Everyone loves a good team-up story and the roster of the upcoming online martial arts short “Gong Shou Dao” is one that’ll get your pulse racing! With Asian action legends Donnie Yen, Wu Jing and Jet Li, who also executive-produced the project, already confirmed to appear earlier this fall, the newly released poster art confirms additional appearances by Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-ping, and Tony Jaa (who will soon be seen in another martial arts ensemble, the upcoming “Triple Threat“).
Surprisingly, the list of martial arts masters doesn’t stop there! Also appearing in the film are Natasha Liu Bordizzo of “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny”, Olympic Boxing champ Zhou Shiming, Mongolian Sumo wrestler Asahoryu Akinori, renown action director Tony Ching Siu-tung, Li’s recent “League of Gods” co-star Jacky Heung, and Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma.
A long-time friend of Jet Li‘s, Ma is a devoted practitioner of Tai Chi, having co-founded TaijiZen.com with Li in 2011, and even gone as far as to incorporate the practice of Tai Chi for employees of Alibaba Group. Li has somewhat receded from action films in recent years, having placed greater emphasis on his philanthropic work through The One Foundation and Taiji Zen, but “Gong Shou Dao” will reportedly serve as something of a hybrid of both endeavours. As Li explained in a recent interview, the film is part of a larger push on his and Ma’s part to bring Tai Chi to the Olympics as a competitive event bearing the same name.
“Gong Shou Dao” was filmed in Ma’s native Hangzhou and is set to release on November 11th via the Chinese video channel Youku, just in time for the Alibaba Group Global Shopping Festival. Of the film’s ensemble cast and larger ambitions, Li is quoted as saying:
“We all have the same dream with the aim to promote China’s excellent traditional culture and a tribute to the predecessors in the field of Taiji, Kung Fu and Martial Arts. The timing seems to be perfect and everyone involved in this project were so enthusiastic in making it happen.”
Stay tuned for more info on “Gong Shou Dao” as it arrives ahead of the film’s November 11th release!
