"Shang-Chi" - political complacence, artistic cowardice and hollow corporate pandering

What is there to say about the Marvel-movie "Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings"?



What I liked:

1. I liked how the movie focused on asian-american culture, stuck between two worlds.

2. I think it's interesting, how having a good education was defined as being able to speak multiple languages.

3. Just like the Norse got a connection to Asgard, China got a connection to some alien civilization (even though the movie did not go into further details). Marvel obviously tried to make good for their western-culture chauvinism.






What I didn't like:

1. The fake "female empowerment".
Even though the movie has two main female characters, they somehow seem undeveloped. Xu Xialing is obviously sick of being discriminated in the male-dominated culture. But she stops just short of saying feminist stuff out loud. Because that would offend people.
Katy is an ordinary asian-american woman who likes to party and is obviously not interested in sports. Yet she somehow learns to become a professional archer in just 2 days and developes the muscles to shoot an arrow hundreds of feet into the air.
And DESPITE there being two female main characters, the movie still fails to pass the Bechdel-test because the writers just couldn't think of an excuse to let these two women have a conversation with each other.

And the 10-second conversation between Xu Xialing and her aunt doesn't count, because the aunt is a replacable side-character of no consequence. You could replace her with any man and the movie wouldn't be any different.



2. Bowing to chinese propaganda-demands.
China's youth is currently developing an absolutely HORRIFYING social trend: Instead of working their asses off and sacrificing everything for their job, they pick a stress-free job with a mediocre salary that allows them to enjoy life. This phenomenon is called "lying down". And chinese media and government are OUTRAGED about this attitude of putting yourself above your job. Google it.

Shang-Chi and Katy have a stress-free job with a mediocre salary that allows them to enjoy life.
WHICH CAN ONLY MEAN THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THEIR LIFE.
Over and over we hear the message that that's not how life is supposed to be: You are supposed to pick some goal and work on achieving it.



3. Actors who aren't allowed to show emotions.
Leading up to the grand show-down, Shang-Chi confesses to Katy that he did kill the murderers of his mother and he vows with tears in his eyes to kill his father as well, because his criminal ways ultimately lead to her death. It's a strong emotional moment: Years of emotional abuse break their way to the surface and a son decides to kill his father.

Then came the great showdown, the fight between father and son, and I thought, that's it: Here comes the big emotional moment.
Raw emotions.
Screams.
Catharsis.
"You never wanted a son! You wanted a killer!"
"You don't understand! I had lost the only woman I had ever loved! I was too overcome with grief to recognize that I was hurting you!"
Father and son screaming their feelings at each other and their fight to the death turns into forgiveness and father and son hug with tears in their eyes while battle rages in the background.
Instead...
Instead...
Instead Shang-Chi simply decided to not kill his father after all. All the pent-up rage that had made him vow to kill his father? Meh. Gone.
And then a deus-ex-machine absolved the writers of having to write a solution for this complicated father-son-relationship.

Again, I think this was done to not offend the audience: You are supposed to swallow your feelings and to not confront figures of authority.



4. The fights were so, so bad.

The martial art was obviously chinese and straddled the line beween realistic and the over-choreographed rythmic fights from chinese Kung-Fu-movies.
If you have a keen eye for it, there was even a subtle dig against western martial arts, when Shang-Chi's aunt corrected his stance: She opened his hand from the closed fist of "foreign" martial arts like Muay Thai, Karate, Kickboxing and MMA, to the open hand of chinese martial arts like Kung-Fu and Wing-Chun.

And sadly, Marvel learned nothing from chinese filmmakers on how to film a proper fight-scene.
Chinese directors like wide-angle shots and fight-sequences that last many seconds. This allows the audience to understand what is going on and to appreciate the martial skills of the actors.
Hollywood uses shaky-cam, cuts to a new shot at least every second, and changes camera-position for each 1-second-scene.
Why?
Because these long fight-sequences must be shot over and over and over again until every detail is just right. This is taxing on the actors and costs time. And for the studio, time is money.

For example, there is a 5-minute-fight between Jackie Chan and Benny Urquidez in "Wheels on Meals", filmed in sequences of about 10 seconds. Shooting 5 minutes of fighting took them 3 days. Do you really think that Disney will have their actors beat up each other for 3 days just to shoot a single 5-minute-fight-scene? It's so much cheaper to shoot every punch and kick individually and then to cut them together.



5. Shang-Chi was not allowed to make any decisions.

He gets attacked in the bus. Not his decision.
He goes to Macao because of the mysterious postcard. Not his decision.
He fights his sister. Not his decision.
He fights his father's goons. Not his decision.
He gets taken to his father's compound. Not his decision.
His father reveals his grand plan, throws him into the dungeon, his sister breaks them out, Slatery and the mystical creature bring them to the village La To. None of this was his decision.
His aunt informs of the ancient evil that his father is about to accidently unleash and Shang-Chi must fight him. Not his decision.
During the climactic fight, his father gives the rings to Shang-Chi. Not his decision.
Seemingly back at home and back to normal, Wong shows up and basically shanghais him into joining the Avengers. Not his decision.

At no point did Shang-Chi have a plan and go through with it.