Season 1, Episode 10: Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

December 21, 2021

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is one of the most influential Marvel films. It is the first MCU movie with an Asian protagonist giving a gateway to more representation in superhero media. In an interview, Simu Lu stated he tweeted a Chinese poster of the Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, which makes his parents proud because Lu is making Chinese culture mainstream. Besides the representation, this movie allows me to have a positive review after six negative ones. Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings have a lot of strengths and flaws, like Maf's SuperMarioLogan Movie, unlike Maf's SuperMarioLogan Movie, the flaws have not completely ruined the movie.

A major flaw is Ta Lo does not look unique because it fails to look like a magical and mythical village. Ta Lo is a green valley with large mountains and many bamboo trees. The bright blue sky with the green land makes the land blend. The creatures are ugly. For example, the guardian lions are over-designed because the face has small eyes, short snout, and tusks making the teeth too crowded in their jaws. The qilins look like a horse with fish DNA. The green scales do not go well with yellow hair, green mustache, dark green horns, and pointy ears. The villages do not look special because the buildings look like Buddhist temples.

The best part is the fight scenes because the choreography establishes tension, emotion, and characteristics without using words. The fight between Ying Li and Xu Wenwu helps establish their personalities by using their fighting style. In the beginning, Ying Li dodges Xu Wenwu’s ring attacks. Xu Wenwu is an aggressive man, and he is dependent on his rings, while Ying Li is a peaceful woman. Later on, the fight became more of a dance symbolizing the romantic connection between Xu Wenwu and Ying Li. The bus scene demonstrates Shang-Chi's fighting skills and the threat of the Ten Rings. In the beginning, Shang-Chi fights three Ten Rings members, but he is limited by the crowd surroundings forcing him to use his environment to his advantage. Shang-Chi blocks the attacks with his jacket and utilizes a pole to move from a high place which helps him to kick. When Razor Fist joins the fight, the tension increases because Shang-Chi focuses on three different conflicts. He focuses on moving the passengers from the back to the front, stopping the bus, and defeating Razor Fist. He has to make himself and the passengers safe while eliminating the threat. The last fight between the Soul Eater and Great Protector helps increase the threat of the Soul Eater by establishing a false hope at the beginning. The Great Protector attempts to drown the Soul Eater, but the Soul Eater eats more souls causing him to have the strength to grab the Great Protector and try to suck its soul. To stop the Soul Eater, Katy has to shoot its throat, which establishes a chance that the Soul Eater could be defeated.

The characters are a mix of terrible and perfect due to the lack of development of interest arcs. Katy has the most interesting flaws. She behaves like a teenager by going on joy rides instead of valeting cars. Her friend, Soo, tells Katy that she has the potential success but is unable due to her immaturity. Unfortunately, this flaw has never been resolved or explored after Soo's convention. Katy’s second flaw is not having a passion. Katy's relationship with her mom shows Katy's fear of failure because her mother is disappointed in her due to her immaturity. Her being good at shooting with a bow symbolized her overcoming her flaw, but it is rushed. Katy suddenly gets a passion for shooting with a bow because an old lady tells her to do it. The rushed character arc makes Katy shoot the Soul Eater unsatisfying because her journey is too short.

Shang-Chi has the most interesting backstory. The death of Ying Li causes Xu Wenwu to force Shang-Chi to train into a deadly assassin. His trainer, the Death Dealer, hits Shang-Chi for messing up or building up a pain tolerance. The relationship between Death Dealer and Shang-Chi will never get its closure. The unfunny joke about airplane food is the worst aspect of the movie. It interprets the conversation with Katy and Shang-Chi over his abusive childhood. The airplane food joke removes all the emotions of Shang-Chi's childhood by having a lighthearted mood replacing the seriousness in the scene. After the airplane food joke, Katy and Shang-Chi continued their conversation about Shang-Chi escaping to America, but the mood is already ruined. Serious themes take time to build up and cannot happen after a joke. Also, there is a joke about Shang-Chi's name pronunciation which ruins the mood because it distracts the audience from having sympathy for Shang-Chi because they are too busy cringing at that terrible joke. There is a satisfying conclusion to Shang-Chi's character arc. After seeing the Iron Gang murder his mother, his father trains Shang-Chi into an assassin and assigns him to kill the Iron Gang leader. Shang-Chi suffers guilt for murdering a man causing him to escape to America. Meeting the Great Protector is the best way to conclude his character arc. When he sees the Great Protector, he learns to let go of his guilt, causing him to leave the lake with the help of the Great Protector. When he kills the Soul Eater, he shows that guilt and grief can not consume him.

Xialing has the most fascinating relationship with Shang-Chi. The fight scene between Xialing and Shang-Chi shows her anger at her brother. Shang-Chi only blocks her attacks and warns her about Xu Wenwu coming after her, showing Shang-Chi wanting to protect his sister. As Xialing has a flashback of Shang-Chi promising to return in three days, she knocks Shang-Chi with a kick. She has developed anger and distrust at her brother because she feels Shang-Chi abandons him since he never returned after his promise. She does show signs of love for her brother. For example, she helps him protect Ta Lo. Also, she saves Katy from falling even though she could have easily escaped by letting her die. When Soul Eater grabs Xialing, she tells Shang-Chi to let go of her. The scene is a satisfying conclusion to Xialing's character arc because she finally forgives Shang-Chi, and Shang-Chi refuses to leave her goal to protect her.

Xu Wenwu has the potential of becoming a great villain, but his stupidity ruins his character even though he leads the most dangerous terrorist group. Xu Wenwu has the worst motivation in MCU history. He has no reason to believe the Ta Lo villagers kidnap Ying Li. Even though he hears his wife’s voice, he should have believed his grief caused him to have delusions. Also, Xu Wenwu blames Shang-Chi for his wife’s death is stupid. Ying Li chose to fight the Iron Gang and bring Shang-Chi to safety. Also, Shang-Chi is not trained and is seven years old, so he cannot fight the Iron Gang. Xu Wenwu fails to be a sympathetic villain because he abuses his son and tries to destroy a village due to the rings telling him that his wife is alive. The best part of Xu Wenwu is his death from the Soul Eater. His death helps symbolize that grief slowly consumes him, causing his inevitable downfall showing the difference between him and Shang-Chi. While Shang-Chi learns to move on from his past, Xu Wenwu uses the past to do evil.

Trevor Slattery is an unnecessary character. He is the comedic relief, but Katy already serves that role. Unlike Slattery, Katy has an actual emotional connection to Shang-Chi. Slattery is not funny because he is an actor stereotype.Razor Fist is a one-dimensional character because his personality is a childlike behavior. He gets upset that Shang-Chi steals his car. He refuses help from the Ta Lo villagers to fight the dwellers because he believes the Ten Rings is capable enough to kill the dwellers then changes his mind due to a dweller killing Death Dealer. Unfortunately, the deleted scenes make Razor Fist a more flesh-out character. There is a deleted scene when Xu Wenwu shares his story about the time he adopted Razor Fist. In Romania, Wu Wenwu misses Shang-Chi and finds Razor Fist judging three balls in one arm, which reminds him of his son, causing Xu Wenwu to adopt him. The adoption gives Razor Fist a home and a purpose. Another deleted scene is the death of Razor Fist. Razor Fist shows Katy that no one chooses their situation, but their choices can decide their destiny. Razor Fist sacrifices his life to give Katy the bow to shoot the Soul Eater. The scene shows Razor Fist has empathy for his enemies.

Death Dealer has the potential of being an intimidating villain that symbolizes Shang-Chi's trauma. Unfortunately, there is no closure between Shang-Chi and Death Dealer because Shang-Chi almost kills him but stops by Xu Wenwu. Shang-Chi never sees Death Dealer after the encounter. The relationship between Shang-Chi and Death Dealer is never explored because a dweller kills Death Dealer as a joke.

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