BEIJING, Aug. 16 -- A tiny Chinese animated film made by just two people - and initially dismissed for its crude visuals - has unexpectedly become one of the country's most talked-about movies, with commentators now framing its sudden popularity as a form of collective "performance art".

The film, Niu Lai ("Here Comes the Ox"), was released on August 5 in 245 cinemas but earned just 7,169 yuan in its first nine days. Its poster, a delicate ink-wash painting, bore little resemblance to the film's rough 3D animation, prompting early viewers to call it "disaster-level" and "worse than AI-generated".

But after clips circulated on social media, the film's notoriety triggered a wave of curiosity. Within days, box office takings surged past 20...