. . .remember when we used to be able to watch these in movie theaters?
So we have Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a film that I never actually expected to ever see for a variety of reasons. The chief among them being that Shang-Chi as a character is. . .more than a little obscure even by comic standards. Shang-Chi was created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin to capitalize on the kung fu craze of the 1970s. They were originally wanting to make a comic adaptation of the then-popular series Kung Fu. When DC wasn't interested, they went to Marvel with the idea and Marvel liked it. . .but only on the condition that they include the character of Doctor Fu Manchu, a pulp character that Marvel had acquired the rights to.
Yeah, Fu Manchu is not just a type of facial hair. He's. . .a discussion for another day.
In any case, they agreed to the terms and Shang-Chi was introduced as the unknown son of Fu Manchu. Unlike his father, Shang-Chi would become a force for good and use martial arts to fight against the evil of his father and others. Shang-Chi first appeared in Special Marvel Edition #15 in 1974 and eventually take over the title completely, with a name change to The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu and lasting almost a decade, ending with Issue #125 in 1983.
For his time, he was incredibly popular but eventually the audience did get fickle and Marvel ended up shunting him into other books. This is where he largely fell into obscurity. Despite cameos and guest appearances, Shang-Chi wouldn't be a main character again in a comic until 2007 with Heroes for Hire, and he wouldn't hold his own title again (outside of one-shots or limited series) until this year - 2021, where he has a new number one.
Given the fickle nature of Marvel, who knows how long that will last? But that's another story.
In any case, this is not exactly a character at the tip top heights of his popularity when a movie was intended to be made for him. It would be remiss of me, however, to think that Marvel couldn't pull this off. After all, despite what some people on the internet seem to think, the Guardians of the Galaxy were not a popular property outside of the comics and we all know how the adaptation of that went.
Twice, actually.
So, how is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Let's have a look.
We are introduced to a warlord Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), who discovers ten mystical rings that grant him immortality as well as a grab bag of other powers. With this, he establishes the organization known as the Ten Rings (which we saw waaaaay back in the original Iron Man) and sets about conquering the world. Alas, much like Alexander, he wept when there were no new worlds to conquer and set about looking for the village of Ta Lo, a village said to harbor mythical creatures. Upon finding the entrance, he meets Ying Li (Fala Chen), a woman who bars his entry into the place and the two have a very intricate martial arts battle.
The two end up marrying and have two children, Shang-Chi and Xialing. Wenwu is so captivated by this woman and his love for his children that he actually locks the ten rings away and doesn't use them, even going so far as to disband his organization.
. . .and then Ying Li is murdered. Wenwu pressures Shang-Chi to end up joining him, leading to an assassination by Shang of one of the people responsible and him fleeing to San Francisco, taking the name "Shaun". "Shaun" (Simu Liu) is now in his twenties and living in San Francisco. He works with his friend Katy (Awkwafina) as a valet. They have a pretty alright life, taking joy rides in costumers' cars, listening to boring stories from their friends, and absolutely killing it at karaoke.
. . .and then they take a bus ride from hell in which a bunch of armed thugs take the necklace that Ying Li gave Shang when he was growing up. Thus, he goes to reunite with his sister (Meng'er Zhang), who has an identical pendant. Who is seeking the pendants and why? Does it have anything to do with the mystical village of Ta Lo?
I mean, duh.
I'll go ahead and say it, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings isn't all that bad. I really don't have a lot that I can complain about. It's a standard superhero film as we've come to expect. If anything, I think that the film is a lot better than a lot of what we've gotten from Marvel recently. While there are obvious MCU elements (the events of Iron Man and Iron Man 3 get discussed, Trevor Slattery from Iron Man 3 shows up in what feels like an apology for his character in that movie, Wong and the Abomination show up, the Thanos Snap is spoken of, the mid and post-credits scenes), the story itself is pretty effectively stand-alone even in a universe as big as the MCU has begun.
That's good, by the way. I don't give Shang-Chi grief the way I'd say. . .give Iron Man 3 grief for having no excuse for CAPTAIN AMERICA to not be showing up when the President of the United States gets kidnapped or Thor: The Dark World not having Tony Stark and Bruce Banner rushing over to England to help Thor fight the Dark Elves. Not only that, but this story in particular is much more personal to Shang-Chi himself, which ironically helps the stakes seem higher than usual.
The cast is pretty good overall, including Meng'er Zhang as this is apparently her first film. Simu Liu and Awkwafina do pretty good as Shang and Katy (also having great chemistry together) and Tony Leung is a magnificent villain as Wenwu/the Mandarian/Fu Manchu. No, he doesn't go by other of the either two names, but Wenwu is actually a legitimately sympathetic villain. Yes, he did evil things for a long time, but mended his ways and tried to live a normal life. He clearly does care about his children and is so madly in love with his wife that he's willing to burn an entire village to the ground to rescue her.
Also, yes, the martial arts in this film are quite the spectacle, but I think it caps out in terms of awesome early on with the fight on the bus. Not that the later stuff isn't impressive or visually interesting, because it definitely is, but the fight on the bus is just spectacular. It is the Darth Vader cutting down Rebels in the hallway during the climax of Rogue One of this movie. That good.
It's a basic film, but it's a fun film. It does one of the best things that a production company can do - serve as an apology for a previous film while also serving as its own entity. While I could take some issue with how the ten rings are done in this movie - they're arm bands versus actual rings worn on the fingers (this was apparently done to differentiate them from the Infinity Gauntlet, which makes me scratch my head) - that's really the only thing on the whole. Is it completely perfect? No, but it's a well-made film where the continuity enhances it instead of bogging it down.
It's up for streaming on Disney+. Go have fun with it. If nothing else, it'll kill two hours and maybe COVID will die off in that time.
. . .hey, it could happen!
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is brought to us by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
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