Hong Kong Film Art Association Partners with Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong to Launch First AI Animated Film Project Led by Local Secondary School Students

Adapted from the Hong Kong comic The Fantasy Swordsmen to advance the "AI for All" initiative through film education

Hong Kong, July 14, 2026 – Alibaba Cloud, a leading global provider of AI infrastructure and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, today held the launch ceremony for its “Alibaba Cloud Hong Kong AI Animated Film Production Project” at The Mission Covenant Church Holm Glad College, marking the commencement of the first AI-generated animated film creation led by secondary school students. In support of the Hong Kong SAR Government's “AI for All” drive, the project represents a new milestone in making AI-powered filmmaking more accessible and educational.

The project is being developed in collaboration with renowned Hong Kong comic artist Fung Chi Ming, creator of the classic comic series The Three Swordsmen. By harnessing AI technology, the initiative reimagines this iconic Hong Kong IP for a new generation. Students crafted an original story featuring the comic's well-known characters — Big Knife, Ming Jian, and Smiling Sam — exploring the impact of AI development on human society.

Set in a dystopian future triggered by an AI crisis, this science-fiction action animated film follows a protagonist who travels through time to locate a key individual in order to confront an ambitious AI army. The project examines themes of technology ethics, identity, trust, and collaboration, while testing the feasibility of producing a film entirely via AI-powered creative workflows built on Alibaba Cloud’s AI models and platforms.

The project is powered by WonderClip, Alibaba Cloud's end-to-end AI video creation platform, which integrates Alibaba's AI models, including HappyHorse, to deliver a one-stop production environment spanning the entire creative process, from concept development to final editing. At the launch ceremony, students presented footage and videos of 10–15 AI-generated character designs created during the course of the project, alongside a two-minute trailer, offering an early glimpse of AI-powered filmmaking in action.

Fung Chi Ming, Hong Kong Comic Artist and Creator of The Three Swordsmen, said: “I have spent decades on comic creation, and every line and panel of The Three Swordsmen carries my passion. AI has opened an Anywhere Door for me. Rather than replacing creation, it helps me bring the worlds in my imagination to life in more diverse ways. Through Alibaba Cloud’s AI technology, these revitalized characters now allow young people to reinterpret the universe of The Fantasy Swordsmen through a fresh lens, which is a perfect demonstration of technology and art working in harmony.”

Ho Fung, Film Director and Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Art Association, said: “For over two decades, the Hong Kong Film Art Association has been promoting film and visual arts in schools, previously spearheading the production of War of the Youth, the first commercially released theatrical film driven by students in Hong Kong. Building on that legacy, we are once again breaking new ground for both the education and film industry by creating the world’s first AI-powered theatrical film in collaboration with secondary school students. We hope this initiative will nurture a new generation of AI media creators, integrate technology, art, and social practice, and help students turn what they have learned into tangible project outcomes.”

As the partnered school for the initiative, The Mission Covenant Church Holm Glad College has provided strong support in terms of facilities and resources. Most participating students come from the school's campus television team and share a strong interest in visual arts. Around ten students have been recruited to take part in the film’s production. Upon completion, the film is expected to be commercially released to the public. Looking ahead, Alibaba Cloud plans to expand the initiative to additional schools, supporting the Hong Kong government's vision of promoting "AI for All" and developing the cultural and creative industries.

Ethan Yuan, Vice President of International Business, Regional General Manager of APAC North Region, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, said: “The Three Swordsmen is part of the collective memory for generations of Hong Kong readers. Through Alibaba Cloud's AI platform, we are transforming these classic characters into dynamic visuals, while deploying a technical team to work side by side with teachers and students to explore the feasibility of AI-driven filmmaking. We believe technology must take root in classrooms, empowering young people to become creators. Hong Kong has strong potential to become a regional pioneer in AI-powered film production, and Alibaba Cloud is fully committed to driving collaborative innovation between technology and the cultural sectors.”

For more than a decade, Alibaba Cloud has been committed to nurturing local technology talent in Hong Kong. From cloud computing courses for secondary schools reaching over 20 institutions, to collaborations with tertiary institutions and various organizations to advance technology education, these sustained efforts continue to cultivate a new generation of tech talent in Hong Kong and inject innovation across industries. Building on these efforts, the AI animated film project represents the next step in Alibaba Cloud's talent development commitment. Beyond showcasing the growing convergence of AI and the film industry, the initiative provides students with valuable hands-on experience and opens a new chapter for AI-powered film education in Hong Kong.

HappyHorse is a video-generation model launched by Alibaba Group. Built on a native multimodal architecture, it generates video and audio jointly in a single pass. The model supports multiple creation workflows, including text-to-video and image-to-video, while offering flexible post-production editing capabilities. The latest upgrade, HappyHorse 1.1, delivers systematic improvements in motion expressiveness, subject consistency, instruction following, visual quality, and audio performance. Since its debut in April 2026, the model has been applied in content production scenarios such as short-form drama, e-commerce advertising, brand marketing, and game CG.

“WonderClip” is an end-to-end AI video creation platform launched by Alibaba Cloud. It brings together Alibaba’s self-developed leading video and image generation models, including HappyHorse, Wan, and Qwen-image, to deliver a full-chain solution covering script analysis, storyboard generation, video synthesis, and post-production. The platform streamlines the entire workflow from concept to final cut, significantly boosting production efficiency for industries such as AI anime short dramas, marketing videos, and creative video content.

About Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is a global leader in full-stack AI+Cloud solutions. It offers a comprehensive suite of flexible, scalable and secure cloud services built on a three-tiered architecture of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Model-as-a-Service (MaaS). Alibaba Cloud empowers enterprises worldwide with its full-stack AI capabilities, powered by Qwen (Chinese: Qianwen), a family of large language and multimodal AI models developed by Alibaba. Debuted in 2023, Qwen models are available to global developers via HuggingFace (open-weight) or through API on Model Studio, Alibaba’s one-stop, enterprise-grade AI development platform offering access to the full suite of Qwen foundation models.