A low-budget Chinese animated film about a young bull has become one of the most talked-about releases in the country's cinemas, earning more than 59 million yuan (around $8.7 million) against what is reported to be a minuscule production budget.
Niu Lai, which follows a young bull and his mother as they cross a desert in search of safety, was created over five years by a mother-and-son team, Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang, using secondhand architectural modelling software. Neither had prior experience in filmmaking or animation.
The film's early reception gave little indication of its eventual success. According to accounts from its distributor, industry advisers had suggested the film was not strong enough for release. The distributor has said in interviews that he agreed to place it in a small number of cinemas as a favour to the director, a personal friend. In its first ten days on release, fewer than 300 people are reported to have seen it.
Word of the film began spreading on Chinese social media, and its audience grew rapidly, culminating in the viral popularity it now enjoys. Some commentators have suggested its box office return relative to its reported budget could make it one of the most profitable films ever made.
The film's animation style has been compared to video game cutscenes from the 1990s, and its pacing has been described by some viewers as slow and unconventional. The narrative includes several standalone sequences depicting the young bull learning life lessons, alongside encounters with an injured bird, a lost leopard and a pursuing pack of wolves, before the story is revealed to have been a dream.
Reactions among cinema audiences have reportedly been mixed, with some viewers responding with laughter during serious scenes, lending weight to comparisons drawn between Niu Lai and other films regarded as "so bad they're good", such as the American cult film The Room.
Not all viewers share this characterisation, however. Fang Jun, a 52-year-old graduate photography student based in Taipei, watched the film during a visit to Guangzhou and said he had expected a film that was "so bad it becomes interesting". After watching it, he described Niu Lai instead as "an art film, a magical realism one", pointing to recurring visual symbolism, including shots of a cross-shaped tree that appear to foreshadow later events involving the mother bull.
The film's success has been discussed in the context of the growing prevalence of artificial intelligence-generated content in Chinese media, including AI news presenters used by state broadcasters and the increasing use of AI tools in the production of short-form drama series. Leonard Ko, a Taiwan-based television filmmaker who works frequently across China, said AI-generated material, sometimes referred to as "AI slop", is now widespread in the country.
Observers have suggested that the visible imperfections and handmade quality of Niu Lai may have contributed to its appeal at a time when technically polished, AI-assisted video content has become increasingly common and, to some viewers, less distinctive. As AI tools make it easier to produce visually refined footage, some commentators argue that the novelty and unpredictability of amateur, human-made work has taken on renewed value for audiences.
This dynamic has also been noted in relation to other creative fields. Earlier this year, the literary journal Granta faced criticism after publishing a Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner that some readers believed showed signs of AI-generated writing. Granta subsequently ended its relationship with the organisation responsible for selecting the story.
Discussion around Niu Lai has drawn comparisons with the broader tradition of "trash cinema" and cult films valued for their distinctive, if technically flawed, qualities, as distinct from technically accomplished but formulaic content. Commentators have suggested that as AI-generated media becomes more common, audiences may increasingly seek out work that reflects clear human authorship and creative risk-taking, even where technical execution is limited.
Niu Lai continues to draw audiences in Chinese cinemas, with its unconventional production story, modest origins and unexpected commercial success contributing to its ongoing online discussion.
