christian movie review shang chi

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Reviewed by: Blake Wilson CONTRIBUTOR

Martial arts training and fighting

Underground fight club

Cage fighting

FILM VIOLENCE —How does viewing violence in movies affect families? Answer

Macau, China

Father and son conflict

Fleeing from one’s father and later having to face him

Criminal warlord

Assassins / training to kill people in many different ways

Resisting evil

Perseverance, bravery and courage

Chinese mysticism

Shrines to dead people (ancestor worship)

The pagan idea that people’s spirit’s can be held prisoner by others after their death

Supernatural, god-like powers

Fantasy demon -like beings and creatures who can suck people’s souls

Mythical creatures

Chinese dragon

DRAGON LEGENDS AND DINOSAURS —discover how they are connected

About DRAGONS in the Bible

S haun, or Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), has been living his own life for the past 10 years. Little does anyone else know, he’s doing so to hide away from his family. Why? Well, his Dad is an immortal being thanks to harboring a mystical object called the “Ten Rings,” and he’s gone on to commit various crimes over the years with these objects.

As a child, Shang-Chi was trained to be an assassin, and was sent on a mission to avenge his mother’s death, only to wind up running away in the process.

When a mysterious postcard arrives, Shang realizes he might have been found. Thinking the card is from his sister, he flies to find her alongside his best friend, Katy (Awkwafina). Following a heated reunion in a wrestling ring, both end up accosted by their Dad’s fighters.

Why? Apparently Wenwu (their dad) has plans to open up a mysterious door to the underworld, thinking that an answer to a major problem is behind it. But is it?

Entertainment Quality

“Shang-Chi…” checks off the boxes that help make a Marvel movie work as well as they do. The visual effects are top-notch, with some pretty impressive moments in the third act. The characters are likable, and some carry a tone that don’t take themselves too seriously. The connecting dots to the overarching storyline are there, without overwhelming the core story itself. The action sequences are great (the opening bus scene, WOW). There are a lot of great, humorous moments (courtesy of Awkwafina , of course).

Speaking of Awkwafina, her comedic timing here works incredibly well. She’s hilarious and also has strong chemistry with her co-lead. As the lead, Liu makes for a likable, yet emotionally subtle protagonist. Tony Leung does a wonderful job creating a sympathetic yet dedicated villain of sorts. A couple of moderate MCU characters return with solid moments. And Michelle Yeoh has a couple of strong moments in the third act as well.

The only real downside to “Shang-Chi…” is that it does have too much exposition, especially in the first act. I found myself a little bit lost early on, and feel like it may take more than one watch to fully understand. However, there is an attempt to fix this in some way as we go through the movie, and the overall motivation and thinking of the characters becomes more clear. A little more digestible of an approach in the first act may have been more helpful, however.

Positive Messages

The main positive themes I picked up from “Shang-Chi…” are familial love and redemption. Despite his mixed feelings for his family history, Shang-Chi longs for his family to be whole again, and his father to come to his senses. When he thinks about how he may have to kill his father in order to protect the whole world, he understandably breaks down emotionally. Yet, he perseveres in bringing his father back to the light, and never quite gets to the point of taking his life.

I saw a parallel here to Jesus’ persevering love, even to those who we would consider to never deserve it. But, in the bigger picture, it’s important to remember that we all never deserved His love and redeeming grace to begin with. After all, we are all sinners and fell short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Jesus yearns for all of us to find the light , and a relationship with Him. Sometimes that means giving multiple chances for everyone to find Him.

Shang-Chi’s love for his father in spite of all the drama and chaos is a moving example that we can all also learn a thing or two from, especially when it comes to difficult friends or family members.

Shang-Chi and Katy also do some maturing of their own in this story. Instead of living a life of survival every day full of irresponsible choices, they find purpose in their lives for a bigger cause. Katy willingly and instantly puts her life on hold to support her best friend. They (and most other characters) also willingly (sometimes reluctantly for humorous effect) risk their lives to save the world.

Negative Content

Language: A little on the strong side. A minor character gives Shang the middle finger once. “Oh my g**” is interjected a handful of times (sometimes in shock, sometimes thoughtlessly), and Katy utters “g*d d**n” at one point as well. (see complete list below )

Adult Content: At the beginning of the film, Wenwu and his wife-to-be have a poetic fight that has some romantic tension (they end up marrying). Shang-Chi is shirtless in a couple of scenes. There’s a crude comment about something coming out of “her mother’s v*gina.”

Violence: PG-13 level violence is to be expected, and there’s not much here that differs too much from other superhero films. We see a brief intense battle at the beginning. There’s a handful of martial arts-style battle sequences that lead to serious injury or death. A fighting ring is introduced in the first third where Shang and his sister get into a serious fight. Another fight takes place outside the building where a handful of fighters fall to their deaths.

The ending action scene involves a couple of giant mythical creatures battling each other and a large body count. There are also some scary underworld characters in this climactic scene that could prove to be very scary for younger children. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings are used to murder someone and kill off (somewhat viscerally) an evil creature at the end. They also break through walls and cause other harm on many other occasions. An arrow slices a creature’s throat.

Drugs/Alcohol: Katy and Shang find themselves in a karaoke bar a couple of times singing, obviously drunk . We see them passed out on a couch a couple of times as well. Wine and beer bottles are seen as well.

Other: Eastern spirituality plays a role here as well. We see shrines for deceased loved ones. We hear about characters becoming immortal thanks to the Ten Rings. We see underworld creatures drain the souls of many in order to strengthen their “queen bee.” Other mythical creatures are shown. A lantern funeral service for those who have fallen is seen, along with comments about “resting with our ancestors.”

• Answers about RELIGIONS
• What is DEATH? and WHY does it exist? Answer in the Bible
• What is THE FINAL JUDGMENT OF GOD? Answer
• What is ETERNAL LIFE ? and what does the Bible say about it?
• What is ETERNAL DEATH ?

Katy recklessly drives a fancy car at her job. A couple of characters mislead. Characters act mercilessly out of vengeance.

• Now to sum up, all of you be like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly, tender-hearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling… — 1 Peter 3:8-9 LSB excerpt
• For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” … — Hebrews 10:30 LSB excerpt
• About mercy in the Bible

Despite “Shang-Chi…” following the Marvel formula pretty closely, it is also a moment in history for the superhero genre. An Asian superhero and a focus on Eastern culture provides plenty of reasons to get hyped up here. And despite having a lot of exposition early on, “Shang-Chi…” succeeds in entertaining in the way the best Marvel movies do. It’s exciting. It’s funny. It has good characters. It leaves viewers wanting more with great post-credits scenes. And there’s also a pretty solid emotional undercurrent that hits its mark as it goes.

That being said, I advise some caution for families with elementary-aged kids looking for something to see together. The violence, while expected, can be intense and scary at times. The language, while less frequent than some superhero films, is still a little on the strong side for a movie aiming to bring in all ages. And the Eastern spirituality, while a strong part of the culture it represents, may be a turn-off for some families.

In the end, for MCU fans and older movie fans knowing what to expect, “Shang-Chi…” will probably deliver a satisfying thrill ride.

• Violence: Heavy
• Profane language: Moderately Heavy— • “G*d d*mn it” (1) • “Oh my G*d” (4) • “Oh G*d” (1) • “ Holy sh*t” (1) • “ H*ll ” (8) • “ D*mn ” (2)
• Vulgar/Crude language: Moderately Heavy— • S-words (6 or more) • middle finger displayed • “Freaking” or “freakn” (1) (a euphemism for f**king) • “Scr*w you” (1) • “came out of her v*gina” (1) • “Nasty b*tch” (1) • “A**h*le” (1) • “A**” (1)
• Occult: Moderate (mostly fantasy)
• Drugs/Alcohol: Mild
• Nudity: Minor

Learn about DISCERNMENT —wisdom in making personal entertainment decisions

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Christian Movie Review)

Final Verdict: Although still a Marvel film at its core (for better and worse), a strong cast and incredible action scenes lead to one of the freshest and most enjoyable MCU movies in recent memory.

About The Film

Don’t look now, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe may just be reeling me back in. The latest wave of Marvel films is at its best when it doesn’t feel like just another wave of Marvel films. Despite consistently high quality, the movies have become increasingly burdened by the need to tie into the overarching narrative or establish some upcoming new show on Disney+. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is still very much a Marvel movie at its core, but it is also the freshest and most enjoyable MCU entry in a really long time.

The story might not be as memorable or consequential as some other Marvel films, but it’s just a ton of fun. The Asian influence and cast give it a unique feel, as does the relative lack of superpowers or abilities. Shang-Chi also boasts perhaps the most incredible action scenes of any Marvel movie. The martial arts action is captivating and clever, always showcasing something new and engaging. A fight scene on a bus cruising through the streets of downtown San Francisco is blockbuster cinema at its finest.

The cast is strong across the board, elevated by excellent chemistry between Shaun (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina). I’m a fan of the always delightful Awkwafina, and her character is responsible for much of the film’s humor and needed “pedestrian” perspective. Xu Wenwu (Tony Chui-Wai Leung) is not a menacing villain, but his character is nuanced enough to elevate him above the fray of Marvel’s notoriously uninspired villains.  

At around the film’s midway point (marked by the surprise reappearance of a former MCU character), the film morphs from a relatively grounded and gritty film to an over-the-top silly and zany one. The tonal switch is jarring, and the more personal story established in the opening acts unfortunately drifts into more typical “the fate of the world is at stake” CGI spectacle for the climatic final act. That is not to say that the later part of the film is unenjoyable. I actually appreciated the film’s unabashed embrace of the more fantastical elements, another unique addition to the expanding MCU canvas. However, it does make for a slightly inconsistent narrative and lacks originality.    

Overall, this is a highly enjoyable film. If this is a taste of the future of the MCU, then it might be time for me to punch my ticket and jump back on the bandwagon. Bring on The Eternals!

For Consideration

Profanity: A handful of minor profanities (mostly “S—“).  

Sexuality: None.  

Violence: Typical Marvel violence. Characters fight with minimal blood.

Engage the Film

Overcoming the sins of the past.

Despite the film’s tonal inconsistency, one of its greatest strengths is the consistency of its themes. The story explores the topic of identity and how past sins and mistakes inform that identity for better or worse. The singular theme is developed by contrasting Shaun, his sister Xialing (who could have used more screen time), and his father. All three family members face tragic events in their shared past in different ways—running from it, combating it, or letting it rule them.  

Shang-Chi is perhaps Marvel’s least linear entry. The film uses frequent flashback scenes to effectively contrast the characters’ past with their present, using prior experiences to reveal more insight into their current day struggles. As the movie becomes increasingly supernatural, the application becomes more cosmic. The evil creature called “the Dweller in the Darkness” is a fitting stand-in for a Satan-esque character. It preys on Shaun’s father’s guilt and shame, pulling him back into the violence and selfishness that he had sought escape. It is present as a soft, lying voice, making insincere promises and offering false hope.

As a result, one of the film’s triumphs is that Xu Wenwu is a sympathetic antagonist. His villainy is motivated by despair and loneliness. He is a broken man rather than a truly evil one. He is an example of how past sins can be overcome, but also how they can haunt and destroy us if we allow ourselves to listen to the wrong voices.

As a result of Wenwu’s nuanced character, Shaun’s contrasting journey becomes more interesting and relatable. His journey is not merely about choosing good rather than the evil path of his heritage (a theme played out in countless other films), but rather about overcoming the sins in his own past and not letting them determine his future identity the way it has his father. While the film offers a more postmodern and spiritual solution to the problem (look inside and find your true identity within yourself), the themes of sin and brokenness and the need for rescue can be affirmed by Christians.  

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Shang-Chi Christian Review: Facing the Demons

S hang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings offers many biblical integration points, especially where facing our demons are concerned, which we unpack in this Christian review of the movie. Marvel’s latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Shang-Chi , is not the average Marvel hero flick. Maybe “average” is a bad adjective. I’m not trying to imply that Marvel’s films aren’t always visually stunning, engaging, and high quality. Marvel films, in my opinion, are some of the best cinematic content in production today.  Shang-Chi , in many ways, might top them all, though.

Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings Christian Review

Warning: the following text contains spoilers.

Shang-Chi beautifully carves out yet another realm of possibilities and wonder not yet explored within the MCU. A realm of fantasy full of multi-tailed foxes , faceless winged pets , and dragons . A realm where the form of fighting, through beautifully choreographed martial arts movements, is just as important, if not more important, to the beauty of the film as any special effects. 

My wife and I have had the pleasure of watching Shang-Chi in the theaters twice over the past few weeks. Each time, I’ve left the theater with a sense of wonder at how this story not only ties so well into the MCU that I know and love, but how it beautifully opens up a world new and amazing. All of this, while also weaving a story that packs in much of God’s truth .  Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a beautiful reminder that as Christians, we are not called to run from or cancel our demons. Instead, we are called to face them, seeking to have peace through the redemption and reconciliation that only Christ can provide. 

God’s Truth vs Eastern Philosophy

Shang-Chi, or Shaun as we are first introduced to him, is a young man coasting through life as a parking attendant with his friend Katy. We soon learn through some awesome fight scenes and intense flashbacks that Shaun is instead running from his past as Shang-Chi, the son of the embodiment of the ancient Chinese philosophy: yin (his father Xu Wenwu) and yang (his mother Li). Obviously, the story is filled with dualistic, good vs. bad, eastern philosophy.

But upon deeper examination, we see that Shang-Chi, like us, is a fallen, sinful human trying to hide and run from his pain, anger, brokenness, and sin. Shang-Chi struggles to face his “demons.” These include his evil crime-lord father, the loss of his mother as he stood by, his sister whom he abandoned, and his heritage and culture. Ultimately, it is Shang-Chi’s confrontation with his inner demons that allows him to find the strength and courage necessary to face and defeat the external soul-sucking demons threatening the world.

Christians Facing Demons

Like Shang-Chi, we are all the product of internal and external brokenness and sin. This is the fallen world in which we live. Our sins affect us and others, just as the sin of others affects us. Unlike Shang-Chi and the eastern philosophy of yin-yang, we do not believe that we create goodness ourselves to balance evil. Instead, as Christians, we know that Christ is the light of the world . Christ is the light we shine on the dark world around us. It’s this light that will not just create temporary balance with the darkness, but will eradicate it one day completely. 

When we face our internal struggles with the armor of Christ, we find the power to overcome and the courage to engage in the fight around us. This is like Shang-Chi did when his aunt Ying Nan reminded him to know who he was. When we confront those who have hurt us with the love of Christ, we disarm them, much like Shang-Chi takes the ten rings from his father during their final fight. When we embrace the Truth that Christ has given us in the Gospel, we too can join the fight against the very real soul-sucking demons already loose and devouring the world around us. Which leaves only one final question: will you face your demons and join the fight?

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SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS

"heroic family sacrifices".

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Teenage son runs away from his criminal widowed father (the mother had a positive effect on the father, but then she died, and he hardened again), greed, criminality, a monster deceives the father in the story.

More Detail:

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is a comical action entry in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and introduces a Chinese superhero who must use 10 powerful arm rings to fend off a horde of demonic creatures his father accidentally unleashes on his mother’s hidden village. SHANG-CHI is a satisfying, funny superhero movie with lots of exciting action, but it does have some foul language, scary monsters, action violence, and fantasy concepts that warrant caution for younger moviegoers.

The movie opens by showing how Shang-Chi’s father, Wenwu, met his mother, Jiang Li. For 1,000 years after finding the 10 rings of power, Wenwu greedily pursued power. In Ancient China, he created a large army to conquer territory. In modern times, he leads a criminal organization called The 10 Rings. Thirty years ago, Wenwu went searching for the legendary, hidden city of Ta Lo, which guards a land of mythical beasts. On reaching the entrance to the city, however, Wenwu meets Jiang Li, the female guardian of the entrance. She refuses to let him pass, and the two engage in an elaborate martial arts fight where Li is an equal match for Wenwu. In fact, their fighting becomes more like a beautiful dance, and the two clearly fall in love. Li decides to return with Wenwu to his world, where she gives birth to two children, a boy named Shang-Chi (pronounced “Shawng-Chee”) and a younger sister, Xialing (“Cheye-ling”).

Cut to present-day San Francisco. For some reason, Shang-Chi has run away from his father and taken the name Shaun. He works as a lowly parking valet and has become friends with Katy, a friendly, funny Chinese-American woman who works as a bus driver. However, one day, his father sends some thugs to take the pendant that Shang-Chi’s mother gave him. He’s able to fend them off in a terrific action sequence, but, in the end, they get the pendant.

Shang-Chi reveals his true identity to Katy. He says his father trained him to be an assassin, then, when he was 14, ordered him to kill a rival. Shang-Chi decided to run away and hide from in father in America. That’s why he’s happy doing such a low-level job as a parking valet.

Shang-Chi is worried his father will send his minions after his sister, Xialing. He locates her in Macao, where she runs a large underground fight ring. Katy goes with him to Macao, but, after a scene where his sister forces him to fight her, more thugs from their father appear. Eventually, they take the pendant Xialing is wearing too. They also kidnap Katy, Shang-Chi and Xialing and take them to her father.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW] When they get to the father’s compound, they learn that the father thinks he hears the voice of his late wife telling him that their aunt, who lives in Ta Lo, is holding her spirit prisoner. The father intends to use the pendants to locate the village, kill everyone there and free his wife’s spirit.

Shang-Chi, Zialing and Katy escape the compound and try to beat the father to the village so they can stop him. When they get there, they learn that the voice the father hears is the voice of a soul-eating demonic creature that the villagers trapped years ago. The creature is deluding the father so that he will accidentally release the creature and his soul-eating minions.

Can the village and the three heroes stop the deluded father and the demonic monsters? Will Shang-Chi reconcile with his father?

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is a funny, exciting superhero movie that’s more of a fantasy than the science fiction superhero movies Marvel has been making up to now. Thus, there is a mythical village with mythological beasts and demonic soul-eating monsters. However, the power of the 10 rings remains a mystery. So, there’s a chance that future Marvel movies will reveal that the power of the rings is technological rather than supernatural. Be that as it may, the Eastern monk who worked with Dr. Strange in three previous Marvel movies appears in this movie too and uses his supernatural occult powers.

Despite the supernatural fantasy elements in SHANG-CHI, the movie has some strong moral, redemptive themes and metaphors. For example, the movie has a metaphorical baptism and allegorical death and resurrection. Also, the heroes eventually must fight and overcome demonic soul-eating monsters. Finally, the movie promotes sacrifice, reconciliation and family. However, SHANG-CHI also has some foul language and lots of action violence with scary monsters and scary moments.

All in all, therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® advises serious caution for impressionable children.

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Shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings, common sense media reviewers.

Funny, poignant, thrilling MCU adventure; action violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Courage, heroism, protecting those you love, belon

Shaun/Shang-Chi is brave, empathetic, kind. He's p

Nearly all-Asian/Asian diaspora cast, with excepti

Frequent, intense comic book-style action violence

A couple fight in a way that telegraphs attraction

Occasional language includes variations on "s--t":

Brands seen on-screen include Lucky Charms, Adidas

Possible glimpse of drinks as adults eat out at a

Parents need to know that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the action-packed origin story of Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). The son of The Mandarin (Tony Leung) -- the superhumanly powerful leader of the underground criminal organization the Ten Rings -- Shang-Chi was…

Positive Messages

Courage, heroism, protecting those you love, belonging to a community, acting for the greater good. Themes include teamwork, perseverance, courage. Shows how important family and friendship are, how the concept of family is more than blood: People can have incredibly strong chosen families, with friends who love you unconditionally. Emphasizes idea of knowing and being who you are , not who you think you're destined or supposed to be to please others.

Positive Role Models

Shaun/Shang-Chi is brave, empathetic, kind. He's protective of his loved ones, particularly his friend and sister, also of his mother's community. Katy is a loyal friend who's like a sister to Shaun; she commits to helping him even when she could easily stay safe back at home. Xialing is bold, brave, independent. Central characters put themselves in harm's way to save a community.

Diverse Representations

Nearly all-Asian/Asian diaspora cast, with exception of a couple of supporting players. Focuses on racial/ethnic representation, as well as non-stereotypical depictions in the form of Shaun and Katy, who aren't in predictable career paths.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent, intense comic book-style action violence. It isn't especially gory, but there are a couple of injuries/deaths, plus frequent peril and danger. Characters are killed and severely injured. Viewers see people plummeting to their death; being stabbed, crushed, shot, or impaled; pursued by scary, demon-like monsters, etc. Explosions/destruction. Lots of hand-to-hand combat. Weapons include guns, spears, bows, explosives. Mourning/sadness. Arguments, yelling, shouting.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple fight in a way that telegraphs attraction (it looks like dancing). Later, they embrace, kiss, are shown as being married with children.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional language includes variations on "s--t": "s--t," "holy s--t," "bulls--t," each said a couple of times. "What the hell," "ass," "goddammit," "oh my God," and "damn" also pop up. The word "vagina" is used.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands seen on-screen include Lucky Charms, Adidas, BMW, and Bose. All Disney/MCU films and characters have lots of off-camera merchandise available.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Possible glimpse of drinks as adults eat out at a restaurant.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the action-packed origin story of Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). The son of The Mandarin ( Tony Leung ) -- the superhumanly powerful leader of the underground criminal organization the Ten Rings -- Shang-Chi was trained as an assassin from an early age. As a teen, he abandoned his destiny in order to live a normal life, but his father sends muscle to force him back home a decade later. As in all of the MCU movies, families can expect lots of sometimes-intense comic book-style violence. Most of it is martial arts-based and involves heavy hand-to-hand combat, although characters also occasionally use guns, bows, spears, and other weapons (and, naturally, things blow up). There's a fairly large body count, frightening demon-like creatures, and a couple of deaths that may hit viewers hard. Language is infrequent but includes "s--t" and "damn." There's less romance in this movie than in other MCU entries, with the exception of flashbacks to how two characters met and fell in love (there are a couple of embraces and kisses). The film is notable for featuring a nearly all-Asian cast (including popular comedic actor Awkwafina as Shang-Chi's best friend), as well as for its messages of teamwork, perseverance, and courage. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (27)
• Kids say (108)

Based on 27 parent reviews

Some swearing no sex

What's the story.

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS begins with a bedtime story prologue explaining that Shang-Chi is the son of two supernatural people: superstrong (and basically immortal) Wenwu, possessor of the Ten Rings ( Tony Leung ), and Ying Li (Fala Chen), a fellow martial arts master who hails from the secret powerful community Ta Lo and is the only rival to ever defeat Wenwu. When Shang-Chi's mother dies, Wenwu, who had given up the Ten Rings to devote himself to his family, goes back to building his criminal empire and training Shang-Chi to be the best killer/assassin and successor. But at age 15, Shang-Chi escaped. Ten years later, he goes by Shaun (Simu Liu) and is a San Francisco parking attendant who spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend, Katy ( Awkwafina ). One day while Shaun is commuting on the bus, Ten Rings goons arrive to steal the one thing Shaun has left of his mother: half of a jade pendant. Soon, Shaun must reveal his true identity to Katy, and they both head to China to find his estranged younger sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), before Wenwu does. Once they reconnect, Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Katy are caught up in Wenwu's master plan to resurrect their mother by destroying her secretive village.

Is It Any Good?

An entertaining mix of comedy and superhero action, this is a welcome addition to the Marvel universe that, like many MCU movies, explores loss, father issues, and learning to own your power. Liu and Awkwafina have great buddy chemistry as Shang-Chi and Katy, and, similarly to Black Widow , the romance in Shang-Chi is limited to the older generation while the main character is more devoted to his family (both chosen and biological). While Marvel is no stranger to funny sidekicks, the central pairing here has comedic timing on par with Ant-Man 's Scott and Luis, with the added bonus of a tender brother-sister vibe. Shang-Chi also has a biological sister, of course, and she's sure to be an audience favorite. Zhang's Xialing is like an edgier Natasha/Black Widow: She's a trained assassin who wants more out of her life than being her father's overlooked younger child. But Leung is the scene-stealer here, a brooding, powerful presence simmering to a boil. It's hard to imagine a superhero film without overt father-child baggage, and director (and co-writer, along with David Callaham and Andrew Lanham) Destin Daniel Cretton focuses a lot on the characters' backstory. It occasionally feels like too much, but ultimately the writing manages to balance the superhero speechifying and inspirational monologues with witty banter and a particularly effective subplot with a familiar MCU face.

One thing to make clear, even to those not versed in the genre, is that Shang-Chi isn't a straight-up, bona fide kung-fu or martial arts flick. Yes, there are plenty of martial arts scenes (from the aggressive style the Ten Rings members use to the almost dance-like martial arts demonstrated by Shang-Chi's mother and her community) and elements, but this is still first and foremost the Marvel world. The rapid-fire editing (courtesy of Elsabet Ronaldsdottir, Nat Sanders, and Harry Yoon) during the action sequences is noteworthy, as is Bill Pope's cinematography, which excels in both the city-set scenes and the ones taking place against the natural beauty of idyllic Ta Lo. Once the story settles there, it's a lovely, vibrant counterpoint to the darker, grimmer parts in the Ten Rings headquarters. It's important to also note that Shang-Chi features the first Asian lead in the MCU (Benedict Wong, who cameos, was memorable in Doctor Strange , but he's wasn't the main character). Shang-Chi, like Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians before it, continues to prove that diverse representation matters.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the action violence in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings . Does martial arts/hand-to-hand combat violence impact viewers differently than weapons-based, military-style violence?

What character strengths are on display in the movie? How can viewers model the teamwork , courage , and perseverance depicted in the story?

Fewer than 4% of Hollywood films feature AAPI characters in leading roles. Why are racial and ethnic representation in media important for all viewers?

How does Shang-Chi reference the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe? What would you like to see happen if there's a sequel?

This is one of the few Marvel movies without a romantic subplot. Discuss the strong platonic bond between Shaun and Katy. Do you like that they're "just friends," or would you have preferred a romance? Why?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 3, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : November 12, 2021
• Cast : Simu Liu , Awkwafina , Tony Leung , Michelle Yeoh
• Director : Destin Daniel Cretton
• Inclusion Information : Asian directors, Asian actors, Female actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Superheroes
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 132 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of violence and action, and language
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : February 19, 2023

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• DVD & Streaming

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 3, 2021
• Simu Liu as Shawn/Shang-Chi; Awkwafina as Katy; Meng'er Zhang as Xialing; Tony Leung as Wenwu; Fala Chen as Jiang Li; Florian Munteanu as Razor Fist; Benedict Wong as Wong; Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan; Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery

Home Release Date

• November 12, 2021
• Destin Daniel Cretton

Distributor

• Disney, Marvel

Movie Review

There’s nothing wrong with being a valet. Absolutely nothing.

It’s honest work. Well, mostly. You get to drive some really cool cars—even if it’s technically just to the other end of the parking garage and back. But if your co-valet worker and best friend convinces you to take a slick BMW for a quick spin around the block … well, who’s going to be the wiser?

And let’s be honest: Valet work is way preferable than being your father’s right-hand assassin.

Yep, that’s what Shawn was supposed to be. His dad, Wenwu, had been training him to kill since Shawn was just a toothpick-armed kid. He was called Shang-Chi back when he was sparring with Wenwu’s seemingly endless store of warriors. And by the time he was 14, Shang-Chi could defeat almost all of them.

That’s still pretty good for a 14-year-old. And at an age when most teen boys are just starting to shave the peach fuzz off their upper lips, Shang-Chi was being sent on his first lethal assignment.

He never came back to Pops, though. Instead he fled for the U.S. and made a great best friend., Katy. Together, the two became valets. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But some careers are notoriously hard to leave, especially if they’re family businesses.

One sunny morning, while Shawn and Katy are riding the bus to work (ironic, no?), several skilled martial artists and a guy with an energy sword for a hand attack them. It’s soon clear that they’re after the amulet Shawn wears—the same amulet his mother gave him just before she was killed. “Whenever you get lost,” she told him then, “this [will help] you find your way home.”

Clearly, the attackers were sent by his father. Obviously, dear old Dad wants the amulet for some nefarious plot. And obviously, he’ll be looking for the amulet’s matching twin—the one worn around his estranged sister’s neck. Shawn knows he’ll need to warn her, even if the two haven’t spoken for years.

Nothing wrong with being a valet. Not in the least. But someone else’ll have to park the cars for a bit. Shawn—Shang-Chi—has a sister, and a world, to save.

Positive Elements

Anytime you’re saving the world, you’re doing good work—and indeed, that’s the position Shang-Chi (along with some helpmates) is in. He’s willing to give it his all to prevent his father from making a terrible mistake.

Which brings us to the movie’s second big positive—and one that undergirded fellow Marvel movie Black Widow , too. This is a movie about family . And as messy as this family is, the film says some pretty nice things about it, too.

In a flashback, we see how father Wenwu met Shang-Chi’s mother, Jiang Li—and how that relationship proved, for a time, to be a catalyst for positive change.

Wenwu, who had been literally on the warpath for 1,000 years (thanks to the lifegiving, magical power of 10 bracelet rings he always wears), gave up his immortality to be a loving husband and father. Jiang Li (Shang-Chi’s mother) gave up something for the relationship, too, but neither of them had any regrets: They loved each other, and they loved their kids. “After all those years, I found something worth growing old for,” Wenwu says tenderly. And even in the aftermath of Jiang Li’s death, Wenwu still loves her deeply—so deeply that the loss and grief twists him terribly. But the love, despite all that, remains. He’s as much a father as an evildoer, and the movie never loses sight of that.

As mentioned, Shang-Chi gets some help, too. Katy dives into this adventure, risking her own life when she would’ve been much safer parking cars. And while Shang-Chi and his sister, Xialing, are not exactly on the best of terms for much of the movie, they come together for a common goal—and they still share a lot of affection for each other.

We also hear lots of good messages about striving to reach your potential. While there’s nothing wrong with being a valet, characters stress that both Shang-Chi and Katy could do better. “If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing,” someone tells the latter.

Spiritual Elements

The movie’s very title hints that we’re moving into a mythical space here. Magic is very much in play, and we hear mention of “gods” and people with god-like power.

None of the people we see here are gods (though the rings do give Wenwu “the strength of a god and the gift of eternal life”). But Shang-Chi and his pals do visit a hidden, magical realm associated with a dragon—a creature that, in Chinese culture, is deeply spiritual, and one that comes across here as something of a supernatural protector.

And the powers on display here among several human characters often seem to bridge the gap between really skilled martial artistry and the manipulation of matter and energy. Some movements seem to harness the very air. And, of course, the rings themselves are quite magical.

In addition, there’s a hint of yin-yang dualism here, as Shang-Chi is encouraged to embrace both the light and the dark aspects of himself (though its ultimate manifestation seems unquestionably good).

We see a couple of shrines dedicated to Jiang Li, surrounded by candles. During a memorial ceremony, people float paper lanterns on a lake—recalling a Japanese ceremony in which the lights are said to help guide the souls of the dead to the spirit world. People express a belief in the eternal souls and ghosts.

[ Spoiler Warning ] The real villainy at work here, by the way, feels pretty demonic, too, and it’s sometimes referred to as such. It even eats the souls of the dead to grow more powerful. (Souls are depicted as a bright ball of energy being sucked from people’s bodies.) A villainous entity uses trickery—the voices of people long dead—to trick the living.

Sexual Content

Despite some prodding from a relative or two, Shang-Chi and Katy are just good friends (though Katy does ogle him a bit when he removes his shirt).

The main romance here is between Wenwu and Jiang Li, and it all takes place in the form of a series of flashbacks. When the two first meet, they “fight,” but the battle feels more like a dance. They twist and move almost in unison, and moments when their hands touch prompt glances that are charged with suggestive romantic energy.

The two do soon marry, and we see them in moments of domestic happiness, including some kisses and caresses.

As mentioned, Shang-Chi goes shirtless a few times. His sister wears a top that reveals a bit of midriff. During a quip, Katy crudely mentions her mother’s vagina.

Violent Content

Superhero movies are violent. Martial arts flicks are violent. And this, my friends, is a superhero martial arts movie.

Some of this violence is mitigated by the film’s fluid, dance-like choreography. Even the most frenetic fights (between people, anyway) carry a tang of poetry with them, fists and feet taking on rhyme and meter. But none of that keeps people from getting hurt or killed: Both happen with some frequency.

Wenwu’s rings are especially dangerous. They enable Wenwu to blast through walls, throw people around and (off-camera) execute at least one person with extreme prejudice (an act witnessed by a very young Shang-Chi, though we do not witness what he does). The rings are even used to defeat a monstrous creature in perhaps the movie’s most visceral scene.

But other weapons do damage, too. Xialing uses a blade at the end of a tether that does some serious damage. A man wields an energy sword attached to his handless wrist. More traditional swords, staves, electrified scythes and throwing implements are used, too—sometimes with lethal results—and a number of warriors use bows, both on an archery range and in battle. And in a gladiator-like fighting arena, men and monsters battle until one is knocked out. Someone is kicked in the groin,.

People fall from massive heights—sometimes painfully landing on a solid surface, while others plummet to their (unseen) deaths. Motorcycles crash, sending their riders flying. A killer forest sends an SUV careening off a cliff, presumably spelling the end for its remaining inhabitants. People tragically die off-screen.

Tentacled, fanged monsters attack people, leading to grotesqueries on both sides. A creature sucks out and absorbs souls. A bus is torn apart, and the people inside it are tossed about violently. We see explosions. As a child, Shang-Chi beats a wooden post until his knuckles bleed.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear about a half-dozen s-words and a sizable collection of other profanities, including “a–,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “h—” and the British profanity “bloody.” God’s name is misused six times, once paired with “d–n.” We also hear a couple of uses of the f-word stand-in “freaking.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Shang-Chi and Katy sing with abandon at a karaoke bar, both looking as if they’ve likely had a bit too much to drink. (In a later scene, the two are joined by another seemingly drunken singer.)

A woman insists that people live on after death. As proof, she talks how she left a bottle of whiskey on her husband’s grave. “The next day it was gone,” she proudly concludes. Some liquor bottles can be seen in clubs and dives.

Other Negative Elements

Xialing runs a presumably illegal fight club. We hear about someone vomiting.

While Marvel’s television shows on Disney+ have allowed fans to dip their toes into the post- Avengers: Endgame Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings jumps into the deep end. It introduces moviegoers to a new hero (though the character himself debuted in 1973) and sets us up for a long and (Marvel and Disney hope) lucrative road ahead.

As a movie, Shang-Chi unquestionably works. It’s an engaging, action-packed story that blends the lineage of martial arts movies with Marvel’s multilayered bombast, and it even throws a few massive creatures into the mix to give the film a kaiju-type feel at times. And it feels a lot more open to MCU newcomers, too. While being familiar with the 24 (!) previous Marvel movies will certainly add to the experience here, moviegoers don’t need to be particularly familiar with any of ’em to enjoy this one.

But if Shang-Chi is friendly to MCU novices, it’s not quite as friendly for families.

First, of course, you’ve got plenty of violence to contend with here, as well as some language. None of that is a new thing in the MCU, of course: The PG-13-level action feels very much in line with what we’ve seen before.

But the film feels surprisingly spiritual, too, and it uses Eastern spirituality as its template. While most of what we see here is a mythos of Marvel’s own making, we can certainly see the sensibilities of Taoism, Buddhism and other streams of traditionally Eastern faith flowing here. And though you could suss out some Christian themes here—themes of fighting against temptation and darkness, the willingness to sacrifice for the greater good, etc.—those would be likely secondary or wholly unintended by the filmmakers themselves.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a satisfying, fun superhero movie, no question. But families—even families already familiar with the MCU—still might want to pause before grabbing this ring.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Movie Review: ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’

NEW YORK (CNS) — A spry wit paces the elegant martial-arts showdowns in director and co-writer Destin Daniel Cretton’s Marvel Comics-derived adventure “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (Disney).

A treat for grown-ups, the film is too laden with extra-biblical ideas to be recommended for impressionable moviegoers. As for older teens, they’ll likely shrug off its overly-elaborate mythos as so much window dressing.

Together with his best friend and co-worker Katy (Awkwafina), mild-mannered, ambitionless San Francisco parking valet Shaun (Simu Liu) leads a contented — if directionless — life, partying, staying up late and going nowhere professionally. So when a group of thugs try to steal the amulet he always wears around his neck, and he responds with a magnificent display of fighting skills, Katy is left incredulous.

Her amazement only deepens on learning that Shaun is, in fact, the superhero of the title, trained from his youth to be a semi-supernatural warrior.

For all of Shaun’s prowess, however, the bad guys — agents of his ruthless China-based gang leader father, Wenwu (Tony Leung) — did, in the end, succeeded in purloining the talisman, a cherished gift his late mother, Li (Fala Chen), gave him before she was murdered by a band of her husband’s enemies. So, with Katy in tow, it’s off to the homeland Shaun abandoned decades before to get away from his dad.

There, Shaun is once again embroiled in family tensions, including the resentment his younger sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) continues to harbor over his abandonment of her in childhood. Since she’s as gifted a combatant as her sibling, moreover, Xialing knows how to make her wrath felt.

Behind all the bloodless action that follows lies a basic story of good versus evil. The plot gains moral subtlety, however, from the fact that, although he’s acting under a delusion, Wenwu’s latest scheme, which his children eventually come together to oppose, is fueled by grief and the desire to be reunited with his spouse rather than by any wicked intention.

Along with vocabulary unsuitable for kids, the script, penned in collaboration with Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham, presents viewers with ideas — such as centuries-old Wenwu’s quasi-immortality — that might confuse those inclined to take them seriously. Additionally, a briefly touched-on theme of honoring the fallen is marked by no sense of hope in an afterlife.

Given everyone’s preoccupation with battling as well as the nature of Shaun and Katy’s bond — a friendship that barely skirts the outer edges of romance — there’s no sexual element to the picture. Instead, it’s all jaunty dustups and derring-do. And, if human interest is briefly lost amid the outsized special effects of the climactic confrontation, it’s skillfully recaptured via a wry wrap-up.

The film contains frequent stylized violence, nonscriptural religious ideas, at least one use of profanity, a few milder oaths, about a half-dozen crude terms, a couple of crass expressions and an obscene gesture. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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It’s telling when the Marvel Cinematic Universe uses its immense power to operate an assembly line. But it’s just as telling when there’s a deeply human spark to one of their projects, allowing franchise values like great spectacle, striking performances, and intricate depictions of family to prevail. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is the latest addition to the latter category, taking after previous Marvel movies that introduced a vision and became benchmarks: “ Captain America: The Winter Soldier ,” “ Black Panther ,” and “ Thor: Ragnarok ” come to mind. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton , this film fits into Marvel packaging in its own way, but it has an immense soulfulness that other MCU movies, superhero movies, and action movies in general should take notes from.  

Simu Liu stars as Shang-Chi, a key piece to a broken family that has a history of infighting. The dysfunctional family dynamics are even more important than the ten rings that grant such immense power to Shang Chi’s power-hungry father Wenwu, who has lived for 1,000 years and created a society called the Ten Rings that has destroyed kingdoms and swayed the events all over the world. When Wenwu found love with Jiang Li ( Fala Chen ), there was peace. They married and started a family. But after Shang-Chi’s mother died, a newly monstrous Wenwu tried to mature his son by making him a killer, causing the young boy to leave behind his sister Xialing ( Meng'er Zhang ) and Wenwu. Cretton, who previously directed “ Short Term 12 ,” an Avengers-like showcase of indie rising talent ( Brie Larson , LaKeith Stanfield , Rami Malek , etc.) keeps those visceral, personal stakes in this script (by himself, Dave Callaham , and Andrew Lanham ), so that the superhero context is a bonus to the drama. The film is a mega-budget ballet, one that glides and floats over an abyss of grief.  

This backstory comes for Shang-Chi, known as an American adult as Shaun, when he rides the bus with his friend Katy (Awkwafina) up and down the hills of San Francisco. A group of henchmen attack Shang-Chi for a green pendant he wears around his neck, and in a beat that’s prefaced like a power-up (to Katy's funny surprise), Shaun’s immense courage suddenly comes to light. So too do his fighting skills, which help make for an incredible melee scene of hand-to-hand combat that has the camera gazing for long shots and freely going in and out of the moving bus, just like its impromptu hero. The scene lacks for its yowch-factor—especially compared to how “ Nobody ” did the same thing with appropriate blood earlier this year—but it side-steps that element by being fast-paced, even longer than you think it’ll be, and very funny. It’s the birth of an action star in Liu, and an amazing debut for a character who will find himself in fight scenes here of escalating intensity.  

The power for this film, however, comes through in the eyes of his father, Wenwu. One of the movie’s most brilliant choices is casting Tony Leung so that he can repeat the same magic he’s had from countless romances and dramas in Hong Kong. Leung rules this movie. With the same silent passion and stillness that made “ In the Mood for Love ” one of the greatest romances of all time, Leung destroys armies, raises a family, and struggles to resist destructive grief; his presence is made all the more powerful by the ten blue rings that help him slingshot around and destroy whatever is in his path. When he hears the voice of what could be his wife from behind a cave of rock, Wenwu becomes a Darth Vader-like tyrant, driving a campaign to rampage through the mother’s magical home known as Ta Lo, in order to get to a cave that everyone else knows (including his son and daughter) has an apocalyptic, soul-sucking dragon inside. It’s the best performance from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because the passion and grief it expresses is appropriately Leung-sized.  

Cretton is able to take this enthralling movie from one scene to the next with this vivid sense of a brother and sister trying to stop their father from destroying everything because he can’t move on. It’s a more devastating threat than the usual world domination thing, and it parallels how the script builds out the painful backstory of Shang-Chi and his similarly skilled and aggrieved sister, Xialing. With a few strong twists along the way, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” turns into an adventure and a homecoming to a peaceful realm from a whole different time, which brings in a sweet, magnetic performance from Michelle Yeoh . These passages, as balletic as the entire movie, detail how Shang-Chi learned two different fighting approaches—life philosophies, really—from his mother and father.

It doesn't seem like a coincidence that a massive Hollywood tentpole sincerely based on character-based kung fu has inspired such rich fight scenes, and it makes the film even more of a refreshing blast. Cretton and his team constantly play with height, light, reflections, and staging when it comes to orchestrating a fight set-piece that surprises the audience (like a jaw-dropping, way-up-high nighttime battle royale on some scaffolding in Macao), and then foregrounds the choreography as the main spectacle; it’s not just about who is throwing the punches and kicks. I should admit that numerous beats in these sharply edited sequences blew me back in my chair, an involuntary filmmaking nerd response I’ve had to similar movies that inspired this one: “ Skyfall ,” “ The Grandmaster ,” for starters.  

“Shang-Chi"'s thrilling’s embrace of clarity, of nudging your imagination instead of doing all the work for you, spreads the inspired special effects that enhance the magic of this story and the world of its characters. There’s an evocative use of water—it bursts from walls, floats in the air, and makes a map of icicles—a striking way of depicting a moment that usually would just get a hologram. The movie even throws in a charming animated cute sidekick that cleverly subverts the expectations of cute faces on plush-looking sidekicks. The dominating usage of CGI—the kind that requires dark clouds, as we saw in the grand battle of “ Avengers: Endgame ”—is saved for the last massive sequence, which is such an over-the-top, giddy, rollercoaster ride that you can’t help but root for it.  

The Avengers, the new roster at least, lurk on the periphery of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” but Cretton’s film benefits from establishing its deeper family and friend relationships. Liu and Awkwafina have adorable, platonic chemistry as two valet workers who are thrust into another adventure, this one more intense than their karaoke nights; Awkwafina in particular becomes a vital source of levity for the script, and a welcoming audience surrogate as the film ramps up to a large battle. She helps the humor pop even more compared to the story’s darker themes, making numerous passages of the movie not only thrilling but charming and funny.  

As for Shang-Chi himself, well: take away the comic relief that lovingly dunks on him, or the battling schools of fighting from his parents that swirl within him, and there’s not too much personality to the character. It’s a distinct void when one reflects on the performance, given that Liu is so watchable in how he combines a striking, bulky presence with endearing innocence, a la Channing Tatum ’s own box office dominating days. It becomes telling of the imperfect balancing act of this script that its main character needs a little emphasis in his sequel; the same could be said for other intriguing characters like Xialing, a vengeful bad-ass in her own right not given enough screen time or depth, especially considering where she ends up.  

Without spoiling, the movie does make some efforts to address Marvel’s previously problematic presentations of Asian characters, and while the moments are used for some self-deprecating comic relief, they remind me of two things: how it’s impossible for these Marvel films to exist in a vacuum, and how much more work needs to be done. Even the people who helped make this movie stumble through talking about it, like when Disney CEO Bob Chapek insensitively said this was an “ interesting experiment ,” a phrase that indicates a secondary status, something unofficial. The statement is ignorant in many ways, but especially after one witnesses the many triumphs of “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” It embraces fruitful ideas, big and small, whether in cohesive action scenes, embracing platonic friendships in a mega-budget movie, or introducing a new exciting hero who also has to instruct his friend (and the audience) on how to properly say his name. This movie is not an experiment for Marvel and Disney. It is a promising template for how they can get it right again.  

Exclusively in theaters on September 3rd.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film Credits

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and language.

132 minutes

Simu Liu as Shang-Chi

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Wenwu / The Mandarin

Awkwafina as Katy

Meng'er Zhang as Xialing

Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan

Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon

Fala Chen as Jiang Li

• Destin Daniel Cretton

Writer (characters)

• Steve Englehart
• Jim Starlin
• Dave Callaham
• Andrew Lanham

Cinematographer

• Nat Sanders
• Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
• Joel P. West

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‘shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings’: film review.

Marvel's latest superhero origin story centers on a young man battling the legacy of his father, a legendary crime lord possessed of godlike strength and immortality.

By Angie Han

Television Critic

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There are two identity crises at the heart of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings . One is written into the narrative: Shang-Chi ( Simu Liu ) is the son of an immortal crime lord ( Tony Leung ), who’s rejected his father’s empire for a simpler and less murderous life parking cars for a ritzy San Francisco hotel. His journey will be toward making himself whole again, reconciling his dark past with his good heart to forge a new way forward.

The other lies with the film itself. Shang-Chi , directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, attempts to shake up the Marvel formula by infusing it with martial-arts action and fairy-tale fantasy and grounding it in Chinese and Asian American culture. And while its disparate elements don’t meld together as smoothly as they should, they do, in the end, add up to a superhero movie fresh and fun enough to feel worth a spin.

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Release date: Friday, Sept. 3 Cast: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Tony Leung, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh Director: Destin Daniel Cretton Screenwriters: David Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham

It doesn’t take long for Shang-Chi to lay down its terms. The initial scenes of the film are set in China, with the opening narration and dialogue entirely in Mandarin (with subtitles). It’s not until the action moves to San Francisco, several minutes in, that we hear a single word of English. Even in 2021, when subtitles are hardly an exotic experience for most moviegoers, the choice to use them in the opening scenes of an American blockbuster sends a message. Shang-Chi may be Marvel’s first Asian lead character, 23 films into the franchise, but he and his family won’t be treated as novelties in their own movie.

From there, Shang-Chi quickly distinguishes itself with its action, which emphasizes precision and agility over brute-force strength or weightless CG trickery (though there’s plenty of those as well, thanks to the Ten Rings that grant its wearers godlike power). The film’s most thrilling set piece is essentially a hallway fight scene set on a speeding bus, and Liu looks the very picture of cool as he twists and swings and kicks his way through half a dozen henchmen, the camera breathlessly tracking his every move. But the characters’ martial arts training informs softer moments, too, like a wuxia -inspired meet-cute between Shang-Chi’s parents (Tony Leung and Fala Chen) that takes on the flirty symmetry of a dance.

In scenes like the latter, which is set in a magical forest outside a hidden kingdom and involves the use of mysterious ancient artifacts, Shang-Chi barely feels like a superhero movie at all. If anything, it veers closer to the wistful grandeur of Disney’s live-action fairy tale adaptations. Alas, not even a warrior as gifted as Shang-Chi is capable of breaking the Marvel mold completely. The franchise’s quippy, self-deprecating sense of humor, which does so much to bring its characters back down to earth no matter how extravagant their powers become, kicks in any time Shang-Chi threatens to feel too epic. The jokes keep Shang-Chi from tipping over into self-importance, but they also rob it of some of its wonder.

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 . Then, of course, there’s the requisite third-act sky battle with shooting CG lights — predictably the least interesting part of nearly every Marvel movie, including this one. Oh, and don’t forget the two end-credits scenes, which offer a tease of just how Shang-Chi might fit into future MCU sequels.

Like the characters keep saying to one another, it’s a lot to take in. And that’s on top of an already overstuffed plot involving not just Shang-Chi’s complicated relationship with his father, which is detailed via extensive flashbacks, but also an elaborate mythology delivered through a breathless exposition dump late in the movie. There’s a low-simmer subplot about Shang-Chi’s possibly romantic interest in his free-spirited best friend, Katy ( Awkwafina ), and a slightly more high-simmer one about his sister (Meng’er Zhang), who’s sick of being sidelined — which itself keeps getting sidelined, since Shang-Chi additionally needs to make room for a slew of characters who don’t even show up till after the halfway mark.

Amid all this frantic plotting, Shang-Chi himself tends to get lost. As magnetic as Liu is in action, he struggles in quieter moments with a script (by Cretton, Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham) that gives the character more backstory than personality. But he has a lifesaver in Leung, whose character, Wenwu, is the rare supervillain with a soul. Leung’s sincerity lights up the love underlying Shang-Chi’s convoluted origins and helps to ground the film’s kookier flights of fancy — and he does all this without stealing the show from under Liu’s Shang-Chi.

It’s in their scenes together that Shang-Chi ‘s core ideas feel most fully realized. Strip away all that glossy superhero magic, and the film reveals itself to be the achingly familiar tale of a child figuring out how to bridge the gap between his parents’ values and expectations and his own — in the same way that Shang-Chi itself tries to remix old tropes with new perspectives. It doesn’t always succeed with flying colors. But as with a young hero still finding his footing, its valiant efforts feel worth cheering all the same.

Full credits

Distributor: Disney Production company: Marvel Studios Cast: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Tony Leung, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Yuen Wah, Ronny Chieng, Zach Cherry, Dallas Liu, Michelle Yeoh Director: Destin Daniel Cretton Screenwriters: David Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham Screen story by David Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton Producers: Kevin Feige, Jonathan Schwartz Executive producers: Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Charles Newirth Director of photography: Bill Pope Production designer: Sue Chan Costume designer: Kym Barrett Editors: Nat Sanders, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, Harry Yoon Visual effects supervisor: Christopher Townsend Music: Joel P West Casting director: Sarah Finn

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‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Review: House of Hidden Dragons

A millennial slacker reckons with his past — and his family of warriors.

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By Maya Phillips

Home is where the heart is. Unless you’re Shang-Chi. Then home is where your mother’s mystical secret village — and its dragon guardian — is. That’s the case in Marvel’s unsteady “ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ,” directed by Destin Daniel Cretton with an obliging eye toward kung fu cinema, but not much else.

Meet Shaun (Simu Liu). He’s your typical millennial slacker, content with his valet job, where he works with his equally listless best friend, Katy (Awkwafina). But Shaun has a secret: his mother (Fala Chen), who died when he was a child, was a master martial artist from an alternate dimension. Oh, and dad (Tony Leung) is a conqueror with a secret ninja army and 10 magical arm rings. And sis, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), hasn’t been in touch for a while; she’s got an underground “ Fight Club ”-style empire to rule over. When Shaun, a.k.a. Shang-Chi , receives a cryptic message, he gets pulled into a family reunion and must reckon with his past.

“ Shang-Chi ” peppers its hero’s tragic back story throughout but doesn’t fully acquaint us with him in the present before it jumps into his past. As in “ Black Widow ,” here’s a case of a protagonist who can’t compete with the more fascinating characters around him. Take Leung’s character, a toxic yet charismatic father, constantly pivoting between tender vulnerability and the destructive temper that masks it. Xialing, too, is wonderfully fierce as a lady kingpin. Too bad she falls into one of Marvel’s reliable tropes: the cool sister waiting in the margins of the story. (Other examples include Yelena Belova , Shuri and even the seductively villainous Hela .)

Then there’s the beloved sidekick, a role Awkwafina satisfies in much the same way she has in several other films, as in the street-smart hustler Constance and the tacky nouveau-riche bestie Peik Lin — which is to say awkwardly and obnoxiously. She does double-duty as the hero’s potential love interest, an equally ill-fitting part given the lack of chemistry between her and Liu. (Benedict Wong, appearing as the tether to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, is delightful as always, even in his brief and transparent function in the film.)

At least there’s the fighting, right? Nope. Besides one sensational fight sequence on a bus, the battles are poorly lit and filmed with such an over-excited eye that the intricacies of the choreography are lost. It’s a travesty, because Liu, a seasoned stuntman, has the effortless acrobatics and fastidious martial arts technique of an A-list action hero. Liu also has an amiable sense of humor, though “Shang-Chi” doesn’t know how to use it.

The last act of the film, which devolves into a fight-fest with magical glowing bangles, demonic monsters and oodles of C.G.I., is the most tedious, and this first Asian M.C.U. film left me with a disconcerting thought: Was this meant to be the next “ Black Panther ”? The dragon, the ninja army, the “ Crouching Tiger ”-style magical kung fu (along with Michelle Yeoh, in a small role): The film uses the superficial markers of Asian culture and filmmaking without presenting anything unique in its Marvel take on that tradition. Increasingly, as the M.C.U. finally attempts to diversify its roster, it risks delivering more mediocre, trope-heavy token-hero films. I hope I’m wrong, because Shang-Chi — and the female heroes, queer heroes and heroes of color who will hopefully follow — deserve a lot more.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Rated PG-13 for kung fu fighting. Running time: 2 hours 12 minutes. In theaters.

Maya Phillips is a New York Times critic at large. She is the author of the poetry collection “Erou” (Four Way Books, 2019) and "NERD: On Navigating Heroes, Magic, and Fandom in the 21st Century,” forthcoming in summer 2022 from Atria Books. More about Maya Phillips

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Reviews

Tony Leung is as good as advertised, but the rest of this movie struggles to live up to that performance.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2024

Shang Chi's strongest element is how it handles relationships between family and friends.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2023

THIS IS A GAME CHANGER For the Asian Community, For the MCU when it comes to Debut/Origin Films, & Overall Simu’s Career! The MCU has a brand new hero

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Through the outstanding mix of long takes, impressive fighting choreography, and jaw-dropping stunt work, Simu Liu shines with his martial arts skills, but also in tackling the identity issues of the protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 25, 2023

Thrilling and entertaining from start to finish, Shang-Chi cements itself as easily one of the best films in the MCU franchise.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 19, 2023

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is obsessed with its backstory for the better. It's fun, it's exciting, and it's sure to rejuvenate the interest in youth practicing martial arts.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Feb 23, 2023

All in all, it’s one of the best Marvel flicks of the past decade, and easily one of the best films of the year.

Full Review | Feb 10, 2023

I left the theater wanting to parkour onto a bus, leap into a construction site and dragon kick some bad guys in their throats. And then sing some karaoke.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 7, 2023

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings combines compelling characters, awe-inspiring action, and effective emotion to create a stunning superhero spectacle - and one of the best Marvel movies in years.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings brings Hong Kong martial arts action to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an Asian American twist, creating a beautiful blend of East and West styles.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 22, 2022

A few issues with the writing and the direction keep “Shang-Chi” from being top-tier MCU. But you’ll find that there is enough scattered throughout the film’s 132 minutes to keep you entertained.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 17, 2022

"I really really liked the film and thought it was a good origin story."

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jun 2, 2022

While it still hits every single MCU storytelling beat, Shang-Chi at least manages to evolve the franchise's action and provide a bit of refreshing diversity to the superhero world.

Full Review | May 30, 2022

Just when you think they've run out of tricks, "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings" will remind you once again why you love Marvel.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 20, 2022

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is a fun and of course very welcome addition to the MCU with a fantastic first half and a slightly weaker second half, that becomes a little bit too formulaic and CGI dominant.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 8, 2022

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has great energy, strong direction, and a fresh new set of characters. The film makes some missteps in the second half that move it a bit too far away from the strong central conflict between father and son.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Mar 8, 2022

"Not for nothing, it helps that we have the eyes of Tony Leung to transport us, to put us in the mood for following this particular love story instead of inevitably jumping forward in time to more familiar MCU destinations."

Full Review | Feb 22, 2022

Thirteen years and twenty-five films in, one could be forgiven for dreading yet another destiny to fulfil, another climactic battle to win. However, (this film) gives us a reason to care, and enough breadcrumbs to prove there are exciting things ahead.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 17, 2022

For those who are fans of basic and paint-by-numbers martial arts origin stories, Shang-Chi will be perfect but for anyone expecting anything fresh or new, keep looking

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Feb 15, 2022

Even if youre not a fan of the MCU and have never seen a single one of its films, Leung playing a villain in a production like this should be reason enough to at least give this rodeo show a quick run.

Full Review | Feb 12, 2022

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi, the master of weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization. Shang-Chi, the master of weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization. Shang-Chi, the master of weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.

• Destin Daniel Cretton
• Dave Callaham
• Andrew Lanham
• Tony Leung Chiu-wai
• 2.5K User reviews
• 339 Critic reviews
• 71 Metascore
• 19 wins & 67 nominations total

• (as Tony Leung)

• Trevor Slattery

• Master Guang Bo
• (as Yuen Wah)

• Death Dealer

• Chancellor Hui
• (as Paul He)

• Young Shang-Chi
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• Teen Shang-Chi

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Did you know

• Trivia In the late 1980s, Stan Lee had considered a film/TV series about Shang-Chi and had in mind Brandon Lee , son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee , for the role. Shang-Chi was visually based on Bruce Lee so Brandon seemed a fitting choice, but the plan fell through.
• Goofs (at around 18 mins) It's nearly impossible for a bus to run away with its (air)brake lines cut. Instant air pressure in the brake system is the only thing keeping the massive springs in each wheel from locking the brakes. If there's still enough pressure to keep the brakes from "dynamiting," then there's enough pressure for the brake pedal to work.

[Morris discovers Trevor's still body, and mourns]

Trevor Slattery : Calm down, mate! I'm not dead, it's just a performance! Now get down here and play along!

[Morris rolls over and plays dead]

• Crazy credits There is a scene at the end of the closing credits: Xialing takes control of the Ten Rings. Following this scene is Xialing's Ten Rings insignia and a statement: "The Ten Rings will return."
• Connections Edited into Marvel Studios: Legends: Wong (2022)
• Soundtracks Act Up Written by Doctur Dot (as Eian Parker), Johnny Venus (as Olu Fann), Rich Brian (as Brian Imanuel), August 08 (as August Grant), Maurice 'Barney Bones' Powell, Daniel Tannenbaum , Rappy (as Sergiu Gherman), Caloway (as Tyler Reese Mehlenbacher), Marius Feder, Daniel Krieger, and Sean Miyashiro Produced by Daniel Tannenbaum (as Bekon), The Donuts , Craig Balmoris , and Sean Miyashiro Performed by Rich Brian & Earthgang Rich Brian appears courtesy of 88rising Records EarthGang appears courtesy of Dreamville/Interscope Records

User reviews 2.5K

• Nov 17, 2021
• How long is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings? Powered by Alexa
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• September 3, 2021 (United States)
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• $200,000,000 (estimated)
• $224,543,292
• $75,388,688
• Sep 5, 2021
• $432,243,292

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 12 minutes
• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings review: Marvel's newest hero mixes old legends, fresh tricks

It seems important to acknowledge that the release of a movie as Marvel-massive as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (in theaters Sept. 3) marks a major step forward for Asian representation on screen. It also feels important to note that it is fun: a Technicolor whirlwind of a film whose explosive fight choreography and dense mythology are leavened by a sweet and surprisingly nimble script.

The affable, elastic Canadian actor Simu Liu ( Kim's Convenience ) is just a regular guy called Shaun, a Gen-Z San Franciscan content to park cars and hit late-night karaoke bars with his best friend, Katy ( Awkwafina ). At least until a crew of international assassins approaches him on a city bus and demands the pendant around his neck — forcing him to defend his honor and reveal that he is in fact the prodigal son of a thousand-year-old supervillain (Hong Kong legend Tony Leung ) formerly known as the Mandarin.

That dated alter ego, blessedly, has been retired, but the man who now goes by Wenwu is back in business after the death of his beloved wife, Jiang Li (Fala Chen), and extremely insistent on reuniting with his estranged offspring. (There's a daughter, too, played by the fierce Meng'er Zhang.) Somewhere behind the scrim of the mythical city where he and Li first met and fell in love, Wenwu believes, is the life he lost when she was killed; her surviving sister ( Michelle Yeoh ) sees that hope differently.

The dynamics of their family drama are fairly standard, as much as any millennium-old conflict can be, and the final scenes run into battle fatigue. But director Destin Daniel Cretton ( Just Mercy , Short Term 12 ) fills the screen with fantastic beasts — dragons are the least of it — astonishing set pieces (a bustling underground fight club; the side of a Macau skyscraper; that bus!), and goofball bits of humor. 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.

But many of the movie's thrills lie in the less familiar: the general lack of major artillery means the action is mostly fought with fists or ropes or arrows, which makes its obligatory stream of mortal combat feel almost balletically brutal (if oddly Disney-bloodless), and far more elegant than the genre usually allows. They'd be crazy not to give Meng'er Zhang, as Shang-Chi's ferociously watchable sister Xialing, her own spin-off, and Awkwafina, who spends at least a third of the movie in a fanny pack and lime-green parachute pants, polishes her sardonic slacker M.O. to a high one-liner shine. Even the end credits' inevitable tease of a sequel feels less like a threat, for once, and more like a promise. B+

Related content:

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• Shang-Chi first reactions tout 'simply incredible' action scenes, fodder for 'thirsty' crowd
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‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Review: Fresh MCU Origin Story Boasts Franchise’s Best Action Yet

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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It starts with a legend: many centuries ago, a seemingly regular man was gifted with a set of 10 magical rings (origins: unknown) that allowed him to tap into a power beyond all human comprehension. For nearly a thousand years, this gifted man (played by Tony Leung, one of the world’s most gifted men) used the rings to gather the wealth and influence he desired, plus an army of decidedly meat-headed meanies who lived to carry out his wishes. But by the power of love — or at least, the necessary exposition such a love story brings with it — the man was temporarily freed from his nefarious activities, until old enemies returned and pushed him to once again tap into both the rings and the bad attitude they inspired in him.

Such is where Destin Daniel Cretton ‘s alternately fresh and convoluted Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, “ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ,” begins, and with a cute kid being told the story of a money-mad bad guy who changed (kind of) to make the world a better place (sort of). No wonder young Shang-Chi is so conflicted: his literal origin story is messy.  Thankfully, Cretton zips past this awkward (yet necessary) opening to bring us into Shang-Chi’s (or “Shaun,” as he’s gone by since he slipped into America and attempted to assimilate) current world, which is a far cry from any fairy tale involving magic, mystery, and mean dads.

Shang Chi is played with the appropriate mix of bluster and heart by Simu Liu , a former stuntman who positively nails the awe-inspiring action sequences in the film, yet still manages to feel like the kind of dude who could slip into regular society without arising much suspicion. When we first meet Shang-Chi, he’s well-aware of his odd legacy (he was, of course, the kiddo being told the story of the guy with the rings, who happens to be his dear old dad) and eager to hide away from it. He’s spent the last decade scrapping by in San Francisco, working blue-collar jobs, living in a neat but small garage apartment, and spending time with his witty best pal Katy (Awkwafina). If you’ve never seen a film about special people with hidden abilities and shocking backstories, he’s the last person you’d expect to be descended from a thousand-year-old kind-of bad guy who drove the kiddo to the brink of sanity after training him to be an assassin during his tween years. That old story!

But such is the power of Cretton’s film, one rife with tropes and archetypes and familiar beats that, more often than not, is wildly entertaining and a wholly energizing entry into the cookie-cutter world of the MCU. Shang-Chi might want to hide from who he really is, but the real world (read: the world of superheroes and magical rings and universe-splitting villains, the world he lives in) is not satisfied with such basic desires. Shang-Chi already knows something is amiss when a bunch of wacky bad guys attack him and Katy on a bus — how wacky? one of them is known as Razor Fist, and his fist is indeed a razor. He’s forced to defend himself in ways not exactly befitting your friendly local valet guy.

Bolstered by the awe-inspiring fight choreography of recently deceased second unit director and bonafide stunt action badass Brad Allan (the film is dedicated to Allan, who passed away earlier this month), “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” doesn’t just boast the best action of the MCU, it manages to do it with two ( two! ) eye-popping action sequences that unspool before the film’s first act is over. Infused with the grace of martial arts, the raw power of a star who actually practices his own stunts, and the kind of cogent sequences that will surely make audiences marvel at knowing what the hell is going on at any given minute (apparently, a major ask in the world of the MCU), “Shang-Chi” may be built on familiar lines, but in the moments when it’s allowed to be its own film, it’s a vastly different (and vastly superior) film compared to its predecessors.

It is, however, still on the hook to fit into many of the same boxes. After it becomes clear that Shang-Chi is a) not a regular guy and b) bound for a major face-off with his conflicted dad, the hero-in-the-making and his BFF head off to Macau to try to put the pieces together. It will be somewhat hard, mostly because the film’s middle sags with exposition and backstory, as its screenwriters attempt to maneuver around a few finicky problems. Chief among them is that the film likely would have fared better had it been split into two features: a more grounded origin story that plays up the charm and excitement on offer during its first twenty minutes and a bombastic film dedicated to the flexing of Shang-Chi’s prodigious muscles. But this is an MCU origin story, and that’s a subset of the series that leaves little wiggle room.

Once landed in Macau, Shang-Chi (who, during a very funny bit on the plane ride there, manages to dispel a variety of lies he’s long fed Katy, including his actual name) and Katy soon find themselves plunged into an underground fighting ring, that just so happens to be run by Shang-Chi’s righteously pissed little sister Xialing (a delightful Meng’er Zhang in her first role). Both Shang-Chi and Xialing have fled the Lil’ House o’ Assasins run by heartbroken daddy Wenwu, and it seems that he’s eager to bring the entire clan back together ASAP. And we mean the  entire clan , including their dead mom Jiang Li (played in copious flashbacks by the riveting Fala Chen), who he is convinced is calling out to him from behind a mystical wall.

Sounds like a lot? It is, and that’s before the mystical wall — located in Ta Lo, the magical hidden village from which Jiang Li hails — and its loaded backstory are revealed. Ta Lo’s residents (who, if a lovely, quite long bit of storytelling  leads us to believe, might actually be aliens?) have spent centuries protecting their secretive little pocket of heaven, training up their young ones (like Jiang Li, and her older sister, played by Michelle Yeoh) to be fierce warriors, all in the expectation that they will have to fight the evil that they (and their dragon, coined “The Great Protector”) once managed to lock up behind it. That’s the evil that’s calling for Wenwu — or is it? — and his mad quest to open it up, destroying Ta Lo, inevitably puts him and his two heartbroken kids on different sides of a fraught fight.

While Shang-Chi’s battle between who he is and who he wants to be, who can protect and who he can’t, and what it all means in the emotional milieu of his family sounds like standard-issue superhero stuff, Liu infuses these struggles with a real believability and charm. It’s only bolstered by the addition of Katy (Awkwafina, funny as ever, but ably handling a character with her own internal struggles) and Xialing (who will make you wonder why the heck a girl can’t wield the 10 rings, or at least why the siblings can’t split their birthright).

Less easy to swallow are the many issues inherent to Wenwu — introduced as an all-star level villain who literally spent entire  centuries  screwing with the world for his own gain before the love of a good woman inspired him to settle down — which are effectively papered over through casting (again, Tony Leung!), rather than insightful writing. Blame the demands of the MCU and its origin stories: there’s got to be friction (even if it doesn’t always make sense), and it’s sure as hell got to lead to a no-holds-barred battle royale that has both emotional and physical pain on the line. There are only 10 rings, and only one man can wield them. You see where this is going.

Still, there are surprises throughout the film, and while Cretton can’t always balance the comedy (the appearance of an old MCU stand-by, played for laughs) and the drama (Wenwu’s grief, the required references to the so-called “blip”), the moments when they do merge are joyous. So too is the world-building, particularly in the gritty underbelly of Macau (can we get some extended scenes from Xialing’s wild fight club?) and the lush majesty of Tao Lo (which is teeming with adorable magical animals and some rich history). The emotion may be messy, but it’s also real: of course Shang-Chi and Xialing would feel the way they do; Wenwu’s reaction to his deep grief is the most realistic part of his character.

All of these parts converge for a final battle that, much like the film it exists inside, tips between genuinely wonderful hand-to-hand combat and busy CGI; its more grounded elements and the requisite “movie magic” are constantly at odds here, perhaps more than any other MCU film since “Iron Man 3.” It sets up plenty of predictable parts to come, but the pleasures of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” when it’s allowed to be its own thing are deep. As the MCU only continues to expand, Cretton’s film should be pointed to as a sterling example of what’s possible when a hero is allowed to be his own man, on his own terms. The rings? They’re just a prop.

Disney will release “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” in theaters on Friday, September 3.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the  safety precautions  provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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Shang-Chi made me excited about the Marvel Cinematic Universe again

I’m ready for shang-chi to meet thor.

By Alex Cranz , managing editor and co-host of The Vergecast. She oversaw consumer tech coverage at Gizmodo for five years. Her work has also appeared in the WSJ and Wired.

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For two hours Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings is a charming, family-friendly action-adventure movie about learning to grow up, learning to grieve, and learning to flex ab muscles so the light hits them just right. Then, as every movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is wont to do, it reminds us it’s part of a large fabric and its characters are destined to join forces with the likes of Captain Marvel, Thor, and Doctor Strange. And instead of being exhausted, I was elated. This movie helped me overcome my MCU fatigue, and — unlike every other Marvel flick since the Snap — actually set out to tell a new story absent of the baggage of Iron Man and the rest.

It helped that it’s just a really fun film, too.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings stars Simu Liu, who came to fame as the lovable, buff son in the Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience . In Shang-Chi , he’s again playing a charming guy with more abs than career drive. But after more than a decade of super capable Marvel superheroes, it’s refreshing to have a guy who’s content to just park cars and stay out all night drinking cheap booze and singing karaoke with his best friend. The best friend, in this case, is Katy, a completely normal woman with zero ties to the larger Marvel universe. Awkwafina minimizes the appropriative accent that brought her fame to make Katy a compelling human anchor for the otherworldly adventures the film takes its hero on.

Well, one of two anchors really. Tony Leung, one of the biggest stars to ever come out of Hong Kong, makes his American film debut in Shang-Chi as Shang’s father, Wenwu. Wenwu, besides being the titular character’s dad, is also the actual leader of the MCU’s Ten Rings, the terrorist organization that played a major role in Iron Man 3 . Leung is one of the greatest actors working today and immediately elevates what could have been a rote role. He’s suave and menacing as the ageless leader of a group of assassins who run a chunk of the world from the shadows, but he’s tragic and affecting as Shang’s distant dad who has spent more than a decade abandoning his children and mourning his wife.

The grief these characters share is ultimately what Shang-Chi is about. The two men, and Shang’s younger sister Xialing (played by a wonderfully droll Meng’er Zhang), were once harmed by the loss of Shang and Xialing’s mother and they spend the film trying to reckon with that grief more than a decade after her loss. It gives Shang-Chi a surprisingly effective emotional core, which is good because the plot is fairly thin beyond the familial drama. This isn’t Loki or WandaVision with intricately plotted reveals and Marvel-y twists. It’s a film about a dad and his kids learning to grieve.

But, you know, it’s still Marvel, so all that learning to process grief happens in between the best action in a Marvel film since Winter Soldier . This is director Destin Daniel Cretton’s first action film, and you would not believe it with how confidently he shoots this movie. He holds the camera steady so the fast-moving and fantastically choreographed fights are easy to see. It feels like you’re watching a Hong Kong action film from 1991 — in the best way possible.

The only time the fights drag are when CGI enters the picture, and like Black Widow earlier this year , the CGI seems to get in the way, feeling goofy and looking silly after we just watched Shang-Chi battle ninjas across the sides of buildings. Marvel’s come to be emblematic of a kind of glossy modern action aesthetic that leans on cartoonish CGI when practical would have done it better, but Shang-Chi is the first time I felt truly disappointed by its appearance instead of just a little annoyed.

Thankfully, the CGI only infects small chunks of the film, and while it does contribute to the worst of the Disney / Marvel excesses of the finale, it's used sparingly enough that you can make peace with it. The film has a great cast, anchored by some real heavyweight actors (Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung act opposite each other for the first time since 1993’s Butterfly and Sword ), sharp action, and more heart than I’ve seen in years from something out of the MCU.

Which brings me back to actually being excited about the MCU again. Shang and Katy feel like real, normal people (or as normal as a former child assassin and his bestie can be) thrust into a much larger world of gods and monsters and interdimensional wars. Shang-Chi is the first film of Phase 4 of the MCU to not feel like a denouement for Endgame . And like WandaVision and Loki , it cracks open a much, much larger world and gives us a glimpse of where the next big Avengers team-up could take place.

But where Loki and WandaVision were about some of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe, Shang-Chi is about a guy who can fight really well but would probably rather be doing some karaoke or earning enough to pay his rent. Shang-Chi establishes Shang as the heart of whatever this eventual new team will be and finally moves the Marvel Cinematic Universe out from the shadow of Avengers who have come and gone before.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be in theaters only on September 3rd. Unlike Black Widow , it will not have a dual release on Disney Plus Premiere Access. That is a bummer because this film deserves to be seen and audiences should feel safe while watching it.

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Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings Review

03 Sep 2021

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

Being the first of anything comes with a lot of pressure and responsibility. Black Panther was the first film in the MCU to celebrate Black and African culture. Captain Marvel became the first women-led film in the franchise. Now, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings marks the MCU ’s first Asian-led superhero film. Of course, there have been characters of Asian descent in the MCU before, including Wong ( Benedict Wong ) from Doctor Strange , Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) from Thor , and Jimmy Woo ( Randall Park ) from Ant-Man And The Wasp and WandaVision . But they’ve always been the main heroes’ sidekick, flunkey, or comic relief. Shang-Chi features not only the first Asian protagonist but also a predominantly Asian cast. Happily, Asians can collectively breathe a sigh of relief—because the movie is good. Actually, it’s really good.

After running away from his father, formidable crime lord Wenwu ( Tony Leung ), Shang-Chi, ( Simu Liu ) starts over in San Francisco, where he meets his best friend, Katy ( Awkwafina ). Living the loafer lifestyle, Shang-Chi’s daily rituals include breakfast with Katy’s family, working a valet shift, and drinking and karaoking the night away. Basically, living the good life. However, after ten years, Shang-Chi’s past finally catches up with him. Driven by vengeance fuelled by heart-breaking loss, Wenwu forcefully reunites with his son and daughter Xialing ( Meng’er Zhang ) in hopes of recruiting them — along with Katy— into his terrorist organisation, The Ten Rings, an evil empire built around the power of ten ancient rings that Wenwu wears around his arms to generate blasts of energy.

Shang-Chi thrives when the scenes are rooted in the real world, especially in its fight sequences.

Co-writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton , best known for indie darling Short Term 12 , understands family dynamics and beautifully sets the tone for a heart-warming story syringed with humour. But despite the humanity on show, it’s the innovative martial arts that are the USP. Although there are many mystical elements, Shang-Chi thrives when the scenes are rooted in the real world, especially in its fight sequences. The action is fantastic, thanks to fight coordinator Andy Cheng and supervising stunt coordinator, the late Brad Allan , to whom the film is dedicated, the choreography the best yet in the MCU. A bruising bus battle between Shang-Chi and Wenwu’s henchmen is even more hypnotic than the trailers suggest, Liu showing off a barrage of blistering moves to disarm his father’s lackeys. The action doesn’t rely heavily on digital trickery in the real-world; but even its CG set-pieces within the fantasy realm of the hidden magical city of Ta Lo, which Shang-Chi has mysterious ties to, do not diminish the beauty of the diverse fighting styles. These fight scenes are truly gratifying; the martial arts in an early sequence between Wenwu and powerful warrior Jiang Li (Fala Chen) feel more like a dance and the result is simply mesmerising.

The cast is stellar. Liu knocks it out of the park as Shang-Chi, adding a tad of levity to the known-to-be-serious comic book character. As expected, Awkwafina hits all the comedic cues while remaining Shang-Chi’s anchor through his journey of self-discovery. The chemistry between Liu and Awkwafina is palpable, exuding a real sense of a found family. Perhaps the most intriguing character is Zhang’s Xialing who has the most compelling backstory; but at times, feels she is just there as set dressing for the main hero. It’s unfortunate she isn’t given more to do.

A dashing Leung as Wenwu provides depths of character in what could be a one-dimensional bad guy. However, the film’s real villain is grief. Grief drives Wenwu to perform nefarious acts, even at the expense of his own children. For those of Asian descent, grief is difficult to overcome. In an early scene, Katy’s mother comments on how moving on from a loved one is a Western idea. As such, Leung’s performance is filled with tangible anger and anguish that really brings the character to life.

In the debit column, Shang-Chi does have some pacing issues where the story, at times, becomes convoluted with so much information to set up the world of Ta Lo and how it relates to the MCU as a whole. The rushed ending makes some of the character arcs feel unearned and brushed aside. Also, it’s a bit tiring to see another dragon trope involved in an Asian-led film. Which is a shame as there are subtle nods for the Asian diaspora to relish — Shang-Chi taking off his shoes before entering Katy’s home, Katy’s grandmother asking Shang-Chi when he and Katy are getting married, and Ronny Chieng’s mystery character telling Katy that he speaks “ABC” (American-born Chinese) — that feel never feel forced or over-played. It’s a winning blend of Chinese culture mixed with the successful Marvel formula that avoids the typical Asian clichés and stereotypes of accents and bad drivers, while pointedly calling out some of the racial errors from Marvel's past. Given what’s on show here, the future for Shang-Chi and Asian representation in the MCU looks bright.

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‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Review: Marvel Gives Lesser-Known Asian Hero the A-List Treatment

In its commitment to giving audiences more than just white men to root for, the comics studio adds Simu Liu to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Shang-who? The most obscure Marvel Cinematic Universe character to get his own stand-alone movie to date, the comic book mega-company’s “Master of Kung Fu” may not be a household name (not yet, at least), but you wouldn’t know that from “ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ,” a flashy, Asian-led visual effects extravaganza that gives the second-tier hero the same over-the-top treatment that big-timers like Hulk and Thor typically get. The result broadens the brand’s spectrum of representation once again, offering audiences of Asian descent the kind of empowerment for which “Black Panther” paved the way a few years back.

Whether in print or on screen, Marvel has consistently been a step ahead of culture at large, ensuring that women, people of color and even queer characters feature prominently in its properties. As social pressures motivated Hollywood to diversify its roster, Marvel didn’t have to look far to produce superheroes that gave more than just little white boys a chance to see themselves on-screen. Even so, the nearly half-subtitled “Shang-Chi” marks a gamble of an entirely different order: With Henry Golding already committed to “Snake Eyes” and few other bankable early-30s English-speaking actors to consider, the company cast a lesser-known leading man in Simu Liu (of Canadian sitcom “Kim’s Convenience”).

The real star here is Marvel, of course. Good on it for leveraging its popularity to help launch some fresh Asian talent (including indie director Destin Daniel Cretton ). To mitigate the risk, Marvel tapped Asian action icons Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung to play Shang-Chi’s aunt and dad, respectively, and paired Liu with bigger name Awkwafina as wisecracking bestie Katy. If the film’s a hit, it’ll send an even louder message to Hollywood than the success of “Crazy Rich Asians” did. And if it flops … well, that would tell us almost nothing, since Disney is releasing the movie exclusively to theaters in the midst of a pandemic.

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Stick around for the end credits, and cameos by a few of the Avengers hint at how Shang-Chi fits into the greater MCU. For the two hours prior, however, the movie may as well be spinning its own mythology, reaching back more than a thousand years to ancient China, where Wenwu (Leung) is already in possession of the 10 rings. These powerful, immortality-bestowing bracelets are the movie’s answer to “Star Wars” lightsabers: a new form of weapon that glows blue on Wenwu’s wrists and is controlled by his mind and sweeping arm gestures, resulting in all kinds of fancy tricks.

From the outset, Cretton embraces the artificiality of CGI, establishing an aesthetic in which spectacle trumps plausibility. (These are comic book movies, after all.) 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. Centuries pass, and the shadow villain expands his reach around the world until, 30 years ago, with “nothing left on Earth to conquer,” he goes looking for a land called Ta Lo, meeting his match in its guardian, Li (Fala Chen), whom he marries.

In the comics, Shang-Chi’s father was none other than the notorious Fu Manchu, and though that connection has been scrubbed here, the script (for which Cretton shares writing credit with Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham) maintains the idea that Shang-Chi was raised by a dastardly figure he must eventually confront: ancient-Greek dramatic tropes imposed upon the Asian martial arts genre. “From sun up to sun down,” we learn, this powermonger-turned-family man taught his son “every possible way to kill a man.” That means of all the Marvel heroes, Shang-Chi has perhaps the most dysfunctional upbringing yet.

Small wonder then that Shang-Chi ran away to San Francisco, changed his name (but barely, as Awkwafina hilariously points out) and tried to forget it all with a dead-end job as a parking valet — which is how we meet him immediately following the movie’s overlong but action-packed Wenwu prologue. Although ultra-likable Liu appears shirtless and handsome in his first scene, Shang-Chi is all but neutered compared with other studly Marvel heroes (who all get girlfriends). That could be the movie’s progressive, “Frozen”-like way of saying superheroes don’t need love interests, but it plays into a troubling Hollywood tradition of denying Asians their sex appeal — one that Marvel could remedy by making a Namor/Sub-Mariner movie.

Cretton and his co-creators are smart enough to recognize the minefield of stereotypes the movie must navigate, finding clever and amusing tactics to deal with missteps in Marvel’s pulp past (spoiler alert: the company even brings back Ben Kingsley for some self-ribbing comic relief, addressing unresolved problems with the Mandarin character in the process). But in distancing itself from the Fu Manchu trap, the film unwittingly squanders Leung’s involvement. Here, he’s an incredibly evil world terrorist turned softie, who loses his way again after his wife’s death.

Now, beckoned by what he believes to be her voice, Wenwu arranges to steal the amulets that Li had given their two kids, Shang-Chi and his far more successful sister, Xialing (musical theater actor Meng’er Zhang, making her screen debut). After fending off Dad’s goons in a thrilling donnybrook aboard an out-of-control city bus, Shang-Chi drags Katy to Macao, where he finds Xialing running an “underground” fight club a hundred or so stories above street level in a half-constructed skyscraper.

The early action scenes are the best, as Cretton and his second-unit/VFX teams collaborate to make cartoonishly extreme choreography seem acceptable within the movie’s elastic alternate reality. Whereas “Black Panther” invented the Afrofuturist kingdom of Wakanda as a fantasy answer to the Western world’s visions of its own superiority, “Shang-Chi” acknowledges China as the global superpower that it is and merely has to find a way to get its characters back to the mainland. (Marvel has been courting Sino audiences since at least “Iron Man 3,” which added China-set scenes for its Asian release.)

That works just fine for the Macao sequences, although the movie veers in a different direction — trying to incorporate familiar wushu and anime elements — when Wenwu uses the amulets to access Ta Lo, a vaguely Lost World-like parallel dimension inhabited by fantastical creatures. There, an elite brigade of trained fighters (led by Yeoh and backed by a benevolent CG dragon) defend unsuspecting humans from a hellacious soul-sucking beast. Like virtually every stand-alone MCU movie to come before, “Shang-Chi” does a fine job of presenting its hero as a relatable everyman during the first half before spiraling off into bombastic, brain-numbing supernatural mayhem for the final act.

Here, the movie has the added burden of trying to give Awkwafina something to do while giant creatures battle it out in the skies. It’s great to see her in action, but confusing that we’re being asked to view this goofball as Shang-Chi’s equal, rather than a sidekick. More confusing still is why Wenwu’s slacker son, using rings for the first time, should turn out to be more skilled than his father.

In its efforts to be inclusive, Marvel has all but obscured just how powerful its various characters are supposed to be relative to one another. Not that audiences seem to mind. Now that the Avengers’ Infinity War has played out, Marvel must figure out where this lucrative enterprise will go next. By expanding its idea of who can be a hero, the franchise appears egalitarian while bringing all new demographics under its control.

Reviewed at El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, Aug. 16, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 133 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios release of a Marvel Studios production. Producers: Kevin Feige, Jonathan Schwartz. Executive producers: Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Charles Newirth.
• Crew: Director: Destin Daniel Cretton. Screenplay: Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham; story: Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton, based on the Marvel comics. Camera: Bill Pope. Editors: Nat Sanders, Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, Harry Yoon. Music: Joel P West.
• With: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Yuen Wah, Ronny Chieng, Zach Cherry, Dallas Liu, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung.

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‘Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings’: Review

By Tim Grierson, Senior US Critic 2021-08-23T16:00:00+01:00

Marvel’s new clan of warrior legends takes an energetic bow 

Source: Disney / Marvel Studios

‘Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings’

Dir: Destin Daniel Cretton. US. 2021. 132 mins.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s telling that the film works best when that fact is not so apparent. Starting strongly with a series of excellent action sequences and some delightful comedic banter, the franchise’s 25th instalment is an uneven but entertaining mixture of fresh and familiar, chronicling a seemingly ordinary young man who embraces his destiny to become a martial-arts master. Simu Liu gives a charismatic, nicely understated performance, which helps mitigate the muddled storytelling — particularly when director Destin Daniel Cretton begins straining to deliver the sort of blowout extravaganza MCU fans expect.  

It’s a relief to watch a Marvel film that isn’t encumbered by the maniacal need to tie up loose ends from other sequels.

Opening in the UK and US on September 3, this Disney release may face commercial obstacles since Shang-Chi isn’t as ubiquitous a pop-culture fixture as Iron Man or Captain America. (Plus, the character hasn’t appeared in previous Marvel films.) But rising star Liu is joined by a cast that includes Awkwafina, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung, helping to raise visibility for the first MCU film to feature an Asian main character. 

Shaun (Liu) is a humble San Francisco valet working alongside best friend Katy (Awkwafina) when, one day, he is attacked on the bus by assassins. Much to Katy’s shock, he’s able to dispatch them with incredible fighting skills. Afterwards, Shaun confesses that he has been hiding a secret: his name is actually Shang-Chi and he ran away from China as a teenager because his father Wenwu (Leung), a ruthless thousand-year-old warrior, had trained him to be a killer. 

The bulk of Shang-Chi is devoted to Shang-Chi, with Katy in tow, returning to China so that he can reunite with his equally adept younger sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), who has never forgiven him for abandoning her, and confront Wenwu, who sent the assassins to San Francisco. But Wenwu tells his son that Shang-Chi’s dead mother Li (Fala Chen) has been contacting him from the great beyond, insisting that she’s merely trapped in a magic realm — and that he needs Shang-Chi’s help to free her.

Early on, the film is a fleet-footed action-comedy, with Cretton ( Just Mercy ) nicely balancing Shang-Chi and Katy’s smart-aleck rapport with some electric hand-to-hand fight scenes. Cinematographer William Pope gives the images the peppy, glossy sheen common to MCU pictures, but outside of a throwaway reference to the events of Avengers: Endgame , there isn’t much initially that connects Shang-Chi to the overall franchise. Eventually, though, a few MCU characters will emerge — including Doctor Strange’s loyal sidekick Wong (Benedict Wong), and a surprise peripheral figure whose reappearance is cleverly handled but also somewhat overstays its welcome.

To a degree, Shang-Chi is closest in temperament to the Ant-Man standalone adventures in that the stakes aren’t too immense and the irreverent humour is prominent. As played by the sweetly low-key Liu, Shang-Chi is such a modest individual that the proceedings feel agreeably small-scale. And, frankly, it’s a relief to watch a Marvel film that isn’t encumbered by the maniacal need to tie up loose ends from other sequels.

But after those early reels winningly establish Shang-Chi and Katy’s friendship — with just a hint of a romantic spark thrown in — Cretton gets a bit bogged down in Wenwu’s plan to save his wife. This requires seeking out Shang-Chi’s noble warrior aunt Nan (Yeoh), who is convinced that it is not Li who is contacting Wenwu but an evil force hoping to be unleashed. Those interpersonal conflicts create an emotional through-line — Wenwu is so blinded by grief that he doesn’t realise his grave mistake — and Leung does a fine job making this ostensible villain mournful and sympathetic. And yet, Shang-Chi’s fraught relationship with his distant father — and his reluctance to take on the mantle of hero — can’t help but feel like common dramatic tropes.

As the action sequences grow more elaborate, Shang-Chi loses a little of its personality, succumbing to de rigueur effects-driven spectacle. Granted, some of these scenes can be stunning, but the visual pizzazz means less than Liu’s graceful navigation of this tale of a man who long ago fled his father and must finally face him. It’s these intimate character moments that help distinguish Shang-Chi from other MCU pictures. Unsurprisingly, the story ends with the possibility that he’ll join the Avengers — ironically, the more his film tries going its own way, the more of a kick it is.

Production company: Marvel Studios

Worldwide distribution: Disney

Producers: Kevin Feige, Jonathan Schwartz

Screenplay: Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham, story by Dave Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton

Production design: Sue Chan 

Editing: Nat Sanders, Elísabet Ronaldsdottir, Harry Yoon

Cinematography: William Pope 

Music: Joel P West

Main cast: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Yuen Wah, Ronny Chieng, Zach Cherry, Dallas Liu, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung

• Marvel Studios
• United States

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe was essentially on hold for the entirety of 2020. With the near end of the COVID pandemic though, Disney has gotten brave enough to finally start releasing new films in theaters. Their first try with Black Widow was a notable box office non-starter. Now they’re trying again two months later with their second of four films this year: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Content Guide

Violence/Scary Images:  PG-13 action comedy with punching, shooting and brawling. Characters fall to the deaths offscreen, have their souls sucked out of their bodies and bleed occasionally. Language/Crude Humor:  Infrequent cursing including s***, h*** and d***. Drug/Alcohol References:  Casual drinking. Sexual Content:  None. Spiritual Content:  Themes of spirituality; the existence of souls are a notable plot point in the film. Other Negative Content:  None. Positive Content:  Themes of family, love, reconciliation and doing the right thing.

It probably isn’t surprising that the most interesting post- Endgame Marvel Cinematic Universe projects are the most experimental and far-reaching ones. So far in 2021, shows like Wandavision and Loki have dominated much of the culture discussion thanks to how much they’re willing to pastiche odd and different movies to tell superhero stories in new ways (David Lynch and Terry Gilliam films respectively). Meanwhile, the more straightforward continuations like Black Widow and Falcon and the Winter Soldier have met with relatively middling responses.

That seems to be very much the case with Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings . The newest tentpole solo movie to come out of the house of mouse marks the newest big character that Marvel wants to turn into a regular for all of their upcoming plans. The character is somewhat more obscure than most of the recent stock of heroes (meaning I wasn’t overly familiar with the character back when I still read comics obsessively) but the choice to draw him into the stable made sense. Marvel has made a concerted effort since 2018 to add more diverse heroes to the lineup, like Black Panther , Captain Marvel , She-Hulk , Iron Heart and Ms. Marvel , so fronting an Asian-lead film was the next logical step.

That’s not to say it was a sure thing. The movie was clearly banking on nostalgia and name recognition to try and get butts in the seats this time around. The “Ten Rings” terrorist organization from Iron Man as well as references to “The Mandarin” from Iron Man 3 were prominent talking points in the marketing campaign and title. I suspect that Disney’s higher-ups were a bit skittish about pushing a new franchise with lower name recognition and wanted to add enough lore references to make him marketable (don’t ask me why they’re taking larger risks like The Eternals though with less fan service).

Regardless of the studio politics, we have Shang-Chi now and I’m very happy to say it’s a very good Marvel movie. I don’t think it hits the heights of their best solo films like Iron Man or Black Panther but it definitely ranks among one of the stronger films on its own terms. Marvel movies are so formulaic at this point that you can pretty much predict the majority of their tropes and plot points without much work: tragic backstory, girlfriend sidekick character, superhero duels, quirky dialogue, humor, superhero cameos, third act fireworks display, etc.

That Shang-Chi felt more than the sum of its very repetitive parts spoke very well of how it managed to execute itself.

As these things usually start, we’re frontloaded with an exposition dump about the history of Wenwu, a thousand-year-old Chinese Wizard who used a set of ancient artifacts called the Ten Rings to create a powerful worldwide terror network that’s capable of breaking and shifting governments on a whim. When he meets a woman at the gate of a secret society of martial artists deep in the Chinese wilderness, he falls in love with her and the two create a family together.

Decades later, their two extremely talented martial artist children have fled their father and created lives for themselves. His son Shang-Chi is now Shaun; an American man living in San Francisco who gets by comfortably living an unambitious life as a valet. When his father’s agents suddenly appear back in his life though, he’s forced to reveal himself and fight back in the hope that he can stop his father from unleashing a dangerous force that could destroy the world.

Again, I suspect part of the chemistry just comes from the fact that it’s borrowing from great material. You can see the obvious influence that Hong Kong Kung Fu flicks and Chinese Wuxia have in defining this film’s aesthetics and ideas. You see the influence of films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Police Story in how it executes its action scenes and explores its ideas. Shang-Chi comes loaded with some of the best hand-to-hand combat of any Marvel film since Captain America: The Winter Soldier .

At times, I would say the film is somewhat mirky as to what it’s trying to be or say. Shang-Chi isn’t a terribly proactive protagonist and doesn’t have clear wants and desires. He mostly just seems like a good guy who is willing to do the right thing when he’s asked. As a result, his actor Simu Liu mostly has to get by with his charisma and physical presence. He’s interesting insofar as he has complicated relationships with his family and friends but I don’t sense much of an actual inner turmoil as the character. He doesn’t have many moral qualms about killing or using the power of the Ten Rings himself.

You really don’t notice the problem though until some of the action scenes when the lack of conflict stands out. Like I said though, the Marvel machine is very good at what it does at this point. The action, special effects, choreography, performances, and writing are always good enough that you rarely notice the magic trick being played on you. The muddled character motivations and occasionally weak comedic writing don’t intrude enough that the view reflects much about them.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings isn’t at the top rung of the MCU but it definitely warrants a watch. It’s arguably the strongest MCU film since Avengers: Endgame and it leaves its characters in a place that makes me think that Simu Liu definitely has a future among the lineup of the Avengers whenever Disney decides to resurrect the team-up movies again. I look forward to seeing what the sequels to this movie hold in the near future!

+ Excellent choreography, action scenes and special effects + Fun performances + Solid MCU world-building and great cameos

- Some occasional weak character writing - Some occasional weak comedy

The Bottom Line

Shang-Chi is easily the best MCU film since Avengers: Endgame and a refreshing take on the Marvel superhero formula. The added Wuxia flare and charismatic performances made it one of the slickest and most engaging MCU projects in years!

Tyler Hummel

There is a war for our consciousness. The powers that be, the occult elite, leak things out through movies and various media glimpses of our reality as well as disinformation. Eg matrix, Truman show, 13th floor. I think the Eternals is the same with the aim of portraying ETs as benevolent when in the future Nephilims and other hostile ETs may be arriving. You can check out vigilantcitizen and cassiopaea websites.

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Parent Guide

With an unusually charming cast, this movie improves on the standard marvel movie formula..

In Theaters: Shang-Chi has been trained from infancy to be one of the most lethal assassins in the world. His father, Wenwu runs the notorious Ten Rings criminal syndicate, an organization that Shang-Chi thought he left behind when he moved to San Francisco. But the past has a way of catching up to you...

Release date September 3, 2021

Run Time: 92 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

Although working as hotel valets may not be glamorous, Shaun (Simu Liu) and his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) enjoy the simplicity of the work – even if their friends and family feel they’re squandering their potential. But when Shaun gets mugged on a bus and loses a pendant that was given to him by his late mother, Shaun reveals a past more dangerous and complicated than Katy would have dreamed. Shaun is really Shang-Chi, the son of the dangerous Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), owner of the mythical Ten Rings which grant him not only phenomenal cosmic power, but also immortality. The thugs who mugged Shang-Chi were members of his father’s army, and Shang-Chi has reason to believe they’ll be going after his sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang), who lives in Macau and has an identical pendant. And Katy isn’t about to let Shang-Chi go to the rescue alone…

I’m not going to spend a long time explaining how this fits into the MCU, since frankly, I don’t care. No matter how much Marvel tries to convince me that these are all parts of a whole, they still have to be able to stand on their own. I don’t care if this movie has catastrophic implications for the Marvel universe if it isn’t fun to watch in the first place.

My biggest gripe with this movie is the editing. They’ve clearly done some serious stunt work, and half the time you can’t appreciate it because they can’t stop mucking about with the camera. If they could get out of their own way, the filmmakers might realize that these stunts speak for themselves, and you don’t need to strap the camera to some insanely complicated rig to make it look good. That’s not my only gripe – This movie is over two hours long. It would be perfectly fine at 90 minutes, and the extra 40 are just uncalled for.

Parents know more or less what to expect from Marvel these days. A little bit of profanity, some CGI-heavy martial arts violence, and that’s about it. Shang-Chi doesn’t even have the skintight latex bodysuits you get in other movies. But you don’t need me to tell you whether you’ll like it or not. Marvel movies are so similar that if you like one, you’ll like most of them. They don’t have to be good, just good enough – but this one is pretty fun.

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Keith hawkes, watch the trailer for shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Rating & Content Info

Why is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings rated PG-13? Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of violence and action, and language.

Violence: There are frequent depictions of martial arts violence, which occasionally results in death. Individuals are also killed by having their souls sucked out by monsters. Sexual Content: There is a brief use of a crude anatomical term. Profanity:   There are five scatological profanities and a few mild profanities and terms of deity. Alcohol / Drug Use: Adults are briefly shown drinking socially.

Page last updated February 24, 2022

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Parents' Guide

What does Shang-Chi learn about honesty? How does his past affect his relationships? How does Katy help him? How does Shang-Chi’s relationship with his father change throughout the movie? Which events influence that relationship?

Shang-Chi was not always the son of Xu Wenwu. Who was his father originally? What is the problem with that story? Why did Marvel move away from that depiction?

Related home video titles:

You can also find Chinese mythology in films like Ne Zha , New Gods: Nezha Reborn , and both versions of Disney’s Mulan ( 1998 and 2020 ) . Although set in Japan rather than China, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins plays with a lot of the same ideas, albeit with fewer superpowers.

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Simu liu addresses whether shang-chi 2 is still happening amid mcu refocus.

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Shang-Chi Cast & Character Guide: All New & Returning MCU Actors

10 iron man deleted scenes that would have changed the mcu, next marvel tv show: all 12 upcoming mcu releases confirmed after x-men '97.

• Shang-Chi 2 is definitely happening, despite recent MCU changes.
• Simu Liu and director Destin Daniel Cretton are excited for the sequel.
• Appreciative of the goodwill and support from fans after the success of the first movie, Liu can't wait to get back to work.

Shang-Chi 2 actor Simu Liu clears up the concern about his sequel not happening following semi-recent behind-the-scene changes with Disney's release strategy for the Marvel Cinematic Universe . By this August, it will have been exactly three years since the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ending , bringing the titular hero into the MCU. However, despite Shang-Chi 2 being confirmed to happen, the sequel is still nowhere to be seen on the MCU release schedule.

During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , the MCU star was asked about new Shang-Chi 2 updates , as there has been little progression on the sequel. While he didn't have any specific updates about when filming may start, Liu gave a detailed response about Shang-Chi 2 still happening:

You want me to lose my job, is that it? This is where I use all the mental gymnastics that I possibly can to answer this question, I will say this. It's definitely happening, I should probably lead with that. People, whether it's online or in person, ask me every single day and tell me every single day how much they enjoyed the first movie and how much of a moment it was. And I think there's just so much goodwill, and I'm so deeply appreciative of that.

So please know that if you've ever sent me a message, if you've ever asked about a sequel or just approached or any which way, I really take it to heart, and I really, really appreciate it. I think I speak for myself and Destin [Daniel Cretton], our returning director, when I say that we're so beyond excited to jump back in.

Simu Liu leads the cast of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, alongside many new, returning, and surprising characters in the MCU.

Why Is Shang-Chi 2 Taking So Long To Happen?

Despite Liu's positive statement, it still begs the question of why it is taking an extended amount of time for Shang-Chi 2 to happen. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was one of the more successful films in Phase 4, introducing a brand new hero to the MCU with the potential to pop up in other Marvel projects. However, he simply hasn't. Given widespread complaints over issues with VFX and writing in the post- Endgame MCU, ignoring arguably the best new character to come from the era seems odd.

It's also worth taking into account that Marvel Studios is also having to figure out where to go after the firing of Jonathan Majors , which may be slowing other projects down behind the scenes. Shang-Chi 2 is something that Marvel Studios may be taking more time with in order to build on the goodwill earned by the hero's first movie outing. It wouldn't be shocking if Shang-Chi 2 is either one of the many mysterious Phase 6 projects or something that gets saved until Phase 7 after The Multiverse Saga's conclusion.

Something that would be beneficial to the MCU is having Liu's Shang-Chi show up in other Marvel Studios movies and TV shows to start laying more of a foundation with other characters in the franchise. Outside of Wong, Captain Marvel, and Bruce Banner, Shang-Chi has yet to build some proper dynamics with the larger MCU, which could be useful ahead of his sequel. Hopefully, there will be more Shang-Chi 2 news sooner rather than later.

• Shang-Chi 2

Shang-Chi 2 is the direct sequel to Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It brings back Simu Liu's titular martial arts expert after his fight with his father Xu Wenwu, now wielding the ten rings and confident in his skills as a superhero.

Source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon /YouTube

A Mysterious Sixth Monsterverse Movie in the Works!

Ten years strong, Legendary’s Monsterverse is now an expansive story universe of cross-platform experiences, and in the wake of the massive box office success of this year’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire , a sixth installment in the saga has been officially confirmed!

The Hollywood Reporter tells us this afternoon that Dave Callaham ( Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ) is writing the upcoming sixth movie in the Monsterverse franchise.

THR notes in their exclusive report, “Callaham knows a thing or two about Godzilla. The scribe wrote the early drafts and received story by credit for 2014’s  Godzilla , the movie that kicked off Legendary’s monster mania.” No word yet on who will be directing the upcoming sixth movie.

We also have no idea if it’ll be a follow-up to Adam Wingard’s movies Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong , or if it will take the film franchise down a new path. Stay tuned.

Beginning with the  Godzilla  film in 2014 and continuing through 2017’s  Kong: Skull Island , 2019’s  Godzilla: King of the Monsters , 2021’s  Godzilla vs. Kong , and most recently the record-breaking  Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire , the Monsterverse has accumulated over $2B at the global box office and expanded into the highly successful event series, Legendary’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for Apple TV+. We recently learned that “Monarch” is getting a second season, with more Monsterverse spinoff shows being planned at Apple TV+.

“Apple TV+ has struck a new multi-series deal with Legendary Entertainment, which includes multiple spinoff series based on the franchise,” the recent press release had stated.

You’ll be able to own  Godzilla x Kong  on Digital beginning Tuesday, May 14.

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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‘The Scurry’ – Ella Purnell Starring in Killer Squirrel Horror Comedy

Fresh off her starring role in the first season of Prime Video’s hit series “Fallout,” Ella Purnell (“Yellowjackets”) has booked a role in the upcoming horror-comedy The Scurry .

Screen Daily reports this morning that Ella Purnell has joined the cast of the now-filming horror comedy from director Craig Roberts , taking on “an avalanche of deranged squirrels.”

The site notes, “Ella Purnell will play the leading role of a park attendant who must use her unique skills and strength to survive a band of killer squirrels.”

“ The film follows two pest controllers called to a country park café to investigate a routine vermin problem, only for an avalanche of deranged squirrels to descend at nightfall, wreaking mayhem on the staff and visitors in the park.”

Rhys Ifans ( Spider-Man: No Way Home ), Paapa Essiedu  ( Men ), and  Antonia Thomas (“The Good Doctor”) have all been previously announced to star in the upcoming movie.

Tim Telling wrote the screenplay for The Scurry .

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Graphic Novel Review: Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality

W ith the introduction of Shang-Chi in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel’s most popular Asian superhero is getting a ton of new content. Scholastic’s Graphic imprint has released a new graphic novel focusing on Shang-Chi’s preteen years. Read on for a review of Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality .

Image Source: Marvel.com

This post contains affiliate links.  We earn a small commission for items purchased.

In Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality , Shang-Chi and his sister Chi-Hua live in the Five Weapons Society under the tutelage of their harsh father Zheng-Zu. Like most children, they want to impress their father so when Shang-Chi overhears his father discussing an ancient scroll that may help him get his powers back. Shang-Chi sneaks outside the palace to find the Peaches of Immortality to give to his father.

Shang-Chi finds that the outside world is nothing like what he’s experienced before. People are dressed strangely and many children live on the streets without parents. Shang-chi meets a boy his age named Lu who agrees to help him find the Peaches of Immortality. Lu leads Shang-Chi to Uncle Rat, a hybrid man/rodent who has his eyes set on revenge against Zheng-Zu. Lu and Shang-Chi team up to try to defeat Uncle Rat but can they without the use of the Peaches of immorality or magic?

Author Victoria Ying has created a book that is a great gateway into Shang-Chi mythology. It shows his complicated relationship with his father and his closeness to his little sister, who can often be bratty but what sibling isn’t? Shang-Chi and the Lu pairing makes sense in that Chang-Chi would need a guide in the modern world, and what better than a boy with vulnerabilities like himself?

My one criticism is that the final battle is a bit hard to follow within the panels. The boys throw a monkey head at a super-sized Uncle Rat and I couldn’t figure out if the throw knocked out Uncle Rat or the monkey’s bite since the next panel has the monkey seemingly biting Uncle Rat. Still, I enjoyed how the action was shown through Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality and the vibrant color work that you can see around the palace and within the orchard where the magical peaches can be found.

Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality is a quick graphic novel read and is a solid entry in the Graphix Marvel novel series which has given us gems about Miles Morales and Wakanda’s Princess Shuri.

Other Marvel Graphic Novel Reviews

Graphic Novel Review: Miles Morales: Stranger Tides

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The post Graphic Novel Review: Shang-Chi and the Quest for Immortality appeared first on Chasing Pixies .

Star (2024) Twitter (X) Review: Kavin Movie Receives Positive Response

By Rohan Verma

The Telugu film Star has finally hit theaters, sparking excitement among audiences eagerly sharing their initial reactions on social media platforms. Directed by Elan, the film revolves around Kalai, who aspires to become a film star. Along his journey, he faces criticism and challenges from the audience and his fellow actors.

Elan’s disclosure about drawing inspiration from actor Vijay’s early career adds an intriguing layer to the film. For those unaware, actor Vijay faced criticism for his looks and acting early in his career. The cast includes Kavin, Lal, Geetha Kailasam, Aaditi Pohankar, Preity Mukhundhan, and others. Additionally, the film received a U certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, making it suitable for all audiences. The audience’s initial positive reactions on social media platforms promise a good start for the film.

Star Twitter reviews explored

The overwhelming praise and the audience’s positive reactions indicate that Star is meeting the audiences’ expectations. Fans have lauded Kavin’s performance, labeling the film as a blockbuster, with some even deeming it a must-watch.

One netizen wrote to X , “Performer #Kavin Peaked in #STARMovie. What a mature acting & elevated every scene with his Presence. The Long single-shot emotional scene towards the end was Outstanding & yet again proved he is a STAR.”

#STAR BLOCKBUSTER ? 8 .5⭐ / 10 An Engaging Entertainer , Elan Direction ?? @Kavin_m_0431 's Career Best Film ? Hereafter #Kavin is not a Raising STAR ✘ #STAR ✔ @thisisysr Background Score is The Soul of The Film Might be The Second Hero one Surprises is waiting for… pic.twitter.com/JYsvQ6QsCD — santhoshraja (@santhoshra81005) May 9, 2024

#STAR / #STARMovie – A Neat entertainer ? But not definitely upto the mark of OVERHYPED REVIEWS from Yesterday !! Go without any expectations….Movie won't disappoint for sure? #Kavin & #Yuvan are the soul of the movie❤️ pic.twitter.com/mEkc8alSjN — AmuthaBharathi (@CinemaWithAB) May 10, 2024

#star is watched Consecutive blockbuster for Kavin bro ?? excellent performance by him The best film of Kollywood of 2024 till now is in arguably star Elan once again gives a solid film after ppk and his collaboration with yuvan is yet another hit ♥️ And the suprise ?❤️‍? — Nitin narayan (@Nitinnarayan21) May 9, 2024

Another user shared a video , showcasing the actor’s growth and connection with viewers. He wrote, “Kavin was overwhelmed with emotion after receiving an outstanding response from the public audience, delighted to witness his growth.”

While praising the film, another user wrote , “One of the best feel-good movies of Tamil cinema. Particularly, the climax single shot scene will be the talk of a town across the industries. Brilliant writing @elann_t A lifetime role for Kavin and he excelled in it. A star was born and he is here to rule Kavin.”

Considering these reviews, it seems that Star has resonated deeply with audiences. As viewers continue to share their reactions, it will remain to see how Star performs at the box office.

Rohan Verma, widely known as Wrestling Hindi News, is a multifaceted content creator with a thriving YouTube channel boasting over 100,000 subscribers. While his digital presence is synonymous with the pulse of the wrestling world, Rohan is more than just a sports journalist; he's a versatile content writer and author with a distinct flair.

Beyond the adrenaline of the wrestling ring, Rohan Verma has a deep-seated passion for the Indian movie and TV industry. His unique perspective and keen insights into the intricacies of the entertainment world make him a notable voice in the realm of pop culture.

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Hollywood & media deaths in 2024: photo gallery & obituaries, breaking news.

Mike Goodridge’s Good Chaos Gets Investment From Audio Platform Alexander, Companies Reveal First Film Collaboration

By Andreas Wiseman

Andreas Wiseman

Executive Editor, International & Strategy

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EXCLUSIVE : Mike Goodridge’s growing UK production company Good Chaos , which is in Cannes with Un Certain Regard title Santosh , has had a minority equity investment from Cameron Lamb’s Paris-based audio platform Alexander.

The investment will give Alexander an opportunity to develop its growing non-fiction IP library, across film and TV formats, while Good Chaos has been able to grow its headcount, operations and production reach.

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The official synopsis reads: “Beautiful, rich, clever, and determined English noblewoman Frances Howard was a dazzling celebrity at the court of James I. But when the unhappy teenage bride rebelled against the patriarchy of her day, she was put on trial for witchcraft, infidelity and murder – very nearly at the expense of her life.”

Good Chaos is on a roll. This year, it has premiered Mikko Makela’s Sebastian in Sundance, and Qiu Yang’s Some Rain Must Fall in Berlin, where it won the Encounters Special Jury Award. Sandhya Suri’s Santosh has been selected for Un Certain Regard in Cannes, while Baltasar Kormakur’s romantic drama Touch opens in the U.S. through Focus Features on July 12 and internationally through Universal Pictures International throughout the year.

Set to shoot later this year are Edward Berger’s The Ballad Of A Small Player for Netflix and Laszlo Nemes’ Orphan which is being launched at the Cannes market by Charades and New Europe Film Sales.

Alexander is a direct-to-consumer original audio platform, with narrations from the likes of Vanessa Kirby, Dan Stevens, John Malkovich, David Oyelowo, Natasha Lyonne and Emma Corrin, and writers such as Marieke Lucas Reijneveld, Colum McCann, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Michael Rezendes, Xiaolu Guo and physicist Carlo Rovelli.

Lamb was previously a producer on movies including Wim Wenders pic Submergence and 2014 Sundance title Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter .

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Kimmel targets iger’s rare appearance at upfront; highlights; ‘only murders’ date, dunst & brühl join keanu in östlund’s ‘entertainment system is down’.

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