Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021): Written by Destin Daniel Cretton, Dave Callaham, and Andrew Lanham, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, and Ben Kingsley. Running Time: 132 minutes. Based on the comics originally created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin.
Rating: 3.5/4
In retrospect, it's hard to understand how it took me this long to grasp that, like, half of the MCU is basically a meditation on the concept of fatherhood and the many different flavors of father-son/child relationships. Tony Stark yearns to be as effortlessly cool and opulant- nay, more so- than his hotshot Dad. He, in turn, finds himself awkwardly turned into a father-figure by Peter Parker. Thor and Loki grow up in the shadow of Oden, one eagerly trying to fill said shadow before he's ready, the other bitter and resentful that the shadow is even there to begin with. Scott Lang's daughter is his entire motivation to reform his ways just enough to stay out of prison. The whole Guardians franchise, up to and including just about everything about Thanos, is positively dripping with allegories about abusive daddies. And in Black Panther- still untouched as the crown of Marvel filmmaking- T'Challa and Killmonger are shaped from top to bottom by the memories and feelings they have surrounding their fathers' respective deaths. Both worship their fathers as heroes unjustly murdered and see themselves, at least at first, as responsible for picking up their mantles. This is, in turn, driven by the significant degree of guilt and self-blame they've assigned themselves over how, exactly, their fathers were killed.
Now into that hot mess of a stew comes Shang-Chi, a wuxia-infused martial arts adventure that is all about family and childhood trauma and the scars it leaves behind. And it's that laser-sharp focus on the family dynamics of the central characters that defines this film and raises it above being just another origin story and safely into the upper tier of comic book movies. The grand trio of Thor: Ragnarok, Gaurdians of the Galaxy 2, and Black Panther still reigns supreme, but Shang-Chi is now knocking on that door; this is one of the year's top movie experiences and a new personal MCU favorite.
The film's dynamite prologue provides us with the backstory of the Ten Rings, ancient magical metal bands that can grant a human immortality and superhuman strength. For thousands of years, they have been in the sole possession of Xu Wenwu (the utterly hypnotic Tony Leung), who had in turn used their power to create a nigh-untouchable, globe-spanning network of power and terror called the Ten Rings. After finally meeting his match in (and subsequently falling in love with) a young woman named Ying Li (Fala Chen) while trying to find a mythical hidden village called Ta Lo, Wenwu actually looks like he might lay the rings (and immortality aside) to just...be a family man.
Obviously that's not what happened. Otherwise we wouldn't have the movie. We cut to the present day. The son of Wenwu and Ying Li, Shaun/Shang Chi (Simu Liu), is living and working in anonymity in San Francisco as a valet alongside his best friend, Katy (the ever-delightful Awkwafina). Ying Li is dead and Wenwu has revived the Ten Rings, but we don't yet know how or why, and Shaun sure won't tell us; he seems determined to shut all that away and ignore it completely. This is soon made literally impossible when a group of Ten Ring thugs attack him and Katy on their bus to work, forcing him to break out the top-tier martial arts training he'd received from his father after his mother's death to save himself, his friend, and eventually the entire bus of passengers. It is a dynamic and jaw-dropping action sequence that makes full use of the hilly San Francisco terrain, and also showcases part of what makes this film so great; it's relentless (and seemingly effortless) sense of humor in any situation, even when life and death are literally on the line.
With the cat very much out of the bag, Shaun and Katy head to Macau to try and track down Shaun's sister, Xialing, with whom he'd been estranged ever since leaving his father and the Ten Rings. The switch from ol' San Fran to Super-Neon Chinese Nightlife is as effortless as the movie's action beats, and in short order Shaun has been roped into an ungerground fighting competition, a super awkward (and physically painful) reunion with his sister, who had herself fled their father some years before, and finally all of them being captured by Wenwu himself, finally coming back out of the shadows. Most interestingly, and this is just the first of a number of major story turns the film takes, he admits that he had always known where his children had been. It was only now that it had made sense for him to "bring them home," and my God, is that euphemism putting in some hard hours in this go-around.
This is where the story enters its second, and soon after its third phase, with the story taking on added layers as more information is revealed to us. We learn more and more about the death of Shang Chi and Xialing's mother, the exact series of events that followed their father rebuilding the Ten Rings, what led Shang Chi and eventually Xialing to abandon him, and the very specific reason he has to now try to reunite his family and search once more for Ta Lo. While these sorts of flashbacks and occasional exposition dumps are par for the course in most origin stories, they are distributed in a very specific and conscientious way throughout most of the film's first two acts. This is another way that Shang Chi manages to hit all the expected beats for a modern superhero movie while still feeling fresh. It avoids the pitfalls of clunky dialogue or pace-upsetting flashbacks that weaken lesser films of this sort and allows a real sense of mystery to build over the first half; given what we know about the amazing powers of Shang Chi's parents, it is genuinely difficult to imagine how his mother could have died and exactly would have led him to flee from his father and effectively abandon his sister to boot. It's a delicate balance, but the film pulls it off remarkably well, again because it remains grounded in genuine and powerful emotions relating to families and their bonds to each other.
There is also, mercifully, no shoehorned-in romance anywhere. There are hints aplenty regarding Katy and Shang Chi dropped by others, but I very much hope any sequels opt to let sleeping Guard Lions lie. Simu Liu and Awkwafina have a great dynamic with each other that no amount of CGI punch-em-ups can overshadow, very much in the veign of Black Widow and Hawkeye in the first Avengers generation. Another dropped hint by the end (minor spoiler) is that Xialing may end up using the Ten Rings for her own ends and eventually facing off against Shang Chi. Given the nature of these sorts of stories, I suppose it's inevitable, but that doesn't mean I have to eagerly anticipate it.
The big climax this all comes to is set within a trapdoor final act in an alternate dimension filled with what, I assume, are the Pokemon of the MCU. 'Tis a grand spectacle that, while still having some of the wuxia-style martial arts choreography, goes hog-wild on a giant, CGI spectacle involving a tentacled Cthulu and a massive (and beautiful) Water Dragon that saves Shang Chi in a key moment. While there were moments the barrage of visual effects almost lost me, it is easily the best and most visually interesting punch-up we've gotten on the big screen since the finale of Endgame.
Throughout it all, we are still following the threads of a man, his sister, and their troubled and abusive father, all of them struggling against the pain and hurt that have defined them for so long. These threads of pain twist around and bind them still, but by the end there may be a path forward for Shang Chi and Xialing, though we obviously won't know for awhile if these paths will lead to good or bad things for either of them. But find out we will, for as the credits takes care to remind us, both Shang Chi and the Ten Rings will return soon.
-Noah Franc
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