Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is one of the most anticipated movies premiering in Phase 4 of the MCU. The film was originally meant to be released in 2020, but COVID-19 caused the release date to be pushed to September 3, 2021. Due to that delay, the first trailer was just released in April 2021, much to the excitement of fans.
The trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings provides the first look at star Simu Liu in action as Shang-Chi--and there's a lot of action. Shang-Chi is a master of kung-fu, and the trailer confirms that kung-fu and martial arts will be heavily featured in the film. While obviously its own individual film with its own story and style, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has clearly been inspired by classic kung-fu and martial arts movies.
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While Doctor Strange involved some inspiration from martial arts movies, it looks like Shang-Chi will be taking it to another level. Between the aesthetic, thematic elements, and fighting style, the trailer for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings suggests that the film will almost be adding another genre to the MCU.
Marvel comics introduced the character of Shang-Chi in the 1970s, capitalizing on the kung-fu craze that was sweeping America. Marvel had bought the rights to well-known villain Fu-Manchu, and introduced Shang-Chi as his son. In his original origin story, Shang-Chi spent his childhood learning how to fight and became a master martial artist, unaware of who his father was. When he learns of his father's villainous schemes, he fights him and his siblings and eventually defeats him. When Marvel Comics lost the rights to Fu-Manchu, the story was reworked so that Shang-Chi's father was Wenwu, a criminal known as "The Mandarin," who is portrayed by Tony Leung in the film.
In the comics, the ten rings were rings of alien origin that Wenwu found in a crashed ship. The rings are named after the ten powers they grant the wearer: Remaker, Influence, Spin, Spectral, Nightbringer, Zero, The Liar, Lightning, Incandescence, and Daimonic. They appear in the film's trailer as bands rather than rings. "Ten Rings" has been involved in the MCU before as the name of a criminal organization, and it's unclear how the rings' origin as it occurs in the comics will be worked into the story. Outside of battles with his father, Shang-Chi has been an MI6 agent in the comics as well as part of several superhero groups, including the Avengers, Secret Avengers, Heroes for Hire, the New Agents of Atlas, and The Protectors, an all Asian superhero team.
Shang-Chi is a master martial artist, and a master of kung-fu especially. The team behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings wanted to do justice to this in the film. Director Destin Daniel Cretton took inspiration from various movies and fighting styles--from the elegant wushu style in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to the kinetic street-fighting inspired choreography of Jackie Chan films. The film's producer, Jonathan Schwartz, said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "Every punch is meaningful, every fighting style is meaningful, and the story is told visually in such a great way."
From the trailer alone, the fighting style and action sequences appear to draw inspiration from such great fighters as Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and Bruce Lee. The comparison to Jet Li films is most apt when looking at the bus fighting sequence in the trailer; the split jump, poses, and use of the wall and poles as leverage when fighting in a tight space draw comparisons to the famous action star. In general, the use of kung-fu in the action sequences that are visible in the trailer make them stand out from the typical MCU action sequences, featuring more kicks, jumps, and use of the whole space around the body.
Apart from the fighting style itself, the scenes in the movie trailer of Shang-Chi training as a child and young man share many similarities with similar scenes in classic kung-fu and martial arts movies. The sequences are intense, emphasizing the focus, strength, and discipline Shang-Chi must develop even at a very young age. Shang-Chi is seen training against a variety of weapons, and using objects around him, such as the wood pole he punches, rather than weights or official tools. This is common in many martial arts training sequences in film. Visually the scenes draw from those classic movies as well, utilizing dim lighting and spaces that blur the line between indoors and outdoors.
Old kung-fu and martial arts movies are more than just fighting, however. They often feature themes of justice, peace, revenge, family, and finding one's own power. Director Destin Daniel Cretton said he is "using the movie to explore the psychology of a kid who was trained to be a killer when he was young. Now that he has broken out of that, how does he learn to redefine himself in the world, and find the balance of what his relationship with his father should be?" This echoes many of the thematic elements visible in martial arts films, especially when told through a story involving kung-fu fighting and martial arts.
In the end, although drawing from these films, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will make its own unique mark on the world. While introducing a brand new character to the MCU, it will be the first MCU film with an Asian lead and mostly Asian cast, and the first MCU film to be telling its story through this martial arts genre. It will exciting to watch the full movie, and to see where Shang-Chi and the rest of the characters go in the MCU moving forward.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be released in theaters September 3 2021.