Alibaba to use ecommerce stores to promote first movie, produced by Wong Kar-wai

Ecommerce titan Alibaba revealed over the weekend that it has tapped iconic Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai for its first movie. It’s being made by Alibaba Pictures, which was formed last year after the firm took a majority stake in ChinaVision for US$804 million.

Wong, perhaps best known for films like Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love, has been signed by Alibaba Pictures as a producer for the movie. The director is Zhang Jiajia (Update on January 13: The preceding two sentences are changed to correct an error. Wong is not the director. The headline has also been changed to reflect this). Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, who has appeared in many of the Wong’s movies, will be the male lead. The new film, a romantic drama, is called Bai Du Ren (literally “The Ferryman”).

Alibaba will use Taobao and Tmall, its main Chinese estores, to promote the film, the company revealed on its blog. Some of the merchants on the marketplace will also be tapped to make merchandise. “In addition to streaming media and other digital entertainment products, the company plans to develop licensed products that will be spun off from entertainment projects. Alibaba Pictures says it will partner with retailers hosted on Alibaba shopping websites to design and sell derivative products,” the company said.

Taobao and Tmall have more than a quarter of a billion active shoppers, so there’s a large captive audience for promos and merchandise for the new movie.

It marks a radical new way for a movie to be marketed and sold in China. Perhaps the closest analog in the US is Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime. Amazon scored a major coup earlier today when Transparent nabbed a Golden Globes award.

Bai Du Ren does not yet have a release date.

See: Jack Ma’s shopping spree: Here’s everything Alibaba invested in or acquired in 2014