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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

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  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

    Newcomer Simu Liu is set to star as Shang-Chi, and will be the first Asian lead in a Marvel movie to date.

    Awkwafina, who we seen most recently in The Farewell will also star alongside Tony Leung. Destin Daniel Cretton is set to direct.


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        • #5
          I went to see it twice. It was an amazing martial arts film. It was a very standalone story that anyone could come into and not feel like they’d have had to have watched 22+ films prior to understand. It was a pure introduction of new characters and a new world. It’s still to be seen if Shang-Chi will have done what Black Panther did for the black communities if it wasn’t for COVID + the 45-day release; it’s still going to do great for the post-COVID era of cinema…I just assume we won’t be getting any billion dollar grossing movie for awhile.

          [SPOILER] Thousands of years ago, Xu Wenwu finds the ten rings, mystical weapons that grant their user immortality and great power. Wenwu amasses an army called the Ten Rings and conquers many kingdoms and topples governments throughout history. In 1996, Wenwu begins searching for Ta Lo, a village said to harbor various mythical beasts, in order to expand his power. He travels through a magical forest to the village entrance, but is stopped from entering by village guardian Ying Li. It was the first fight scene of the movie and it was quite a beautiful dance as Ying Li easily defeated Wenwu.

          The two fall in love, but the village rejects Wenwu, so Li leaves with him. They have two children, Shang-Chi and Xialing. Wenwu abandons the rings and his organization to be with his family. When Shang-Chi is 7, Li is murdered by Wenwu's enemies, the Iron Gang. Wenwu once again takes up the rings to massacre the Iron Gang, resumes leadership of his organization, and has Shang-Chi undergo brutal training in martial arts. When Shang-Chi is 14, Wenwu sends him to assassinate the Iron Gang's leader. After fulfilling his mission, a traumatized Shang-Chi escapes to San Francisco, adopting the name "Shaun". They never actually show Shang-Chi killing the leader it is only revealed later on that that’s what happened.

          In the present day, Shang-Chi works as a valet with his best friend, Katy. While at dinner we hear how they met and became friends. As one of their friends suggests, neither one is living up to their potential. They feel embarrassed about that so afterwards they head off to drink and sing karaoke.

          Next morning they are at Katy’s apartment with her mother, grandmother and brother after some banter; if feels so authentic to Asian cultures that I absolutely loved it; it reminded me of the Farewell (another Awkwafina lead film). They head off to work on public transportation. They are attacked by men from the Ten Rings, including Razor Fist, who steals a pendant that Li had given to Shang-Chi. The whole bus scene was incredible and as I here was in homage to a Jackie Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx…I love those little details.

          Wenwu anonymously provides Shang-Chi with the location of his sister, Xialing. Fearing that the Ten Rings will go after Xialing's pendant, Shang-Chi decides to meet her. He reveals his past to Katy, who insists on helping him. They find Xialing at an underground fight club in Macau, which she founded after escaping from Wenwu. While at the fight we see Wong fighting the Abomination; the fight is fixed. Than we get the main attraction when unbeknownst to Shang he has to fight his sister. Xialing easily beats Shang.

          The fight club is attacked by the Ten Rings. In their attempt to escape they have a great fight scene on the side of the building’s scaffolding where the action zigzags throughout. Wenwu unexpectedly arrives capturing Shang-Chi, Katy, and Xialing.

          They are taken to the Ten Rings' compound, where Wenwu uses the pendants to create a water map to Ta Lo. Wenwu reveals he has heard Li calling to him, saying that she has been held captive in Ta Lo behind a sealed gate. He declares that he will destroy the village if they do not free her. When his children and Katy object, he imprisons them. The three meet in a surprise reveal our original fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3 former actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), whom the Ten Rings imprisoned for impersonating Wenwu, and his hundun companion Morris (a plush doll is probably ready for the holidays), who proposes to guide them to Ta Lo. The group breaks out of the compound and drives to Ta Lo, which has various Chinese mythological creatures. Trevor has a hilarious moment concerning the acting of the apes in “Planet of the Apes” before they traverse through the bamboo forest to get to the entrance of Ta Lo.

          They warn the village of the Ten Rings and meet Ying Nan, Li's sister. She reveals to the group the history of Ta Lo: thousands of years ago, it was attacked by the soul-consuming Boss Soul Sucker and its minions. However, the village was saved by a dragon called the Great Protector, who helped seal off the gate. According to Nan, the Soul Sucker has been influencing Wenwu into believing Li is still alive so that he will open the gate. Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Katy train and prepare for Wenwu's arrival, and are given outfits and weapons crafted from dragon scales (the only thing that will penetrate/kill the creatures).

          Wenwu and the Ten Rings arrive; a battle ensues. Wenwu and Shang-Chi fight, which ends with Wenwu casting Shang-Chi into the nearby lake. It is when Shang-Chi is on the lake’s bottom that he meets dragon. Wenwu begins breaking the seal with the rings, which unbeknownst to him causes many of the Mega creature’s soul suckers to escape and attack the humans. The villagers and the Ten Rings join forces to fight the soul suckers. Shang-Chi is revived by the Great Protector, who leaves the lake on top of dragon to battle the soul suckers. Wenwu and Shang-Chi fight once more, with Shang-Chi emerging victorious. The Mega Soul Sucker eventually escapes the weakened seal and attacks Shang-Chi. Wenwu saves Shang-Chi, passing him the rings before his soul is sucked and killed by the Mega Soul Sucker. Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Katy battle the Mega Soul Sucker, which is ultimately killed by Shang-Chi who uses the rings to explode him from the inside. The group later pays respect to those lost in the fight by casting lanterns into the lake.

          Shang-Chi and Katy return to San Francisco, where they are summoned by Wong to accompany him to the Sanctum Sanctorum. In a mid-credits scene, the trio speak with Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers, and discover that the ten rings are emitting a mysterious signal. In a post-credits scene, Xialing becomes the new leader of the Ten Rings. So I’m assuming that the beacon will be a through line for however many films until the reveal of who or what is at the other end of that beacon. And curious if Xialing will align with Valentina (not that she showed up but Xialing could fit into this antihero team Val is recruiting for or at least an ally of hers).

          The entire ending felt like a mix of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Raya and the Last Dragon, & Mortal Kombat…for obvious reasons.
          [/SPOILER]

          I’m so excited to see where they’re heading. We don’t know where a story like this is going and it’s exciting for that main reason.
          Last edited by darkphoenix21; 09-07-2021, 09:59 AM.

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          • #6
            The Ten Rings have been present since 2008 with Iron Man. You see another Ten Rings member in Iron Man 2. Iron Man 3 seemingly features the Mandarin, which was then followed up by the short film All Hail the King, where it was revealed that the Mandarin was a real person, whose name had been appropriated for Ben Kingsley's character (and he wanted it back). So, it does end up feeling like they've teased and building towards this for a very long time. This organization and its powerful leader doesn't just appear out of nowhere, which is something that sometimes happens. Suddenly, there is a powerful organization that have never been seen or mentioned before, but is played up as having existed for a looong time.

            Thought that the film was okay (not the biggest lover of martial arts films). I quite liked the character of Katy: a Chinese American character, who seemingly goes against every Asian stereotype in the world.

            Though, when they came to Ta Lo, I couldn't help but feel like I was basically watching a Chinese version of Black Panther and Wakanda. Ta Lo uses dragon scales for their weapons. Wakanda uses vibranium. Ta Lo is hidden by a magical forest. Wakanda is hidden by a hologram of a mountain. Xialing (who is apparently an amalgamation of several characters from the comics), Shang-Chi's younger sister, made me think of Shuri (the younger sister of T'Challa). I found myself making a lot of parallels between the two films (not just those listed here). I'm not trashing this film for that. Just pointing out that the film's got apparent similarities to an earlier film by the same studio.

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            • #7
              I saw this movie, this Friday. It was a good movie. I hope that we'll see more of this guy in a future movie.

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              • #8
                Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu shares an update about the status of the Master of Kung Fu's next movie.


                During an AMA session on Threads, Liu was asked about the status of Shang-Chi 2 status, to which the actor replied, "[I] was told it would follow avengers but that keeps pushing back due to circumstances beyond my control hope to have more concrete news to share soon." However, Liu didn't specify if it was either The Kang Dynasty or Secret Wars that was the Avengers movie preceding Shang-Chi 2.
                Let's assume that it's after Secret Wars, then we won't see another Shang-Chi movie until 2027 at the earliest. The big question is if this genre still has got enough gas in it to make it to that point.

                At the moment, Shang-Chi is really the only MCU movie centered around an East Asian superhero (specifically Chinese. No Koreans, Japanese, etc. to be found. It's important to remember that East Asians are not a homogenous mass. Yet, here they are essentially asked to share a Chinese superhero, as if they were). Wong (likely belonging to some ethnic group in Nepal) is a supporting character to Doctor Strange. I'm disqualifying the diversity of Eternals, as they are a bunch of immortal, alien robots, who came to Earth thousands of years ago. They have no actual ties to whatever ethnic group they (superficially) appear to represent. Agents of SHIELD had two East Asian (again, both Chinese) women in the main cast, but is that show even still MCU canon?

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                • #9
                  Translation: It won't be back because it lost money.

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                  • #10
                    really loved this film. I hope they incorporate the films/ tv shows together more... not really feeling the same feeling I was growing up with marvel movies lol.

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