaway success is not an endorsement of its quality. Audiences are paying for the perverse enjoyment of seeing how bad it gets

On Saturday, its box office climbed to 717,000 yuan and reached more than 11 million yuan on Monday. Its accumulated earnings placed it in the top 10 of China’s domestic animated film box office charts for this year.

The trick to the film’s sudden popularity? It was so bad that people flocked to see it. The film has been criticised for its “rough” and “broken” style and confusing plot. The oxen characters look like piled up, colourful boxes and present a weird, almost humanlike smile. The Beijing News described the animation as “stiff and glitchy” and the voice acting as “jarring”.

At first, some people posted memes online about how bad the film was, The Beijing News reported. Then the film went viral and people’s curiosity spiked. The audience began demanding more showings, and within a day the film’s screenings across the country increased from 21 to 359.

Public interest in the film increased after it emerged that it was made by two people: director and self-taught filmmaker Xin Yumeng and his mother Sun Lifang. Xin handled nearly every key role, while Sun wrote the screenplay, provided voice acting and sang the ending credits song. The duo took five years to painstakingly craft the 86-minute film frame by frame, working from a home computer without a professional crew or outsourcing any tasks.

Niu Lai ’s sudden popularity was a blow to some people in the film industry, especially those who consider themselves serious filmmakers. Director Liu Bing wrote about feeling envious as his team aimed for 100,000 yuan in box office for their latest film, a mark Niu Lai surpassed in one day.