A thousand
years ago, Wenwu (Tony Leung) discovered mystical rings that gave him power and
longevity. Raising a personal army (The Ten Rings) named for the artifact, he
became a conqueror who toppled governments throughout history. Still hungry for
more, Wenwu set out to discover the mythical village of Ta Lo. However, the
would-be conqueror was bested in combat by the village’s guardian, Ying Li
(Fala Chen), who became his wife. Years later, tragedy led Wenwu to resume his
martial ways, training his son, Shang-Chi as an assassin. After fleeing his
father, Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) is living in San Francisco as the unassuming valet
“Shaun.” When his father’s minions seek him out, Shang-Chi and his friend Katy
(Awkwafina) travel to warn Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), Shang-Chi’s sister who has
not forgiven her brother for running away and abandoning her.
Freed from
the burden of widespread recognition and the expectations it conveys, Marvel Studios
has often found success adapting some of the lesser-known characters from
comics lore. Shang-Chi certainly fits the bill. He’s been around for nearly
fifty years, but in a universe filled with mutants, super soldiers, cosmic-powered
captains, and Norse gods, “elite martial artist” tends to get lost in the
shuffle. To a lesser extent, that’s true of this film as well. This is as much
the story of Wenwu (a version of the Iron Man villain The Mandarin) as it is of
Shang-Chi, and both are competing with mythical elements for screen time as
well. Yet despite this and a few questionable creative decisions, Shang-Chi
and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an exciting, visually adroit film that
is still has enough sincerity to tackle issues of family, legacy, and identity.
Much was
made of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings being Marvel’s first
Asian/Asian-American-led production and the breadth of representation that it
represented. In a meta-sense, at least, it succeeded, showing that a director
(Destin Daniel Cretton) known for smaller-scale dramas and a Hong Kong-based
actor (Leung) known for playing romantic leads could pull off a superhero blockbuster
with aplomb. Wenwu is significantly toned down from his comic book inspiration
(who wore a ring with a different power on each finger instead of
energy-projecting wristbands), yet Leung’s take – charismatic, sentimental, yet
absolutely brutal when he needs to be – is refreshingly complex. Meanwhile,
many of Cretton’s action set pieces are well-crafted homages. Shang-Chi
battling Ten Rings thugs aboard a moving bus calls to mind Jackie Chan’s
violent slapstick while Ying Li and Wenwu’s introductory fight references
classic wuxia battles.
As mentioned,
Liu is sometimes overshadowed despite occupying the title role, but that may be
a testament to Leung rather than a failing on his part. If nothing else, his
training for the role is evident. As Katy, Awkwafina is grating at times, but
she does provide an audience surrogate of sorts, and she deftly avoids “token
love interest” trappings. Michelle Yeoh – unsurprisingly – elevates her
relatively small part. The film even manages to bring back Ben Kingsley as
Trevor Slattery, the loony drunken actor who impersonated the Mandarin in Iron
Man 3. He provides comic relief while also rectifying one of the previous
film’s major problems (reducing the character to a smokescreen for an
undeserving white terrorist).
That being
said, the film hits a major snag when the action shifts to Ta Lo, the kind of
place where all myths are true. This isn’t the first time that Marvel has
utilized a mystical Asian setting (see Kamar-Taj and K’un-L’un), and the studio
previously took heat for having done so. And yet, despite that prior criticism
of stereotyping and appropriation, when we finally see a rendition of such a
place from an Asian creator, it contains the very things – dragons, a grumpy
old mentor, etc. – that sparked those earlier critiques. Couple that with a pseudo-genre
shift, and the last third is narratively the film’s weak point even though it
is beautifully rendered.
Overall,
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings brings vitality, verve, and a
sense of possibility to the superhero origin story despite its faults.
