#I know nothing of chinese movies btw just HK and they are not the same

[firespirited]

Shang Chi and the legend of the ten rings review

It felt like a disney movie meets comic book action hero one if that makes any sense. It’s comic-like in that it’s a sexless bloodless world where consequences don’t really matter and it’s jarring because i’ve only experienced Tony Leung and Simu Liu in worlds where little things mattered greatly. The magical elements are what make it feel disney-esque, the hidden forest was truly wondrous, it made my heart ache in childlike awe.

First negative: I felt like the sister’s arc was superflous even if it’s the set up for a future villain. You can’t throw us the potential of that character and never give us enough time or weight to delve into her grief, her issues with her dad, her moral choices. It felt cheap to give her so much fighting time but just a character sketch. Same for Michelle Yeoh, as a bit character!!! How dare you?!

Quick Note before this next section: I’m not coming at this from a “killing is bad for the soul” perspective or a marvel galaxybrain “you’ll become as bad as the villain blabla” ... nah, i’m coming at this as a Hong Kong low budget fight movie aficionado where the philosophy is part of the kicking-ass package and the person who wins was either tapping into their emotions or transcending them (or tapping into ancient heritage magic - that genre is fun too) and that mental breakthrough gave them a asskicking advantage. That was what I was expecting given the two main leads and the importance given to the two fighting styles.

So Shang has a really interesting character point and it’s never used: the man can kill and has killed and deliberately doesn’t when he could probably kill any obnoxious rando he met with the right chokehold and make it look like a heart attack. We don’t get to see any of his journey out of child soldier mode and back into sociability. We get a brief view of him doing pushups but not meditation or mantras to keep violence, risk and self harm away. Then when confronted with doing violence again it’s back into video-game-mode straight up, not Am I going to end up wrecking myself? How do I feel about being a weapon? He starts out using the Jackie Chan-Sammo Hung comedy action fighting technique but without the deliberate and very obvious avoidance of violence. So, from this first fight, I expect the violence to ramp up once we’re not among civilians. It doesn’t. Shang is clearly talented but inflicting bloodless painless moves where bones don’t break and enemies collapse quietly or dissappear from view.

Then we’re told he needs to bridge the divide between his mother and his father’s characters and fighting styles to become his true self. Okay. This is going to be the core of his origin story, usually this is about balance and abstraction of the self or learning from nature. The father is heartless & disconnected. The mother and her people are visually depicted as spiritual... but there’s not a single word referencing that, nor that different martial arts have different intentions and mindsets. Shang has an inner turmoil, he learns his mother’s style again then reflects and says he needs to kill his father: this is shown as worrying even though the ethics are sound. We’re not told *anything* of the thought process. There’s no emotional change to show his focus, this trained warrior is entirely re-active instead of pro-active. The change happens to him and the rings go orange and it’s supposed to mean something.

So basically there this big story hole where Shang’s supposed to reconcile his heartless training with (crypto?) buddhism and in the absence of anything else, it’s american christian shaped... and it feels very wierd.

Basically we go from

A- Killing dad is bad even though he’s a warlord terrorist who’s going to burn a sacred place to the ground if he doesn’t get what he wants

then B- Killing dad would be ok as it’s rooted in compassion for your second family (and saving the whole world) but it’d leave you “soiled”

to C- Avatar the last Airbender cop out, no killing required because demon ex machina

to D- Dad’s worth grieving because he did a tiny self sacrifice

and bonus really wierd E- Girlboss take his place, diversity win: the terrorists are now 50% female yaass!

It’s gorgeous, the actors are top notch but can only work with what they’re given. The ten rings are not earned, the ten rings are not a corrupting force to counter-balance: they are merely a tool. Shang has minimal agency, he chooses to face his past for his sister but beyond that he is moved from situation to situation by others or magic. His choice to fight his father is taken from him twice. He does not have to earn the protector dragon’s trust, he doesn’t have to discard emotion to focus on the fight, he doesn’t have to choose to take on the burden of the rings to save people. Tony Leung’s Wenwu shines like he’s the main protagonist because he is, his choices define the whole story, his will moves the plot along, everyone else is along for the ride.

Now how does Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings stack against other superhero films: It’s good, it’s very enjoyable watching. The wire fu and Liu’s skills are very impressive. If you go in with the understanding that this is a marvel film: it’s more magical and charming than most, you really root for Shang he’s got the survivor with a heart of gold quality to him, he’s been hurt but he’s chosen warmth, they gave him friends and family who push him towards growth and the villain is multifaceted. He’s instantly likeable and relatable unlike Tony Stark or even Thor who needed time to embrace the responsibility part of power. But this is a Marvel film so we won’t get much character depth until we’re at Shang Chi III.

So go in expecting standard superhero fare and be pleasantly surprised. The spiritual has been scrubbed at least on a textual level from what can often be a buddhist or taoist genre (or shinto if you’re into japanese films) so you need to sort of mentally reset back into superhero mode or it feels like something’s not adding up. But that might be a localized problem: in continental europe we consume a lot more asian films and european gen Y & Z are more likely to be watching anime and doramas than say, CW/Riverdale stuff: the thought is that it’s foreign either way.

BTW french netflix is full of kdrama, jdrama and anime, if you use a VPN you can access it from your american netflix and avoid Viki