LM23 Rating: Watch it after you watch Shang-Chi
Behind the scenes or BTS footage can sometimes feel redundant or robotic. Telling the story behind the story isn’t always that exciting unless you’re really into the story.
For those who are big fans of Shang-Chi, this Assembled episode that runs an hour long is like a dear diary time capsule of the making of the first Marvel Asian superhero movie. The making of episode reveals the long labor of love that all of those behind Shang-Chi gave to the movie.
What I loved about this Assembled episode is that it starts off with the lead actor, Simu Liu talking about how he played Spiderman at kids parties and he had to because he couldn’t show his face. We take for granted that everyone can be a fan of the movies and be a fan of comics, but there will be a great resistance and refusal to allow certain characters like Spiderman to be played by the millions who look like Simu Liu. And let’s not get started with who’s going to be the next James Bond, but I think we can all agree that it most likely will never be an Asian man because…and you can fight it out about the reasons why.
Whether people like to keep it real or not, there needs to be an acknowledgement about how ground breaking Shang-Chi is. When was the last time a superhero on the level of a Marvel brand was played by an Asian man? It’s 2021 and there’s finally one. Being the first is always the hardest and the bar is set at its highest. There’s really only one shot at making Shang-Chi a star and everyone had to bring their A game to the table.
In this BTS documentary of sorts, the viewer learns just how committed everyone involved in the film from the actors to the director to the writers to the set designers and stunt people and on and on… You just have to admire at how dedicated and committed the team was in bringing this historic moment to life. There really was no stone or detail left unturned. I didn’t realize how much care and attention was paid to objects and interiors and costumes that may not even have seen the light of day in the final cut of the film. I’ll be really surprised if Shang-Chi is not nominated for Oscars in design, costume, cinematography, and visual effects.
Perhaps the best part of the BTS was seeing a peak at the work done for the fight scenes. The building scaffolding fight scene and the premiere fight scene on the bus was more than just movie magic. It was also a combination of real people and real sets.
Oftentimes the fun of watching a movie overlooks the real work that has to be done in order to make it look so fun and cool. Movies are hard work. It requires mental and physical endurance in addition to creativity and intelligence. I’ve never worked in movies, but I worked on the business side of entertainment and it’s MF work.
It’s also a triumph for the film to overcome the start of the pandemic in the midst of filming, and this was also addressed in the Assembled episode.
Hopefully Shang-Chi is just the first of many installments and this Assembled episode will make you want this group of talented artists to come back together again for some more.
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