{"id":648,"date":"2026-08-26T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/?p=648"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:07:26","slug":"unlikely-box-office-hit-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/unlikely-box-office-hit-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely box-office hit in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Currently, one of the most popular films is the Chinese production called\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Nu Lai<\/span><\/span>. The film\u00a0<\/span>centres on Nui Lai,<\/span>\u00a0a bull wh<\/span>o\u00a0<\/span>dreams of adventures and\u00a0<\/span>must<\/span> meet certain challenges such as crossing a lake <\/span>while <\/span>learning<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>different aspects<\/span> of life alongside his mother<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0The film draws huge audiences, since its release on\u00a0August 5th it has made almost $6.7 million in China.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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At first sight, this popularity is surprising, since\u00a0<\/span>Nu Lai<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is a\u00a0low-budget\u00a0movie, produced by a mother and her son who lacked production experience. The film was\u00a0mainly made\u00a0by hand, while it took the mother-son duo five years creating the animation and voicing the characters. The mother taught herself screenwriting.\u00a0\u00a0Social media posts showed that the promotional banners were hand-drawn by cinema staff and guests.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This raises the question why such an amateur production reaches such a large audience. The answer is that this film appeals to many exactly because it is not glitzy. Initially the movie was made fun of by many, but then it quickly was regarded as a meme. It gained popularity among younger generations as a joke about how bad the animation was. However, people began to appreciate it after realizing that someone with no experience was able to create an animation. The contrast with AI generated animation became an asset. The fact that moviegoers were involved in creating banners for the movie made them stakeholders in the whole experience. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the meantime, the movie has become an international cult\u00a0sensation. Thus, the Dutch railway company has incorporated Niu Lai in its advertisement campaign on TikTok. Screenings have taken place and are planned in cinemas outside China such as in Singapore and San Francisco. The success of the film shows that one should never underestimate the work of committed amateurs, who rely on artisanship rather than sophisticated technology.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bronnen:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Director of \u2018bizarre\u2019 Chinese film Niu Lai says creators didn\u2019t want to let precision get in way of story – Independent<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chinese animated fil<\/span><\/a>m \u2018Niu Lai\u2019 becomes unexpected global hit, surpassing 45 million yuan at box office – Global Times<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Niu Lai – IMDB<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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@inzhejiang – Instagram<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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@nederlandsespoorwegen – TikTok<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currently, one of the most popular films is the Chinese production called\u00a0Nu Lai. The film\u00a0centres on Nui Lai,\u00a0a bull who\u00a0dreams of adventures and\u00a0must meet certain challenges such as crossing a lake while learning\u00a0different aspects of life alongside his mother.\u00a0The film draws huge audiences, since its release on\u00a0August 5th it has made almost $6.7 million in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgM5DJ-as","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-27.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pionaculture.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}