Yes No Maybe So: "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings"
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 1:45PM by Nathaniel R
The Marvel Cinematic Universe stands alone among franchises in that it may well reap great benefits from the pandemic. Avengers Endgame had brought the franchise to a world-saturating record-breaking close in the spring of 2019 followed by the digestif of the much smaller scale Spider-Man Far From Home in July 2019 (though smaller scale with these gargantuan budgeted action movies is relative). And then just as a new wave of heroes was set to emerge, an unexpected intermission; Kevin Feige couldn't have timed the pandemic better. Not that we're starting any daft conspiracy theories!
With Black Widow's release pushed to July 2021, moviegoers have essentially had a full two year break from the MCU (apart from recent Disney+ tv shows). We think this will actually benefit the MCU (which was at an oversaturation point culturally and bound to begin to falter) as demand is now theoretically pent-up to Endgame heights again without the studio having to do any of the narrative work to get there...
Re-enter (and exit quickly again) the late Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) for her prequel in July and then in September, the future kicks off with Simu Liu as Shang-Chi.
For Simu's birthday Marvel released a disappointg poster. Seriously that's all you got? Just Simu's clothed (no fair!) torso against a fiery ring backdrop? But thankfully the teaser, also released, is more exciting. Let's break it down after the jump...
YES
• We're always a yes, enthusiastic YES, for Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, one of the greatest movie stars of all time. He debuted at just 16 in the Bruce Lee picture Game of Death (1978) and across the next 43 years became one of the most popular and acclaimed actors of Chinese cinema, winning numerous Best Actor Awards including at the Golden Horse Awards x 3 (Chungking Express, Infernal Affairs, Lust Caution) the Asian Film Awards (Lust Caution), the Hong Kong Directors Guild (Grandmaster), the Hong Kong Film Awards x 5 (Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, Infernal Affairs, 2046) and even at Cannes (In the Mood for Love). This is his first English language picture but he gets the framing voiceover which suggests that this will be a superhero action movie exploding outwards from a father/son drama.
• The action scenes look exciting but more on those in the maybe-so column.
• For years Hollywood's only concept of racial diversity was having black actors in supporting roles in white narratives. Over the past four-five years we've seen extraordinary changes in the amount of racial diversity onscreen (and behind the camera) but there are still quite a few "firsts" left to go. Here's one of them: Our first Asian superhero Hollywood picture.
• A really fun mix of international players here, a Canadian lead (Simu Liu), a Hawaiian director (Destin Daniel Cretton), Asian-American and Malaysian supporting players (Awkwafina, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, and Ronnie Chieng), a German villain (Florian Munteanu), and a Chinese superstar villain (Tony Leung).
• We're going to assume Marvel has thought through some of the more problematic elements of The Mandarin (Tony Leung's villain) in the comics. And Shang Chi's father in the comics is actually Fu-Manchu but thankfully Marvel didn't go there.
NO
• Okay so if you've ever seen the Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience you know that Simu Liu is as adorable as you can get, funny, athletic, and charismatic and basically a fine candidate to lead a superhero picture. But at least in the shots chosen for this trailer he looks entirely glum. We do not need another surly depressed superhero. That's what DC movies are for.
• Origin stories have lots of natural pitfalls including way too much time spent on mentoring and backstory. We're hoping that's swift here but the trailer suggests otherwise.
MAYBE SO
• Dallas Liu is playing Shang-Chi as a teenager which may save these origin story scenes. You might remember him as Maya's older brother Shuji on the perfect unmissable sitcom Pen15. But if Marvel hires all these funny actors (Dallas, Simu, Awkwafina, Ronnie) and the movie is as serious and glum as the tone of this trailer, it's going to be a missed opportunity, Hopefully there's some tonal variety.
• The action sequences sampled are bursting with variety. We have cage matches, training sequences, a mass transit fight (Marvel loves those), and even an ode to the wuxia genre with all that flying through nature mid fight clip ...but it's impossible to tell how good action scenes will be via trailers which are built to showcase only tiny sliver moments. Making an exciting action beat in a trailer is a much different skill than maintaining and building tension and building beats and releases and audience rousing moments into a full sequence. Will the director Destin Daniel Cretton be up to this? He started very strong with the excellent foster-home drama Short Term 12 but he's only ever worked in the drama genre (see also Just Mercy and Glass Castle) and there's not a single action sequence in any of his movies. His skillset at least as demonstrated thus far is confined mostly to getting fine performances from his actors.
• On this same note Shang-Chi has three (!!!) editors and maybe they're being used to cover all the bases though this might result in a choppy movie. We have Nat Sanders who is brilliant at lyrical drama (Moonlight, Short Term 12),
• "Who are you?" is a solid way to end this teaser but it does beg for an answer. Hopefully Shang-Chi delivers in theaters in September.
Are you a yes no or maybe so for this new adventure?
Marvel Studios, Shang-Chi, Simu Liu, Tony Leung, Yes No Maybe So, superheroes
Reader Comments (12)
Definitely a yes. I'm a total Kim's Convenience stan. And if I sat through Kitty Mama for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, I'll definitely be there for Simi Liu in this!
Yes.
Yes, for Leung Chiu-wai and for the first Asian Superhero Hollywood Picture
A wealthy, privileged 20-something is encouraged by his eccentric parent to slum it and in the process befriends a working-class, big-hearted girl? This wasn't the remake of Thoroughly Modern Millie that I was expecting, but I'm excited to see where it goes!
I was already leaning yes, but Tony Leung, my alternate-universe husband, makes it a *hell* yes.
Just really, really hope this (1) is good, and (2) does well at the box office. Hopefully by September we'll be in something resembling post-pandemic (or at least inter-pandemic) normal.
Michelle yeoh is in this??? Then I’m an omg yas.
Any idea if she has a significant role? If not can we get her a few more of those asap?
YES. I've seen the trailer 5x. And I'm a BIG YES.
I am a no, looked like your typical paint by numbers Marvel movie, and didn't really show why he is special other than being a Marvel hero.
Yep yep!
OH HELL YEAH!!!!!! Tony Leung Chiu-wai as the Mandarin and Bruce Lee vibes. I'm seeing this in the theaters and seeing that video of a young Asian kid going nuts and doing some moves to that trailer. Honestly, that is beautiful.
I'll await the day Hispanics get a big-time superhero film directed by Hispanic and man... it's going to be lit in the theaters!
It's a no for me. Looks like a super Orientalist take on a Marvel film filled with all the tropes and stereotypes that have historically plagued Asian representation in Hollywood. And based off this trailer, this is clearly going to flop in China. So it's pretty clear that this was a film made for white audiences.
If people want to see an Asian American superhero that's not bad, just watch Invincible on Amazon Prime instead!
I'm a maybe. I loved the Shang Chi comics in the 1970s, but that was because of unbelievably beautiful art and solid writing. It was all Sax Rohmer stuff, with Fu Manchu and Dennis Nayland Smith, so a whole new character with the same name is called for.
This trailer doesn't inspire. Original story (ugh), glum hero with cutesy joke at the end of the action scene (zzzzzz), "Who are you?" as a closing line (more zzzz).