Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an action-packed origin story of Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero Shang-Chi (Simu Liu). The son of The Mandarin (Tony Leung) – the powerful leader of the underground criminal organisation the Ten Rings – Shang-Chi was trained as an assassin from a young age. As a teen, he leaves to live a normal life, but his father sends muscle to force him back home a decade later.

The movie begins with a bedtime story prologue explaining that Shang-Chi is the son of two supernatural people: superstrong Wenwu, possessor of the Ten Rings (Tony Leung), and Ying Li (Fala Chen), a fellow martial arts master who hails from the secret powerful community Ta Lo. When Shang-Chi’s mother dies, Wenwu, who had given up the Ten Rings to devote himself to his family, goes back to building his criminal empire and training Shang-Chi to be the best assassin and successor. But at age 15, Shang-Chi escaped.

Ten years later, he goes by Shaun (Simu Liu) and is a San Francisco parking attendant who spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend, Katy (Awkwafina). One day while Shaun is commuting on the bus, Ten Rings goons arrive to steal the one thing Shaun has left of his mother: half of a jade pendant. Soon, Shaun must reveal his true identity to Katy, and they both head to China to find his estranged younger sister, Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) before Wenwu does. Once they reconnect, Shang-Chi, Xialing, and Katy are caught up in Wenwu’s master plan to resurrect their mother by destroying her secretive village.

The scenes are impressive with real inventive fight choreography reminiscent of classic martial arts films involving Jet Lee and Jackie Chan. The actors do a fantastic job performing these stunts in these creative locations. Simu Liu in his first starring role is remarkable in his performance. He has an interesting character and gets across a lot of emotion. Marvel has interestingly managed added history and depth to a villainous character.