Yesterday, I went to my local AMC theater to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) newest installment, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Needless to say, this film was a blast! As someone who originally started his career as a stunt performer, Simu Liu did an amazing job conveying the emotional and physically badass nature of Shang-Chi that makes him such an interesting character and superhero.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton succeeded in showing the two sides of Shang-Chi...one side being a normal guy who just wants to live his life in San Francisco singing at karaoke bars and happily parking cars as a hotel valet. And the other side being a conflicted would-be assassin who's trying to get out from underneath the shadow of his powerful but tormented thousand-year-old father.
In regards to Shang-Chi's father, the legendary Tony Leung (from such movies as 2002's Infernal Affairs and 2013's The Grandmaster) did an outstanding job playing Xu Wenwu. In The Legend of the Ten Rings, we find out that Wenwu is so powerful (and he aptly proved it in this film) that a terrorist "who brought America to its knees" based his persona after him as inspiration several years back. That terrorist, of course, was The Mandarin—and The Legend of the Ten Rings managed to tie this subplot with the events of Iron Man 3. Yes, one of the main characters from that 2013 film made a cameo in this movie...and no, it's not Tony Stark.
In terms of the remaining cast members, Shang-Chi featured both well-known and up-and-coming performers in this movie. Along with Leung, the formidable Michelle Yeoh (of 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and 2018's Crazy Rich Asians) appeared in Shang-Chi as his aunt, Ying Nan.
Meng'er Zhang was fierce as Shang-Chi's sister, Xialing (the owner of an underground fight ring in Macau), and Fala Chen did a terrific job winning Wenwu's respect and his love as Li, the future mother of Shang-Chi and Xialing.
And adding additional heart and humor to The Legend of the Ten Rings was Awkwafina (who appeared in 2018's Ocean's Eight and alongside Yeoh in Crazy Rich Asians) as Shang-Chi's overly-Americanized friend, Katy. Awkwafina had a couple of hilarious lines in this movie—one of them being her comment about how Shang-Chi didn't do a very good job concealing his identity by changing his name to...Shaun. To paraphrase: "It's like changing your name from Gina to Gina." (The second version sounding like vagina.)
Overall, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is one of the best MCU movies yet. Clearly, the fight scenes in this film were inspired by Jackie Chan flicks and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The origin story of this superhero was very emotional...and if you at least stay for the mid-credits scene, you'll see that a huge future lies in store for Shang-Chi as he finds himself involved with the Avengers in a post-Thanos universe.
Will I see Shang-Chi at the theater again, you ask? Absolutely! How can I not make a repeat viewing of a movie that successfully debuts an Asian superhero in one of the biggest cinematic franchises in history?
To borrow a memorable quote from the Legend of the Ten Rings: "If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing." Happy Labor Day weekend.
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