In many ways, “Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings” is a remix of previous Marvel Studios films that’s a little more pronounced than most films that play with superhero archetypes. You have the hero who is haunted by his dark past (See “Black Widow” for a recent example), the hero who has to reckon and wrestle with the ugly legacy of his malevolent father (“Iron Man,” “Black Panther”), a secret, magical land most people on Earth don’t know about (shades of Wakanda), and many other recognizable superhero standards, including the hero who has abandoned his birthright for anonymity. And still, for all the familiar elements, including its core story about an estranged family and magical qualities that remind a little bit of the milieu of “Doctor Strange,” the real feat of the movie is overcoming its shortcomings and well-known tropes. Marvel manages to carve out a niche and a world that feels comparatively different. A fantasy world of Asian mysticism, with dragons, demons, and creatures—think Asian Wuxia movies like “House of Flying Daggers” meets “Raya The Last Dragon”—that feels unique to what we’ve already seen in the mystic side of the MCU. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (“Short Term 12”), “Shang Chi” is a fairly uneven movie with many little clunky elements. Still, it has spirit, and the finished film ends up relatively triumphant and mostly enjoyable, nonetheless.
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Narratively, “Shang Chi” (pronounced shong shi) resembles “Black Panther” the most and has a lot of similarities, including a cool, hip-hop flecked soundtrack felt seemingly cut from the same flavored musical cues. It begins with a similar opening prologue that explicates the backstory behind the legend in the title. In short, thousands of years ago, Wenwu (Tony Leung) harnesses the power of the Ten Rings that grants him immortality. He becomes a despotic tyrant over the years (sometimes known as The Mandarin) and forms the Ten Rings crime organization, secretly behind the toppling of many empires over the centuries (reminiscent of the League Of Shadows story from the Christopher Nolan ‘Dark Knight‘ trilogy). But Wenwu’s dark heart is lightened by love when he marries Jiang Li (Fala Chen), in her own right, a master martial artist with mystical powers that come from an ancient land called Tal-Lo. Wenwu renounces his tyrannical ways but is still regarded as unworthy, forbidden from entering Tal-Lo. Regardless, they start a family, but these golden years are heartbreakingly cut short by violence and vengeance.
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Fast forward years later, and Shaun (aka Shang-Chi, played by Simu Liu) lives in San Francisco as a valet, parking cars with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina), unaware of Shaun’s past or his real name. Soon, the Ten Rings organization comes looking for him, and all hell breaks loose, including Shang-Chi having to confess who he truly is to Katy: a former trained assassin who left his father and Ten Rings crime family as a teenager when his mother was tragically killed by those seeking revenge against Wenwu and his formerly malicious ways. Shang-Chi’s capture at the hands of the Ten Rings and a reunion with a father he wants nothing to do with sets in motion a lot of plot— too much to explain here— but essentially, Wenwu trying to resurrect his wife by utilizing the enchanted sorcery and supernatural possibilities he believes are found in Tal-Lo. Oh, there’s also Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), who has started her own fight club in Hong Kong and is still embittered with her older brother abandoned her. The family drama and its ideas of dutiful Asian fealty to honoring kin are off the charts, but that’s also the movie’s best element that gives it a soul.
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“Shang-Chi” is about a broken family and a young man having to reconcile his troubling past. Yet, it’s also very much the story of a father, Wenwu, a tragic figure who is so desperate to reclaim his love, he is driven to madness and back to the world of immoral transgressions he had forsaken in favor of a family. As many of these stories obviously go, Shang-Chi must confront his father, leading to a grand climax in the pocket dimension of Tal-Lo.
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Water is a running theme in Marvel’s “Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings,” fitting since dragons are a water symbol in Chinese culture, not fire as most Americans assume. There’s mystical, magical water that leads a path to Tal-Lo, many tributaries of narrative, and for better or worse, a wet, soggy hurricane of a third act. It’s a noisy, bombastic, and VFX mess that looks like it was shot inside a car within a dimly lit car wash (obviously a problem with many superhero films). “Shang-Chi” is flawed in ways that don’t require a lot of close scrutinies. Broadly, the second act’s momentum grinds to a halt by reintroducing a new/old character that doesn’t really belong in the film. Katy transitions to a hero role that doesn’t feel convincing, and this new character (think “Iron Man 3” and not much of a spoiler cause it’s all out there already publicly) takes over as the comedic foil. Even when that third act works, it almost feels like an entirely different movie, a fantastical fantasy one at that, though the comforting presence of Michelle Yeoh is definitely welcome.
The jury is out on Simu Liu, too, the lead star who isn’t as charismatic as he appears on talk shows, social media, and public appearances. There’s also so much plot backstory; it’s hard to get a true sense of who Shang-Chi is: happy-go-lucky, as he is in the first act? Or brooding when he’s forced to contend with who he really is and all the dark sins he’s inherited? Perhaps that’s resolved in the next chapter, as it is in so many Marvel movies. Speaking of Marvel moments, all the MCU connectivity feels forced and unnecessary—like the superfluous character from the second act, most of it is grating outside of the final tag.
And yet, not all is a total wash in “Shang-Chi,” and as suggested, there’s charming heart and humor throughout. Additionally, there is some exciting wuxia-style choreography, street fight action, and a very excellent Tony Leung as the credible main antagonist and that strong story about the perils of family and the misguided desperation found in grief. It’s also an admirably patient film, especially in its first act, never feeling hurried and seemingly taking all the time in the world to get you emotionally invested in its story of a family; never a bad thing.
“Shang-Chi” might get bogged down in the weight of water carrying plot, legend, plenty of backstories, MCU connectivity, and the obligations of climatic superhero action that gets unwieldy, but in the end, it’s a winning film that’s likable and that quality goes a long way. [B-]
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” arrives in theaters on September 3.
