LM23 Rating: Theatrical Experience
Directed By: Destin Daniel Cretton
Written By: Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham
Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung
Marvel movies even if you’re not a die hard follower of the comic books, are almost always guaranteed to be fun times. Serious film makers like Martin Scorsese have tried to reel in the fun by characterizing the Marvel Universe films as not cinema. But of course a serious film maker like Martin Scorsese would share his thoughts not on a Wix.com blog but through a New York Times op-ed. I was a huge gangster movie fan and studied the origins of the Mafia and crime for fun when I was a kid. All of my research became useful when I was able to twist my given topic of “cod fish” in my first year university English class to be about the Mafia and the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. I of course received an A on my research essay because who else would be so creative as to write about the New York mafia when you’re given the topic of cod fish? And you’re going to school in a small retirement town?
Despite my breadth of knowledge of the Mafia and crime in general, it didn’t mean that every movie about the mafia and crime was my favorite. I’m more of a Michael Mann Heat crime story fan versus a Martin Scorsese Good Fellas movie fan. I could never get with the messy, blunt violence that is a lot of Scorsese crime stories. As a pre-teen, I crossed paths a little too closely with a man who would within six months become a double murderer. I don’t really need to see “realistic” violence on the big screen or men being misogynistic. That’s why God invented the news and documentaries. And you know, real life. But, I wouldn’t say Scorsese’s style of films is not cinematic. The marvelous part about movies and entertainment is that there’s room for everybody and an audience out there for it. So even though I’m not a comic book fan, I’ll still accept Marvel movies as just that, movies.
I had never heard of Shang-Chi but I started to hear grumblings about the movie because of what the movie represented. Shang-Chi is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to star an Asian lead with Chinese-Canadian actor, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi. As a fellow Canadian of Chinese descent, I was like Hmmm, I better go check this out. This curiosity coupled with the growing buzz that the movie would be the movie to kick off “Phase 4” of the MCU was enough reason to drive downtown and sit in a theatre during the pandemic to experience the film. Like most people, I of course had to check in on the honest review ratings from YouTubers and content creators who were lucky enough to see an advance screening.
One of the Marvel-centric channels that I follow, The Reel Rejects, gave glowing reviews immediately after they attended the advance screening. But they were not the only ones. Nearly all of those who were lucky enough to see an advance screening in August heaped praise on the film that Black Widow producers were probably hoping for (I actually liked Black Widow but…). But you know, Shang-Chi was the only big film opening before the unofficial end of summer and so it’s like why not?
Shang-Chi is a Marvel movie but it’s definitely a movie unto its own. The movie opens with how Shang-Chi’s parents met. And in particular, the thousand-year journey of Shang-Chi’s father, The Mandarin (aka Wenwu and played by Tony Leung) and his life of crime and destruction as the bearer and owner of the Ten Rings. He coasts through generations of time killing and pillaging everything in his path. This sequence reminded me of Bram Stoker’s Dracula from the 90’s. Before Keanu became Neo, he was Jonathan with the bad English accent. As with most movies, it’s predictable that after chasing power and conquering the world, for most male characters including Dracula, it’s of course falling in love that would be the true turning point and achievement in their lives. But Wenwu was forced to turn back to his dark ways after the untimely death of his wife, Ying Li (Fala Chen) at the hands of some thugs who Wenwu had jilted in his past.
Meanwhile Shaun, who Shang-Chi reimagined himself to be when he ran away from his father’s evil clutches, was doing what most Millennials and young adults are doing these days. He was choosing not to maximize his work potential by working away the days away at a minimum wage job (car valet) in which money and success is just out of reach. But despite the depressing dead end job, Shaun is more interested in maximizing the fun in life like hanging out with great friends like high school bestfriend Katy (Awkwafina) and staying out late on a work night by singing extra rounds of karaoke. But those with great potential never get to stay the average Joe. Sure enough, a bus ride on the 1 California San Francisco route is the beginning of the end of Shaun and the return of Shang-Chi.
The bus fight scene that has been shown over and over in the commercials is even more spectacular than what you get in the commercials. Shaun flips, kicks, and punches in a cross between the Matrix and Mortal Kombat style as he tries to dodge a human with a sword for one arm who really wants the green pendant around Shaun’s neck. While Shaun is busy trying to save himself and his fellow bus passengers, I couldn’t help but think of the movie Speed when Katy takes the wheel after the bus driver is knocked out and falls to the floor.
The story begins to accelerate after the bus crashes and Shaun’s pendant is snatched from his neck. The main bad guy with the sword for an arm, Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu), makes sure to mouth off threats to Shaun about getting to his sister (who is currently all the way in Macau, China) before fleeing the scene. Shaun of course has to get there to protect her but Katy won’t let him go without her.
On the plane ride to Macao, Katy presses Shaun to tell her the truth about his true identity. Shaun goes in deep about how his father trained him to be a fighter and a killer. His sister was cast aside as she was a female and was forced to observe and learn on the sidelines. When Shaun was 14, his father gave him his first assignment in which he departed for good, leaving behind his father and his younger sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang). It is also on this plane ride that Shaun reveals his real name of Shang-Chi.
It’s not really clear how Shang-Chi and Katy find themselves going up an elevator and into a fight club. Maybe it was the address that was on the postcard that Shang-Chi’s sister had sent him a few months back (or did she?). Jon Jon (Ronny Chieng) with his crazy punk hairstyle is there to greet them and surprise! recruit Shang-Chi to be the next fighter because they’re down a man. His opponent? Well, who did Katy and Shang-Chi come all the way to visit? And thus begins another amazing fight sequence and more family drama to add to Shang-Chi’s past. It’s now Xialing’s turn to tell her side of the story of what happened to her when Shang-Chi left all those years ago.
Shang-Chi promised he would return from his assignment within three days. But she waited for six years until she realized he would not be coming back. And so she, too, ran away from home and began her own empire as she was not allowed in her father’s world. After Xialing triumphs over her brother, they are what appears to be the back office when Katy asks her if she runs the place. I liked the way Xialing clarified that she own the place. But it’s not exactly a family reunion when Xialing and Jon Jon make a run for it while Shang-Chi and Katy have to get themselves away from another bunch of hooligans yet again. Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing don’t get too far as Wenwu, Shang-Chi and Xialing’s dad swoops in to take them all back to his compound in a helicopter.
It’s at this point of the film where there is a pause in the bad guys are chasing the good guys and everyone must fight to a much more serious tone of the film. This is a Marvel movie, yes, but it’s also a movie about a family that has been torn apart by death, wrong choices, and neglectful parenting. It turns out Wenwu isn’t out for power and control (well, he was originally), but at this point in his life, he just wants his wife back.
He shares with his children and Katy that he heard the voice of his wife one day and that she is being held captive in Ta Lo, her ancestral village. Wenwu truly believes that his wife is alive and needs to be rescued. He even goes so far as to prove to his children that their mom has been dropping clues to them since her demise by taking the green pendants (that she gifted them and he stole from them) and places them over the eyes of a dragon sculpture. This is followed by a stunning scene in which water rushes towards them but then crystalizes in the air.
Wenwu’s belief that his wife is still alive and that they need to get to Ta Lo and rescue her, so they can be a family again really reminded me of another 90’s great movie, What Dreams May Come. For those who never saw it, long story short, Robin Williams’ character Chris ends up in heaven after his untimely death. But then he finds his way to hell in order to save the soul of his wife who committed suicide. Wenwu being able to hear his wife’s voice calling to him from the netherworld and the film itself already having mystical elements to it, made me believe that he was telling the truth and maybe this was the true plot of Shang-Chi. Perhaps there’s a real evil character still yet to be revealed and he’s holding the mother captive somewhere and only Shang-Chi is powerful enough to secure the save. I was somewhat disappointed when Shang-Chi shut that theory down fast. But Wenwu is undeterred even if it means forcing his kids to prepare for burning down the village of their mother if they won’t release her.
It’s at about this point where the movie starts to lose a bit of its momentum as Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing are tossed into a holding cell while they await their fate with Wenwu. It’s during this part of the film when a lot of lucky breaks and coincidences occur and must occur in order for the story to progress. I learned in writing class that you can just write coincidences for the plot to progress. It has to be natural and believable or it doesn’t make for a good story.
First, Katy and Shang-Chi just happen upon the fake Mandarin, Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) who for some reason has become enslaved by Wenwu as his sort of jester. I missed a lot of the story that Trevor relayed to Katy and Shang-Chi as I suddenly became enamored by the fuzzy winged koala-like creature with no face named Morris. Who knew that Shang-Chi would have a cute animal side kick like so many Disney films? Good thing Morris is best buds with Trevor or else the protagonists wouldn’t be able to make the 90%, or excuse me, 19% odds of getting through the maze of trees that guards the village of Ta Lo. Turns out, Morris’ muscle memory is just as good as Google Maps. Second, it’s been a minute, but Xialing still remembers how to escape the compound through an underground passage. The same one she used to escape the first time. And so the trio turns into a quintet as they hop into one of many fancy cars parked at Wenwu’s garage and off they go!
The first couple of acts of the film were so rich in story and progressive momentum like a well-constructed rollercoaster that it was disappointing that the supposed dangerous maze of trees that threatens to gobble them up posed no problem. Didn’t Morris say they only had a 19% chance of making it through alive? Well, it must’ve been beginner’s luck because Katy was able to drive through the towering trees that camouflaged the entrance to Ta Lo with little issue. There should’ve been more of a struggle and definitely more danger posed to the five passengers who were supposedly entering a preternatural village that no one and definitely no human should ever be able to find. Well, either Morris has great GPS skills or Katy’s valet driving skills are shining but the killer forest barely put up a fight against the trespassers.
The anticlimactic arrival to Ta Lo continued as the team was almost immediately allowed entry into the land of Ta Lo. The action and excitement may have been watered down just a little, but the cinematography was turned up and did the mystical land justice. Beautiful, brilliant colors burst through the screen. The fantastical creatures that were mixtures of other animals and creatures both real and imagined and the lush bucolic scenery reminded me again of the movie, What Dreams May Come. Ta Lo was like the mythical version of the heavenly Summerland. You can feel the peaceful nature of the land just by the joyous colors that filled the screen. And it’s a shame that that land only seems to exist in fiction.
Shang-Chi, Katy, Xialing, Trevor, and Morris encounter villagers who are guarding the way into their home. Before they can defend themselves against the intruders, Ying Nan (Michelle Yeoh), greets her nephew and niece for the first time. And so the family saga continues. Shang-Chi warns his aunt and the others that his father is coming to destroy Ta Lo as he believes his wife is being held captive there. Ying Nan believes that the voices Wenwu is hearing is not from her sister but from an evil creature from beyond. If Wenwu is successful in releasing the creature, all of their souls will be taken.
Ying Nan eventually brings Shang-Chi to a memorial for his mom, for her sister. Marvel movies despite being based on comic books, can often surprise in its heavy emotional moments. From the scene when Pepper tells Tony they’re going to be okay right before he passes on. To this scene where Shang-Chi sees a drawing of his mom in her prime, situated amongst pictures of other ancestors and people who were cared for and thought about even after they were long gone.
It’s moments like these that acknowledge Chinese traditions without banging the audience over the head with them that the film is so proficient in. The dinner table scene where the real Mandarin reveals the origins of his fake moniker being chosen over his birth name, Wenwu, he twists it into an analysis of Asian identity in a Western world. How having a Chinese name can be a tricky thing and something a lot of Chinese people who grew up in a Western world can understand. You have your English name and then you have your Chinese name. And Katy was no different as Wenwu made the “American Girl” admit to her Chinese name. I also liked that some traditions were kept as inside jokes like when Jon Jon suddenly started speaking English to the amazement of Katy and Shang-Chi by proclaiming he could talk “ABC”. For those who don’t know, that’s “American Born Chinese.”
But back to Shang-Chi and Ying Nan’s one-on-one. Now that Shang-Chi’s mom is no longer there, it’s on Ying Nan, his aunt, to remind him and teach him the correct way to fight against the Ten Rings. One of my biggest gripes about Shang-Chi is that the legend, Michelle Yeoh, and the one actress who was actually in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which everyone likes to liken the fight scenes in Shang-Chi to, was more of a glorified cameo. Sure, we got to see her drop some wisdom and coach Shang-Chi on how to fight when the time came, but the fight lesson with Shang-Chi was pretty much Yeoh’s big fight scene in the movie. But that aside, I almost forgot Shang-Chi was a Marvel superhero until Ying Nan gave Xialing and Shang-Chi the gifts their mother had saved for them when the time came. So that is how both of those characters got their signature superhero uniforms.
And back to the forced coincidences and lucky breaks. Katy of course isn’t left out of the battle prep. An older female villager shoves a bunch of bows in Katy’s arms and so there goes Katy learning how to shoot a bow and arrow because it’s all hands on deck! An older male villager orders her to “don’t die” as everyone starts to assemble. It’s this part of the movie that reminded me of not another 90’s film but of Kung Fu Panda 3 from 2016. Shang-Chi, Katy, Xialing, Ying Nan and the villagers all took time to prepare to fight and defend their land as Wenwu and his army of goons eventually, and miraculously too, found their way into Ta Lo.
The final act of the movie was a ball of emotions wrapped up into one. It was thrilling. It was scary at some points with the demons sucking up the souls of those who perished during the battle. And it was devastatingly sad. Both humans and mythical creatures fought to the bitter end. But what was most bittersweet ending when Shang-Chi and his sister Xialing managed to tag team against the evil monster, Dweller-In-Darkness, with a little help from the sea dwelling dragon, Great Protector. The brother and sister duo triumphed after the other big battle when Shang-Chi and Wenwu took a detour to try to kill each other. But when the time came, Shang-Chi refused to finish his father off, and let the Ten Rings fall to the ground.
In a moment when you started to believe that father and son could finally put their differences aside, Wenwu is captured by the evil monster with no hope of being rescued. I couldn’t have been the only one who shed a few tears when Shang-Chi watches helplessly as his father starts to fade away with flashbacks of only the good times between the two. Shang-Chi’s life with his father flashes before his eyes (or is it his father’s eyes?) from the current day and all the way back to when he was a chubby baby boy in his dad’s arms. These are the complications of family. One moment you’re fighting but as soon as one dies, you start to miss them.
Shang-Chi is filled to the brim with can’t miss scenes. But Shang-Chi would’ve been just another mediocre superhero movie that attempts to coast on its brand and name recognition without the high calibre fight scenes. There’s a fight scene for everyone. From modern day street fighting like the sequence on the bus to the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon mystical martial arts fighting as showcased in the flashbacks and when the movie location moves to Shang-Chi’s mother’s home village of Ta Lo. I’m not going to say I know much about the different styles of fighting and martial arts, but I knew I was not bored whenever it was time to fight. The fights were very different from each other and the viewer had a close and personal experience during the fight scenes.
With most Marvel movies, Shang-Chi offers up a very well balanced amount of action, seriousness, and humor. You at times forget that it’s a Marvel movie or a superhero movie because the movie is dense with story. At the crux of Shang-Chi, it’s about family. Not Fast & Furious Dominic Toretto's version of family, but complicated mother, father, brother, sister, extended family, and friends as family and their familial bonds and separations. That kind of family. As if that wasn’t enough, layer on top of that a Chinese family with roots in both China, America, and another dimension. The crossover between the different worlds was very much respected in Shang-Chi. I think some people may be surprised at how much Mandarin is spoken throughout the film. It brought even more authenticity to the film I think, than having the Chinese characters speak only in English but with a Chinese accent as most films tend to do with foreign characters. Shang-Chi not only gambled on keeping it real with the cultural differences, but the film also didn’t force a love match between Shang-Chi and Katy like Spider-Man and MJ. The only romantic love story in the film was the one between Wenwu and Ying Li. But bigger than that, there was the love of family in Shang-Chi that stretched across time and time zones.
For those old guard, old school, or just old directors from yesteryear, I can see why they may not want to embrace the belief that a quality movie can be made from a comic book. I mean, I still remember teachers being all perturbed about kids bringing comic books for reading time. FYI, comic books are not appropriate reading material because they don’t use proper English. Sure, there may be superhero movies that are just 3-D versions of the comic and nothing else. But Shang-Chi is a movie. It has mystical elements to it that can be seen as cartoon-like, but it’s not a caricature. After sitting through not one but two Marvel signature end credit scenes, I left the theatre feeling proud for all Asians and happy for those who didn’t waste their hard earned money on tickets and popcorn. I knew I liked the film because it was the first time in a long time that I was doing something during off work hours, and I didn’t think about anything but the movie in front of me as it was happening. It was like that feeling you get when you’ve just chewed the fat with some friends and you didn’t notice the two hours fly by. And when it’s time to call it quits and go home, you leave feeling good about yourself and life and everything at that moment. Shang-Chi is stealth in the way it pulls you in for more than two hours, but trust that the time and money you spend is worth it.
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