Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is empowering change

Marvel’s latest movie Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings breaks ground by featuring their first Asian superhero in the lead role.

The film includes the usual action and a fight to save the world you expect from a Marvel blockbuster. But it also offers something different, with focus on an Asian-American superhero exploring his cultural identity and confronting family ties.

The 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and introduces actor Simu Liu in the title role.

Liu describes representing the community on the big screen as “an incredible honour”. He plays Shang-Chi, a martial arts master turned assassin. After the death of his mother, the character grows up doing the bidding of his grief-stricken warlord father. His father is the owner of the all-powerful Ten Rings.

When we first meet Shang-Chi he is trying to reinvent himself, living in America as a valet driver called Shaun. He is estranged from his family and not had anything to do with his father for a long time. But an ambush by his father’s Ten Rings army throws his new life into chaos and forces him to confront the past.

“Tremendously empowering”

The actor says: “It’s so rare that… people that look like me are thrust into those positions and I think it’s tremendously empowering”.

Meanwhile, the Hawaii born director concurs: “I never had a superhero who I could identify with when I was a kid, and to be able to have an option for a new generation of kids who look like me or who have a similar background as me, that’s very special”.

In commitment to representation, the film has a mostly Asian cast, including both old and new faces. In the role of Shang-Chi’s father Wenwu is established Hong Kong actor Tony Leung. Fala Chen is playing his late mother Ying Li, while Michelle Yeoh plays his aunt. Joining them is Crazy Rich Asians star Awkwafina in the part of Katy, his friend and sidekick. Meanwhile, Meng’er Zhang stars as Shang’s embittered younger sister Xialing, in her debut film role.

The multilingual cast made language a powerful tool, with people allowed to speak in “whatever made sense for the scene”.

Hollywood’s shift to the East

The casting of the film reflects Hollywood’s move to capitalise on the growing trend of the industry’s culture shift to the East. Crazy Rich Asians, the first US blockbuster with an all Asian cast, took nearly £200 million worldwide. Then in 2020, South Korean film Parasite made history by winning best picture at the Oscars. And this year, Korean-American film Minari received multiple Academy Award nominations. This included the first ever win for a Korean actress, as Yuh-Jung Youn won for her supporting role.

Minari’s director Lee Isaac Chung taks about his views on the changing face of Asian-American cinema. He says, at first Hollywood films tended to portray Asians as more exotic. This led to an identity struggle, with feelings of needing to offer a more accurate depiction to a wider audience. Now there is a complete shift to just telling their stories “as people and it doesn’t have to be in relation to white America or a majority culture”.

Shang-Chi is Marvel’s attempt at three-dimensional cultural storytelling in a blockbuster superhero movie. Producers Jonathan Schwartz and Kevin Feige hope they have created the most authentic origin tale. This is the first time the backstory of the Ten Rings is explored properly in the MCU. However, the terrorist group appeared in the first Iron Man film in 2008, kidnapping Tony Stark.

A relatable superhero

Cretton suggests that Shang-Chi is a more relatable character, and through him, the audience can easily connect to the film’s themes of identity. This is because he is “a superhero that doesn’t get splashed with chemicals to get his superpower”. The film is about “a journey of self-discovery, of growing up, of learning how to finally deal with pain that he’s been running away from his entire life. And that when he is finally able to look inside into his past and embrace good, bad, the joy, the pain, and accept it all as a part of himself”.

32 year old Lui grew up in Canada, making him feel a “huge sense of imposter syndrome” stepping into the role of Shang-Chi. The part is a “dream” for him, but he also often feels the responsibility in helping to diversify Marvel’s superheroes.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings will have a traditional exclusive cinema release, before streaming on online services.

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