经济学人：一头牛，成了中国今年最赚钱的 "摇钱树"

作者：经济学人      来源：一天一篇外刊

TO MANY grown-ups, the cartoon film “Niu Lai” would be 86 minutes of torture. Yet in recent days cinemas across China have been packed with older audiences happily enduring its crudely animated depiction of a bullock’s dream about motherly love and threatening predators. No matter that the film is excruciatingly slow-paced, with long seconds of silence as its characters merely blink. On a typical day in late August earnings at the box office were the seventh highest in China, just behind a new Hollywood blockbuster, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”. The cartoon has become a meme-driven frenzy.

对很多成年人来说，看动画电影《牛来》无异于86分钟的煎熬。可近几日，全国各地影院里坐满了大人，对这部画风粗糙的动画电影看的津津有味。电影讲述的是一头公牛梦见母爱、又梦见凶险掠食者的故事。电影节奏缓慢，连角色眨个眼，都要好几秒。但在八月下旬的一个普通不过的日子里，这部电影票房高居全国第七，仅排在新上映的好莱坞大片《蜘蛛侠：崭新的一天》之后。这部电影，已经演变成一场由网络梗点燃的狂欢。

Western audiences have turned trashy films into cult classics: “The Room”, an American film released in 2003, became so notorious for its bad acting and appalling script and set design that audiences flocked to see it for laughs. “Niu Lai”, which is the bullock’s name (it means “the bull is coming”), has a similar attraction: a copy of it on YouTube, apparently filmed in a Chinese cinema with a mobile phone, drew more than 1.1m views before being deleted. The chuckles of the Chinese audience (the film is not supposed to be funny) are clearly audible.

把烂片捧成经典西方观众早有先例。2003年上映的美国电影《房间》，因演技拙劣、剧本和布景糟糕烂透而臭名昭著，但观众反而成群结队地去看，就为图一乐。"牛来"（那头公牛的名字）意思是 "牛要来了"—— 也有同样的吸引力：海外视频平台上有一段该片的片段，似乎是一些人在某家影院用手机偷拍的，被删之前播放量已超过 110万。视频里，中国观众的笑声清晰可闻（这片子本来不该好笑的）。

Yet in China, where big-budget films dominate the market, the popularity of "Niu Lai"—an independent production by a mother-and-son team on a shoestring budget—is a remarkable phenomenon. Young people have flooded China's social media with comments that often go beyond mere catcalling. On Weibo, one of the most popular platforms, posts with the hashtag "Niu Lai" have been viewed more than 170m times: well over the count (100m) for the hashtag of China's currently hottest movie: "Once Upon a Time in the Middle East". That one is a big-budget film about a Chinese cook's heroism in a war-torn Middle East, a heart-warming tale that has moved many viewers.

在这样一个大制作主导的电影市场里，一部由母子二人用微薄预算独立拍成的电影能如此火爆，本身就是个了不起的现象。年轻人的评论刷屏了社交媒体，而且往往远不只是起哄。在人气最高的平台之一微博上，带 "牛来" 话题的帖子浏览量已超过1.7 亿次，远超目前中国最火的电影#中东往事#话题的1亿次浏览。这是一部大投资大制作，讲的是中国厨师在战乱的中东展现的英雄故事，温情动人。

作者：经济学人      来源：一天一篇外刊