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Review: ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’
By Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
O
pening this week exclusively
in theaters — for richer, for
poorer, in sickness and in health
— “Shang-Chi and the Legend of
the Ten Rings” really is enough to
make Year 2 pandemic action fans
mask up, wipe down and socially
distance indoors for a couple of
hours. If that’s in your personal
risk zone, you’ll be rewarded with
a sharp, full-bodied addition to the
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Director/co-writer Destin Dan-
iel Cretton’s fi lm accomplishes
something akin to what “Black
Panther” accomplished in better
times. It broadens the scope of
superhero representation and
storytelling. It off ers an adversary,
and a father fi gure, of teasing
ambiguity and complicated root-
ing interests. Tony Leung plays
him, which is excellent news right
there.
“Shang-Chi” also boasts two
high-velocity action sequences in
its fi rst half that basically seal the
deal. The fi rst, set in San Fran-
Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios/TNS
Simu Liu stars as Shang-Chi in the
Marvel Studios fi lm “Shang-Chi and
the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
cisco, hurls “Speed” headlong into
Jackie Chan territory, taking place
on a careening city bus whose
riders include several well-trained
assassins out to get our hero,
hotel valet Shaun, who is actually
Shang-Chi of the title. He’s played
by Simu Liu, who’s both engag-
ingly boyish and, when required,
the prototypical muscled-up MCU
man-toy.
The second, maniacally kinetic
martial-arts melee, even more
indebted to Jackie Chan’s won-
drous legacy, goes up, down and
sideways all over construction
scaff olding high above the streets
of Macao. Though this latest
Marvel Studios project features a
half-ton of digital eff ects work, it’s
more elegant and less headache-
y than the usual Marvel Cinematic
Universe movie. First-rate stunt
coordination and execution
trumps blue and gold swirlies
dished out by an array of special
eff ects houses anytime.
I’ll make this next bit as quick
as possible. Wenwu (Leung) is
a warrior whose dominance is
made possible, in part, by the titu-
lar 10-ring weaponry/accessory
line. He falls for the matriarch of
the magical Ta Lo kingdom (Fala
Chen), and eases into family life
with two children: Xialing (Meng’er
Zhang) and Shang-Chi.
The lyric interlude does not
last. Screenwriters Dave Cal-
laham, Andrew Lanham and
co-writer/director Cretton send
Shang-Chi into adolescent train-
ing as an assassin, followed by his
escape from all that family drama
and political hoo-ha. He scoots
to America. Best friend and fellow
hotel valet Katy doesn’t know his
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real story. The rest of “Shang-Chi”
reveals that story, slipping back
and forth geographically and into
the mists of the mystical past.
Awkwafi na is a huge asset as
Katy. Who else in modern movies
can hot-foot a scene’s pacing so
eff ortlessly, playing it for laughs
and for keeps in the same beat?
The cast also includes the
grand Michelle Yeoh, and some
welcome turns from folks interpo-
lated into this movie because this
movie has a contractual obligation
to link back to the previous MCU
movies. Benedict Wong: check.
Ben Kingsley? Check?!? That’s
right! Ben Kingsley, whose provin-
cial ham actor character, hired to
play The Mandarin and periodical-
ly bail out “Iron Man 3,” returns for
this movie, and the notion works.
Most everything in “Shang-Chi”
works, though I found some of the
second-half preoccupations and
battle sequences more routine
than the fi rst-half highlights.
The Shang-Chi character was
born in the early 1970s, at the
time of the ABC-TV series “Kung
Fu” and Bruce Lee’s “Enter the
Dragon”-era successes. In early
iterations of Shang-Chi’s comic
book adventures, he was the son
of the early 20th century “yel-
low peril” scourge, Fu Manchu.
That racially toxic literary and
cinematic stain is nowhere to be
found in this fi lm, and his replace-
ment — portrayed by Leung with
equal parts grace and cold steel
— make “Shang-Chi’s” familial
concerns hang together and
mean something.
I fear for the sequel, as I do for
all Marvel sequels, because so
often they’re about delivering an-
other round of the expected. But
“Shang-Chi” may succeed there,
too. It certainly succeeds here.
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