Get bullish about 'it's so bad that it's good'

China's box office has just been ambushed by Niu Lai - literally 'the bull is coming' - an awful 86-min animated (sic) movie so derided by everyone for its crude graphics and clunky storytelling that audiences are flocking to see it just for those qualities. Made over 5 yrs by a mother-son duo armed with second-hand equipment, the film that stumbled into cinemas on August 5 - earning just 7,000 renminbi in its first 10 days - is now a viral storm. Ghastly reviews and memes have made it a phenom, especially for China's stock market investors who see in the title the wish for a 'bull run'. By mid-August, Niu Lai has grossed over 21 mn renminbi, competing with Hollywood blockbusters and some fancy flick about a wandering Greek hero.

We should be taking notes. Our regional cinema of the 80s-90s pioneered the 'So bad that it's good' genre: melodramatic villains, rubber daggers, dialogue so wooden it could double as furniture, a Tamil hero battling a plastic dinosaur, a Bhojpuri romance filmed entirely in a living room, or a Kannada thriller undone by bad editing. These cult flops could now be ripe for digital resurrection or even inspiration. With the deadly delivery combo of the smartphone and internet, Indian kitsch could brand this revival as Parallel Cinema 2.0. And like the two makers of Niu Lai, it could also laugh its way to the bank.