Alibaba’s Jack Ma to star in his own martial arts movie

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has a gift for the world this lunar new year. But, contrary to tradition, it's not a red packet stuffed with crisp bills.

Alibaba Group's movie unit announced it is releasing Mr Ma's Chinese martial arts movie globally from Friday.

Gong Shou Dao, which roughly translates as “a martial art based on guard and defense”, was created by the Alibaba founder and features actor and martial artist Jet Li alongside other stars, all of whom Alibaba says offered their time for free.

The film features Mr Ma taking on martial artists from around the world, including one bout that sees him thrown through a glass door by a sumo wrestler.

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The trailer for the film features Mr Ma, who is Asia’s richest man with a net worth of around $48bn, making a dramatic entrance by punching through a basketball.

The film, which the company says was made to promote tai chi and other martial arts, was released in China in November and has been watched 170m times online, the company said. In comparison, data blog FiveThirtyEight estimates 39m Americans have watched Titanic since its theatrical release.

Mr Ma appears to enjoy putting on a show and his performances at Alibaba company parties have a tendency to go viral, with his Michael Jackson impression and dance routine receiving global media coverage last year.

Spoiler alert: The film is unlikely to revive the fortunes of Alibaba Pictures, which reported a Rmb986m ($155m) loss for 2016.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018