Woo wee!! Thank you Marvel Studios for dropping this high-energy trailer on a sleepy Monday!! This is one of the most anticipated Phase Four of the MCU and if it weren’t for Covid, we should’ve seen Shang-Chi movie by now but the February release had been delayed to September 3, 2021. Poster looks good too, though I can’t help but think of the Olympics with all those rings!
Here’s the short premise per Wiki:
When Shang-Chi is drawn into the clandestine Ten Rings organization, he is forced to confront the past he thought he left behind
Well, behold its first trailer!
Well my first reaction is WHOA!!! I mean it’s a Kung-Fu movie so naturally I’m expecting some high-octane, gravity-defying moves and that’s what we got in this trailer. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, Just Mercy) from a screenplay by David Callaham (Expendables, Mortal Kombat), the film has a mostly-Asian cast led by Simu Liu, including Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Ronny Chieng, and Michelle Yeoh. Having just seen In The Mood For Love recently, I was expecting Leung’s co-star Maggie Cheung to show up here as Shang-Chi’s mother!
Now, based on some videos of Simu Liu I’ve seen so far, he seems like the right actor for the part. The Chinese-Canadian actor seems charismatic and witty in interviews, which I think it important beyond just having the martial art skills.
Visually it looks impressive, which is to be expected given the Marvel budget. Some of the scenes reminds me of Inception and The Matrix…
… as well as Zhang Yimou’s movies like HERO, House of Flying Daggers, etc. There’s even a scene that reminds me of the neon-lit fight scene in Skyfall. I take it the storyline will take place in multiple timelines, mixing the production design from various ancient/modern. The DP is Bill Pope who’s no stranger to fantasy/comic-book movies
Timeline-wise, I’m curious where Shang-Chi fits in within the MCU timeline. It’s possible that it takes place before Avengers: Endgame after the Snap?
It’s a pretty short teaser consisting mostly of action/fight sequences, but I’m hopeful there’ll be a compelling story just like most of movies in the MCU. I have to admit, not being much of a comic reader, I had to search for some videos about the character’s history. This one did a pretty good job explaining it:
One thing for sure I like the casting of Tony Leung who always looks elegant and dignified as Shang-Chi’s father aka The Mandarin/Wenwu who is the leader of the Ten Rings.
Now, thanks to Wiki, apparently Marvel replaced the comic-book version named Fu Manchu with Wenwu, citing it as a “problematic character” associated with racist stereotypes whom Marvel Studios does not hold the film rights to. I certainly am glad they didn’t stick with Ben Kingsley as the character, that just wouldn’t be right.
Looking at the way the character is drawn in the comics (released in 1973 by Steve Englehart & Jim Starlin), no doubt the inspiration was Bruce Lee. Per this article, Paul Gulacy, the artist for several issues of Master of Kung Fu, spoke about his desire to honor the legacy of Bruce Lee in his work in an interview for Comic Book Artist Collecti on. The link between Lee and Shang-Chi was so prominent that when plans for a live-action adaptation were in the works, Bruce’s son Brandon Lee was the original actor eyed for the role. Unfortunately, Brandon Lee died on the set of The Crow in 1993 from an on-set accident. I have faith Simu Liu in bringing Shang-Chi character to life.
I’m certainly excited for this one and can’t wait to see it on the big screen!
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Between this and the trailer for Leos Carax’s Annette, I’m so happy to be a film buff.
Seriously, this looks amazing. I’m getting Bruce Lee vibes into this and I’m fucking stoked about the visuals and the cast including Tony Leung Chiu-wai as I’m a big fan of him. I hope he got a nice paycheck as just having him and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the MCU. Man, that Marvel money must be good.
I saw Annette after I posted about Shang-Chi but I’m excited for that as well!! The trailer was gorgeous, so I might have to do a post on that today, ahah.
Well the comics’ character was based after Bruce Lee so yeah definitely! I like Tony Leung Chiu-wai too, he’s such a charismatic actor. Ahah yeah, I think Disney have money to burn really, they can pretty much get ANYONE they want!
Exactly, Olivia Colman is thinking about joining a MCU project. I hope she does take part in Secret War as a Skrull as it could be fun. Plus, all of that $$$$$$$$
Oh my goodness!!! OLIVIA COLMAN??!! She is my HERO!! That would be so awesome. I don’t care what role or movie, just having her in the MCU would be awesome!!!
Her and Emilia Clarke are going to be part of either a TV/film project from the MCU as Skrulls… honestly, I’d be a fool to turn that down. And Colman deserves it. She’s just cool as hell.
She is divine!! I’m calling her Dame already for just being so cool, funny, sweet + freakin’ talented!!
The trailer looks awesome! I love Tony Leung so I’m super excited to see this
Hello! Welcome to FC! Glad you think so and yes Tony Leung is fantastic. I didn’t even know he’s part of the cast, so this is a pleasant surprise.
I wasn’t sure what to expect out of this movie but the trailer looks cool, especially the fight scenes. Even though it’s the typical CGI’d wire fu that I was expecting, it looked much more intense than in other films. Very interesting how they’re finally introducing The Mandarin into the MCU. Since he’s like The Joker to Iron Man in the comics, people were expecting to see him in those films. But I know that The Mandarin in the comics form were full of Asian stereotypes and quite offensive. Which is why Shane Black never wanted to use him in Iron Man 3 but he’s forced to somehow included the character.
Hey Ted! Yeah the fight scenes are amazing, which is to be expected but still happy they delivered! Yeah that’s why they changed the character a bit I think to be someone more dignified, and having Tony Leung is a great casting choice.
The one in Iron Man 3 is an impostor so I guess that’s a good way to ‘include’ him without really having the actual character in it.
There were rumors that Shane Black told the Disney that he would include the real Mandarin in Iron Man 3 but he wrote the version that was in the movie and it’s too late for Disney to do anything about it. Not sure if those rumors were true but I thought it’s funny. Lol! Shane Black just didn’t want to use The Mandarin from the comics because he thought the character’s way too offensive and he wouldn’t know how to write it to fit our current world.
Interesting tid bit, Ted! Well I’m glad he didn’t use the original character since he’s offensive, and Ben Kingsley was hilarious as the impostor anyway.
I’m sure Disney people wanted to fire Black but since RDJ was the one that chose Black to be the director of third Iron Man film and Disney wouldn’t dare make RDJ angry by trying to get rid of his director. Which I think it’s the reason why Black wrote The Mandarin that way for the film, he knew Disney won’t/can’t fire him. Lol!
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