Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which opens on Friday, is the 25th installment in the immensely famous Marvel film series, It takes place in ancient China, where enormous animals, mysticism, and kung fu meet in a story of a son’s complicated relationship with his father.
Shang-Chi is firmly rooted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s record-breaking cinematic franchise. In attempts to score into the Chinese market, Hollywood has now cast an Asian actor as a leading Marvel superhero.
After being molded into a ruthless assassin, the Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu who plays the role of the son flees his dictatorial father as a teenager and washes up in the United States. He then starts living discreetly with Katy, who is played by Awkwafina, till his father, played by the Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung, sends a frightening team to hunt him home
With an amusing reprise of Ben Kingsley’s actor Trevor Slattery from Iron Man 3, Shang-Chi solidly establishes itself in the record-breaking Marvel Cinematic Universe series of films. Its importance for Marvel Studios and Disney was believed to be seen as a conduit for entering the Chinese market.
At the film’s world premiere in Los Angeles, Asian-American actress Jodi Long told reporters, “It’s extremely poignant because it has been a long time to have an Asian superhero and a movie that embraces not only our culture but our humanity.”
The producers worked very hard to combat “certain very evident preconceptions that were developed in life and society, and that were also part of the original comics,” according to director Destin Daniel Cretton.
the director, further said, “Therefore the actors chosen for each part were the most crucial thing for me to get right in this movie. I wanted each character to seem relatable and that they are multi-dimensional, whether it was the hero or the villain.”
