SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

 

I remember pointing out in my review for Just Mercy a couple of years ago that I was anxious to see what writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton would do with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Well, after having watched it, he and his crew have done quite a lot. This is definitely one of the better origin entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a real far cry from the forgettable Black Widow, and a lot of fun…unfortunately, it had some missteps that for me kept it from being truly great.

 

Our story deals with Shaun (Simu Liu), a slacker valet who lives in San Francisco and fritters most of his time away with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina). But after the two are attacked on a bus by soldiers of otherwise mysterious origin, Shaun reveals that his real name is Shang-Chi and the soldiers – who are members of an army known as the Ten Rings – may go after his estranged sister Xu Xialing (Men’ger Zhang). So the two head off to Macau to find Xialing and look for answers, but they are soon approached by Shang-Chi’s father, Wenwu (Tony Leung), the leader of the Ten Rings. Wenwu reveals that he’s trying to find his way back to a mythical village known as Ta Lo, where he believes his presumed-dead wife is being held, and he needs Shang-Chi’s help to find her there or burn down the village if he can’t.

 

Let me just say right off the bat how much this film revels in its Chinese aesthetics, which permeates everything, from Joel P. West’s musical score to the village of Ta Lo to the fight scenes. If you’re into wuxia films, Shang-Chi will definitely scratch your itch with well-choreographed fight scenes that call back to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and even a one-take fight that owes more than a little to Oldboy (I know that film is South Korean, but the influence is unmistakable). I also enjoyed the scenes where Shang-Chi is discussing his experience about a Chinese expat living in the U.S. or how Katy is called out by Wenwu for losing touch with her Chinese heritage. Little touches like that really help to give the film an identity all its own.

 

All the performances are on-point. Simu Liu shows he is more than up to the superhero task for future entries, Tony Leung is just the right balance of despicable and sympathetic, Awkwafina gets a lot more to awesome stuff do in this film than I expected (I am so glad they didn’t have her and Liu’s character end up together romantically by the end), Men’ger Zhang is appropriately badass, and another early MCU character (no, I won’t say which one) comes back, and much like in his first appearance, he is a laugh riot! Another nice surprise: most of the cool stuff in the movie, particularly in the climax, hasn’t been spoiled by the promotional material, so you really are in for a lot of cool surprises!

 

With all that said, the film is still somewhat kept at arm’s length from being truly great due to a few missteps. One of the bigger ones for me was the pacing, and not just in Act II, but in the entire film. The first ten or so minutes are frontloaded with backstory and exposition that I felt could have been sprinkled little by little throughout the film or maybe just saved for entirely for another sequel. Also, the climax, while very cool and showing off some unexpected surprises and treats, feels like it could have been cut down by ten minutes or so. There are also some minor missteps that have just become typical of Marvel by this point; i.e., dramatic moments that are interrupted by annoying jokes, boring color grading and cinematography (sorry, Bill Pope; still love your work on Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy), and bad CGI that’s usually the result of multiple overworked VFX companies. As a matter of fact, you should really check out this Variety article on the subject.

 

So, all in all, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a very good film and a milestone for Chinese representation that you should definitely check out, provided you can ignore how it could have been a little better.