Review: "Shang-Chi" soars through action and chemistry
Friday, September 3, 2021 at 2:32PM by Nathaniel R
Father vs Son in Shang-Chi
Many years ago I was at the movies with my best high school girlfriend. I had convinced her to see The Piano, which was not her usual sort of film. At the exact moment that mute Holly Hunter lost her little finger to her husband’s axe, I let out a non-mute yelp. My bestie and I were both deep in the story onscreen and at the film’s most violent moment she had dug her fingers into my arm so tightly offscreen that I was in pain. What does that have to do with the latest Marvel Cinematic Blockbuster, you might, very sensibly, ask? It is only that this long-forgotten sense memory came rushing back to me in two winning ways, the first of which occurred as Shang-Chi’s action mettle was put to the test.
While the film takes its time getting there — blame the familiar slow pacing of flashback heavy origin stories— the story properly takes off as soon as Sean (Simu Liu) and his best girlfriend Katy (Awkwafina) are suddenly beset by assassins on a San Francisco city bus, One of them, Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu) is so extra he has a blade where his arm should be. This particular action sequence is as shocking to us as it it is to Katy but for different reasons...
Awkwafina, Shang-Chi, Simu Liu, Tony Leung, sequels 
