Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) is a Marvel movie we were looking forward to. And I know I say this about every new Marvel movie (almost), but I think it's my new favorite.
It starts with a voice-over and montage about an immortal warlord, Tony Leung, who commanded ten rings of power. By our times, he runs a shaowy underground criminal organization - He is sometimes known as Fu Manchu, or the Mandarin. His next objective is Ta Lo, a mythical village in China where strange beasts roam. He manages to get there, but finds it guarded by a beautiful woman, Fala Chen. They fight, and her flowing, graceful tai chi defeats his forceful kung fu. But while they fight, they fall in love.
And so do I, with this movie. This fight is first-class, good as almost any you will see in a Chinese wuxia movie.
We find out that the voice-over is Chen, telling her son about her and his father. Leung left the organization and settled down to a domestic life with his wife, son and daughter.
In the present day, we meet Simu Liu, a parking valet in San Francisco, working with Awkwafina. They get attacked on a bus - classic bus fight, like in Nobody or The Villainess) and one of the attackers takes Liu's pendant. He then tells Awkwafina about his history. He is the son of Leung and Chen. Chen was killed when he was young by his father's ex-rivals. That turned Leung evil again, and he started training Liu to be another one of his assassins. But Liu ran away to San Francisco.
His sister wasn't supposed to be an assassin, but she trained secretly watching the boys. Although they are estranged because Liu left her with her dad, h recently got a card from her, with her address. Now, he is afraid the people who attacked him will go after her for her pendant.
It turns out that she runs an underground fight club in Macao. We even catch a glimpse of Wong from Dr. Strange fighting a creature. And of course, sister (Meng'er Zhang) wants to fight Liu first. Then some thugs steal sister's pendant, and we have a classical scaffolding fight. In the end, they are taken to meet up with dad.
You see, the pendants together unlock a map of the way into Ta Lo - a map that is formed out of a flood of water. Remember, Chinese dragons (we'll get there) represent water, flowing like Mom's tai chi style.
Anyway, Leung has been hearing his wife calling from Beyond. He believes that the people of Ta Lo have her imprisoned. Everyone else can see it's evil influences that want to be released from Ta Lo. I'll skip over most of this, except to mention that Ben Kingsley is back - the Ten Rings gang liked him so much after the Mandarin affair that they keep him around for laughs.
And one final SPOILER - the evil creatures Ta Lo has been holding back are Chthuloids, who are finally brought down by Ta Lo's dragon protector.
There's a lot in this movie (normal for Marvel, I guess) and it's almost all very cool. The fights and other action scenes are amazing. The Chinese elements are very convincingly drawn from Chinese movie culture and fine arts - the dragon was truly awe-inspiring. And the sweetness of Liu and Awkwafina - nice kids who treat Awkwafina's grandmother with respect and kindness, for example. The last scene is hilarious, where they just level with there friends on a night out at the bar. Their friends don't believe it, until Wong shows up out of a portal on an urgent mission - But we'll find out all about that in the next Marvel movies. Can't wait.
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