Things I Loved About Shang Chi
I'm a big martial arts fan and a big Marvel fan and a big movie fan, so this movie was the convergence of a lot of things.
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When they cast Tony Leung, I said to myself, "I hope he makes a lot of sad faces, 'cause that actor is killer at making sad faces." And lo and behold, he made tons of sad faces!
Reworking the Ten rings as bands on the arm is a fantastic set-up. I don't think it's from the comics. In the comics, they're ten physical rings worn on the fingers, and each ring allows control of a different thing - fire, ice, etcetera. Reworking them as these power-blasting bands works fantastically from a story standpoint and calls to mind the iron rings used in some old martial arts forms.
The fighting was so good. Like, mind-blowingly so. I hope they had the lead actor's stunt double do a lot of it, because he was doing so much fighting I boggle at how he'd remember it and do his acting. It was world-class. The best of the Jackie Chan style with plenty of big-budget Marvel setpieces. It was fantastic.
The story was also good! It felt a little long tbh, but it could just be that I hadn't eaten breakfast and was grumpy.
That little headless winged animal thingie is gonna sell great if they make a toy of it.
It was just great. Combined the action sensibilities of the Jackie Chan school with the plot of a Marvel film with some excellent takes on urban fantasy.
Real talk - I've coincidentally been watching a lot of Asian-American TV recently for the martial arts - Wu Assassins, Warrior, etcetera. This legit blows most of them out of the water. Not because they're ba- well, yes, because they're usually bad. They don't have any clear thesis, so they just wallow in violence and unpleasantness to fill screentime. Like most TV shows, they're not that great. But this had some A++ talent on it, and so it had a clear thesis and a bunch of points it was able to get across. That one part at Awkwafina's character's house conveyed like eight points from Fresh off the Boat in one scene.
Great casting with Shang Chi's younger counterparts. He shows up as a baby and a kid and teenager and they all look pretty similar. Great casting.
I'll say this, I hope we're not exploiting the animating department too much. There was a ton of CGI in this film, especially in the final act, and I couldn't help but wonder if we're leaning on them for too much. I've heard of how demanding the schedule for animating is, so I hope we're not sweatshopping them.
Seriously, though, beginning to end, this film was so watchable. I don't know that I'd say everyone will like it, because it's kind of a niche genre. But it was entertaining from the get-go and it got me invested!
Pet peeve that isn't really a peeve - we saw the "bloody knuckles from training" trope again. Maybe I'm wrong about this and one of my acquaintances will tell me, but in my experience bloody knuckles slow down training a lot. You're fine in the initial hurting when they get bloody the first time, but then they scab over, and any training you do after that is just gonna be splitting the scabs open again and again and delaying your healing some more. Bruises are okay, but when it comes to bleeding, you're better off not getting bloody in the first place. But of course, it's a quick way to show someone's training hard in a movie, incites sympathy, and blah blah blah.
Hilariously, Michelle Yeoh (the auntie character, one of the biggest stars in Hong Kong history) has already been in a Marvel movie - she was in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as a Ravager in the ending scene. It was really a cameo in a bunch of make-up more than anything, so it hardly matters, but it is very funny that they called her back so quickly.
I want to learn how they did those ten rings, because when they're on arms, they look like they're different sizes to fit on right, but when they're in other positions they look identical. I wonder how much was CGI and how much was just switching out props in between shots.
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