Review | In 'Shang-chi and the legend of ten rings', the villain has the better backstory

Simu Liu in 'Shang-chi and the legend of ten rings' (screen grab).

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. Representation. The African-Americans got Black Panther and we stood in the theatres clapping long after the movie credits rolled on the screen. Now the Asian-Americans get their superhero who realises he can Jackie Chan when a bunch of scary men try to get his pendant. I am hoping Indian-Americans will be happy to watch these superhero movies, and not hope for representation because I don’t want to see a stereotypical motel owner/ software engineer discover that he has kalari powers when he chants ancient mantras…

But here we are riding along on a bus with the funny Awkwafina (not thinking of the superb, violent, John Wick-style bus fight in Nobody) and we love how an ordinary, everyman called ‘Shaun’ suddenly realises that he really is Shang-chi, with a legacy to preserve or destroy.

Moral dilemmas maketh the hero, you learn in film school. ‘Come with me if you want to live’ is something you’ll start seeing as a pattern whether it is John Conner or Harry Potter or Shaun. Except here, Shaun has to make a choice: to join his villain dad Dr Fu-manchu or… Wait! That’s in the comic book.

The idea of a Bruce Lee-like action star in the Marvel Universe goes back to 1972. Marvel could not get rights to Kwai Chang Caine (the rights for the character from show Kung Fu starring David Carradine lay with Warner Brothers and DC Comics) so they created Shang-chi: ‘Sheng’ means ‘ascending’ and ‘chi’ means ‘energy’ in the Chinese I-ching. So Shang-chi is the estranged son of the legendary bad guy Dr Fu-Manchu and his Kung Fu hands earned him many comic books, miniseries and TV shows. (The original Sax Rohmer-illustrated Fu Manchu books are available on Amazon!)

In the movie, the villain called by many names is played by the awesome Tony Leung. Tony Leung Chiu Wai is one of the most amazing actors to come out of the frenetic action movie world of Hong Kong cinema. He’s amazing not because he is an action star (he plays the legendary Ip Man in Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and learnt martial arts for four years to perfect his moves), but because he acts with his eyes. He plays the cuckolded husband unable to share his loneliness and predicament with anyone else but a neighbour whose husband is also a cheat. In the Mood For Love is almost 20 years old, but if you have seen it, you will understand the angst Tony Leung can convey so simply in a superhero movie as a rejected patriarch and then when he unleashes his anger, his eyes will tell you (as they do in Lust, Caution) how his Mr Yee can look at you with venom one minute and smile at you and eat with you the next.

It’s odd to say that I am a fan of the villain of a Marvel movie. But in this film, it’s the villain who has a better back story. It’s more than just ‘I want peace and quiet so I am going to randomly destroy half the world.’ It’s the power to create a family, choose his wife over the magical world, lose his family and then when he’s this close to getting it all back, have it challenged by Shaun.

As with Black Panther, when the villain has a genuine grudge, the viciousness with which they can defend their belief and grudge makes for legendary action. Tony Leung’s anger and frustration is spectacular in CGI and it is worth the big screen experience that one has missed for the last two years. I loved seeing Michelle Yeoh in that auntie role which reminds us why she’s such a goddess of martial arts movies.

This Marvel film has Awkwafina in her lime green pants to offer us a couple of laughs but the zingers between the superheroes which you have come to expect are missing. Plus Simu Liu is still learning to be a hero in the movie. Do the soul eating monsters make up for it? As Awkwafina would say, ‘Hell yeah!’

Hats off to the dialogue writer: If you aim at nothing, you get nothing… I had the same expression that Katy (Awkwafina) does, and I’m hoping it will resonate with many as it did with me.

As tradition dictates, you have to wait for the special scene after the end credits, and this one does not disappoint.