Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
Shang-Chi must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
19 connections found
View:
19 films that influenced this film
What critics say influenced Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
For all of the voluminous expository dialogue in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings , essentially none of it concerns the legend of the Ten Rings — a name that doubles for both a nebulous criminal organization (already referenced in Iron Man and Iron Man 3 ) and a set of ill-defined mystical weapons whose powers basically function however the plot requires.
Elsewhere, the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes its presence even more pointedly known by way of cameos, references to the Blip (i.e., the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame ) and an exhaustive explanation of what the Ten Rings of this title has to do with the Ten Rings from Iron Man 3 .
When it comes to the disappointments of Shang-Chi , the biggest is actually the fault of the movie's premiere, which featured the announcement that Ben Kingsley would be returning as Iron Man 3 's Trevor Slattery AKA the fake Mandarin.
Leung plays Wenwu, the man whose identity Ben Kingsley’s The Mandarin appropriated in Iron Man 3 , and whose hand has been quietly guiding history for thousands of years – all thanks to the power and immortality granted to him by ten magical rings of unknown provenance.
By the way, the way in which the film addresses the last MCU inclusion of the Ten Rings offers some much-needed closure, though I wouldn’t have minded if it also sought to address the kidnapping of Tony Stark ( Iron Man ) as relates to Iron Man 3 (2013) because not everyone remembers Aldrich Killian’s final line and that lack of remembrance could play havoc with the audience’s processing of the internal timeline/rules of Shang-Chi .
Marvel fans already know about the Ten Rings thanks to the much-derided Iron Man 3 , but this iteration is a far more enjoyable and earnest ride.
There’s a moment that has since gone viral, where Shang-Chi uses his coat as a weapon before putting it back on that reminds me of a similar sequence in Rumble in the Bronx .
The ensuing brawl (incorporating the bus’ seats, poles, and—in one ingenious bit of comic timing—the signal cord) has the complexity, energy, and inventiveness of the great Jackie Chan (Rumble in the Bronx, Police Story)—as well as a bit of Spider-Man flair in the way Shang-Chi protects the other passengers while fending off his assailants.
For all of the voluminous expository dialogue in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings , essentially none of it concerns the legend of the Ten Rings — a name that doubles for both a nebulous criminal organization (already referenced in Iron Man and Iron Man 3 ) and a set of ill-defined mystical weapons whose powers basically function however the plot requires.
Liu is so good at defining Shang's exterior charm and inner turmoil that his casting has the miraculous quality of Robert Downey Jr.'s industry-changing role in the first Iron Man or Chris Evans' Captain America.
Since the introduction of Robert Downey Jr. and his take on Iron Man , characters like Black Widow, Thor, and Captain America have proven to satisfy more than just comic book fans.
Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther and all those other Avengers might as well move over and make room for Shang-Chi, as the MCU has a new franchise and a welcome new direction post- Endgame .
There are the requisite MCU cameos, popping up like whack-a-moles: Serene Dr. Strange gatekeeper Wong (Benedict Wong) drops in for several scenes, and Iron Man 's Ben Kingsley returns as the washed-up actor Trevor Slattery, a holy fool with an impressively Shakespearian hairpiece and a faceless little CG sidekick who looks like a furry ottoman with wings.
They played a big presence during the Iron Man films.
(The early nods to “The Joy Luck Club,” from the San Francisco setting to a brief cameo by the great Tsai Chin, are surely no accident.)
Advertisement
The ensuing brawl (incorporating the bus’ seats, poles, and—in one ingenious bit of comic timing—the signal cord) has the complexity, energy, and inventiveness of the great Jackie Chan (Rumble in the Bronx, Police Story)—as well as a bit of Spider-Man flair in the way Shang-Chi protects the other passengers while fending off his assailants.
Wenwu parts an army as Moses did the Red Sea in DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments,” using his magic jewelry to easily breach a walled city.
When it comes to all of the characters' backstories, some moments feel a bit overexplained, but Shang-Chi still manages to feature some of the best pacing of an origin story since 2005's Batman Begins .
It's a Marvel movie that doesn't feel like a Marvel movie, with a fresh, snappy tone that has a lot in common with 2015's Ant-Man, which also felt like a departure from the franchise formula at the time.
We’re treated to enchanted, bejeweled statutes, imaginative creatures from another realm (prepare to adore Morris), and Eastern Asian cinematic commonalities that help broaden Marvel’s vocabulary regarding subgenre influences (like heist cinema to Ant-Man or ’70s political conspiracy thrillers to Captain America: The Winter Soldier ).
Advertisement
Much in the way The Winter Soldier (2014) is a solid spy thriller or that Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2. (2017) can be called equally hilarious and touching space odysseys, so can Shang-Chi stand on its own.
Other fight scenes have more elegance, recalling the wuxia tradition on display in the likes of Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Yet here we are offered the art of Kung Fu and a mystical element in the fighting style reminiscent of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , 5 Fingers of Death , and so much more.
Indebted as much to Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as anything within the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the MCU’s spin on a Wuxia epic.
Martial arts aficionados will also be able to pinpoint the influences that run throughout this film from Jackie Chan’s work to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ; Michelle Yeoh, an alum from the latter film, ends up playing a major role in the story.
Both Michelle Yeoh ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Crazy Rich Asians / Tomorrow Never Dies ) and Florian Munteanu ( Creed 2 ) make the most of their limited screen time and, with luck, will get even more to do in a follow-up.
It draws from China’s wuxia genre – martial arts epics that gained worldwide recognition thanks to the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – and Jackie Chan’s expansive oeuvre, but does so with rare sincerity.