"Gong shou dao" or "Guardians of Martial Arts" is a new Chinese Mandarin-language movie from this year (2017) that is not even a month old. It runs for 23 minutes only and was written and directed by prolific actor Zhang Wen. The main character is played by Jack Ma, but the fact that he is called Master Ma says a lot about the film already. It is definitely on the pretentious side and not just a bit. Those who don't know: Ma is a super rich investor from China and no surprise that with all his money he got several big names to show up in here, such as Jet Li, Manny Pacquiao and some others that may sound more familiar to people with a bigger interest in martial arts (films) than myself. Some more successful athletes in here except Manny it seems. No surprise Ma managed to get them in as he could virtually pay every price they'd ask for. Anyway, we have Ma here in the center of the story showing us his skills and beating up the bad guys most of the time. I read that Ma really has an affiliation with martial arts, so it is even more disappointing how weak this one turned out and it will encourage the critics saying that the world of film (at least as an actor) is nothing for the financial genius. They may be right. This one here gets a thumbs-down from me and I suggest you skip it.
