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Shang Chi
I just watched Shang Chi! (it's only out in theaters and not online, which... I'm not sure what Disney is trying to do. But I'm trying to support motives with Asian American main characters so... I bought a ticket and hied myself hence, to the first movie I've seen in the theaters since Endgame! Or maybe Nezha.) Anyways, I sat in a seat that was at least 10 feet from everyone else and wore a mask the entire time, so I think I was pretty safe.
Overall, I liked it! I'd put it amongst one of the better Marvels.
1) The fight scenes were actually good! Creative settings, well-paced, each one was different, and the camera work followed the action properly instead of jittering all over the place.
2) I really liked the language fluidity of the movie, shifting from Chinese to English and back again. Most people in the movie were bilingual and it works really well, having them shift from Chinese-only spaces to English spaces, to the mixes in between. There's scenes where they basically start speaking Chinese, and Awkwafina's like "oh hey" and everyone just shifts smoothly into English. I do wish the climatic moments were in Chinese, especially when it's just between Shang Chi and his family, but you can't get everything. (Also, it's weird that everyone in Macau speaks Mandarin, but Disney's obviously trying to sell to mainland audience, and at least unlike Pacific Rim people actually speak Chinese)
3) As with most Marvel movies, the plot isn't particularly amazing, but it's serviceable, and doesn't have any "wtf?" moments like Endgame or Civil War. The bits of backstory reveal also worked quite well. I also really liked the humor in the movie -- it didn't really take away from the drama of the moment as it sometimes does in other Marvel films.
4) Oh I really liked the mythical creature cameos! It was cool to see Qilin and 9-tailed foxes and a proper Chinese dragon that fought with water.
Overall it was nice to see a movie where China and Chinese Things did not feel exotified. Marvel, as usual, cannot follow through a theme to save their life, but it was a solid movie, and it's exciting to see characters added to the Marvel Club that are clearly Chinese American in identity.
Okay, next are some more spoilered comments
- The "Tai Chi beats hard punches" thing is not surprising, but then again, it's not surprising because that's, like, the main idea of any wuxia story, so while it feels like a worn trope, at least it's worn in familiar ways.
- omgggg I want to squee about the fighting again. The fight on the scaffolding was great. The ways that the rings were used was super creative without making them OP.
- it bothered me a bit that the Ten Rings Compound was, like, a super traditional courtyard, but yanno, I'm willing to give it to them given that Tony Leung is literally 1000 years old or smth, so he probably just wanted to keep his old house
- there's like, a tantalizing thing about power and debt and what you choose to do with it, but of course, Marvel doesn't follow through. Like, the dad calls Shang a weakling because he wasn't able to protect his mom, and I wish he was like "I was fucking 7. And where were *you* when we needed you? You retreated into what you thought was power, instead of doing the hard thing of raising us as children." And when Shang's like "I ran away after I killed a person, but now blood debts need to be paid so Imma kill my dad," I'm like "wtf please examine this." And like, I wanted the dad to actually elaborate on his stance of "if I didn't relinquish my power, they would never have attacked my home." Maybe have the mom counter it with "they attacked because you abused your power"
- A thing that felt really unsatisfying was that, both Shang and his sister have this major issue of not really having a family growing up. And then... they don't resolve that. There's no "we're your family now" moment, which Guardians 2 did well. They just leave the random village behind and Shang goes back to... maybe his old life of being a valet??? And the sister just rebuilds the Ten Rings??? It's not certain whether they've gotten a better sense of what they want out of their lives, nor whether they've found family properly. Honestly, I expected the sister to stay in the village with their aunt, and become the new defender of the village, and I expected Shang to move in with Awkwafina's family, and maybe they start figuring out what they want to do next with their lives.
Overall, I liked it! I'd put it amongst one of the better Marvels.
1) The fight scenes were actually good! Creative settings, well-paced, each one was different, and the camera work followed the action properly instead of jittering all over the place.
2) I really liked the language fluidity of the movie, shifting from Chinese to English and back again. Most people in the movie were bilingual and it works really well, having them shift from Chinese-only spaces to English spaces, to the mixes in between. There's scenes where they basically start speaking Chinese, and Awkwafina's like "oh hey" and everyone just shifts smoothly into English. I do wish the climatic moments were in Chinese, especially when it's just between Shang Chi and his family, but you can't get everything. (Also, it's weird that everyone in Macau speaks Mandarin, but Disney's obviously trying to sell to mainland audience, and at least unlike Pacific Rim people actually speak Chinese)
3) As with most Marvel movies, the plot isn't particularly amazing, but it's serviceable, and doesn't have any "wtf?" moments like Endgame or Civil War. The bits of backstory reveal also worked quite well. I also really liked the humor in the movie -- it didn't really take away from the drama of the moment as it sometimes does in other Marvel films.
4) Oh I really liked the mythical creature cameos! It was cool to see Qilin and 9-tailed foxes and a proper Chinese dragon that fought with water.
Overall it was nice to see a movie where China and Chinese Things did not feel exotified. Marvel, as usual, cannot follow through a theme to save their life, but it was a solid movie, and it's exciting to see characters added to the Marvel Club that are clearly Chinese American in identity.
Okay, next are some more spoilered comments
- The "Tai Chi beats hard punches" thing is not surprising, but then again, it's not surprising because that's, like, the main idea of any wuxia story, so while it feels like a worn trope, at least it's worn in familiar ways.
- omgggg I want to squee about the fighting again. The fight on the scaffolding was great. The ways that the rings were used was super creative without making them OP.
- it bothered me a bit that the Ten Rings Compound was, like, a super traditional courtyard, but yanno, I'm willing to give it to them given that Tony Leung is literally 1000 years old or smth, so he probably just wanted to keep his old house
- there's like, a tantalizing thing about power and debt and what you choose to do with it, but of course, Marvel doesn't follow through. Like, the dad calls Shang a weakling because he wasn't able to protect his mom, and I wish he was like "I was fucking 7. And where were *you* when we needed you? You retreated into what you thought was power, instead of doing the hard thing of raising us as children." And when Shang's like "I ran away after I killed a person, but now blood debts need to be paid so Imma kill my dad," I'm like "wtf please examine this." And like, I wanted the dad to actually elaborate on his stance of "if I didn't relinquish my power, they would never have attacked my home." Maybe have the mom counter it with "they attacked because you abused your power"
- A thing that felt really unsatisfying was that, both Shang and his sister have this major issue of not really having a family growing up. And then... they don't resolve that. There's no "we're your family now" moment, which Guardians 2 did well. They just leave the random village behind and Shang goes back to... maybe his old life of being a valet??? And the sister just rebuilds the Ten Rings??? It's not certain whether they've gotten a better sense of what they want out of their lives, nor whether they've found family properly. Honestly, I expected the sister to stay in the village with their aunt, and become the new defender of the village, and I expected Shang to move in with Awkwafina's family, and maybe they start figuring out what they want to do next with their lives.