Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Very Enjoyable and Entertaining Marvel's Latest Superhero Movie

After seeing a new movie that I highly anticipated earlier in the cinema, my wife was feeling adventurous and suggested us to watch another movie which had been released for a while now. As it was a Marvel superhero movie, and waiting for it to be released legally on streaming platform would take more than a month, we thought it would be nice to do it then. So we bought the tickets for the next show and ended up having an unexpected movie marathon. All right, I'll get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Shang-Chi (Simu Liu - Kim's Convenience TV series etc) was an under achiever intelligent guy who was best friend with Katy (Awkwafina - Raya and the Last Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians etc) and worked as valet driver. It was later found out that Shang-Chi was actually the son of Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung - Monster Hunt 2, Infernal Affairs etc) who was the leader of Ten Ring organizations and was trying to collect the jade pendants held by Shang-Chi and his younger sister Xialing (Zhang Meng'er) with the help from his right hand man Razor Fist (Florian Munteanu - Creed 2 etc).

Wenwu was estranged with his children since the death of his wife Ying Li (Fala Chen - Turning Point etc) and returned to his old ways of using violence to get what he wanted. His latest action would endanger the lives of people in Ta Lo village where Ying Li originated. Shang-Chi who was determined not to let his father destroy the village, decided to fight against Wenwu and the Ten Ring people. 

So what would happen to Shang-Chi and how would the story conclude? Find them all in this fun, exciting and entertaining superhero adventure movie.

End of Brief Story Line

To be honest, Shang-Chi was a very unfamiliar name for me and my wife and we never heard of this character before. So when Marvel studios decided to make this movie, we were not really that excited. We felt it was just another one of those movies based on Marvel comic character and part of phase 4. But since we are huge fans, and thinking it is the first Marvel's superhero film with an Asian lead, we were definitely intrigued. And after watching this one, we were certainly very pleased to have seen it.

This movie has got everything that truly satisfied us. It's got a wonderful story filled with many familiar Chinese cultures, engaging characters that we love, portrayed by amazing cast led by the very skillful martial arts actor Simu Liu and the ever funny Awkawfina & supported by the charming, charismatic Tony Leung (whose English was really good), and obviously the popular Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek Discovery TV series, Last Christmas etc) as Shang-Chi's aunt Ying Lan. The action was fantastic with focus on the incredible fight choreography that you would usually see in a good Chinese Kung Fu movies. There was also that beautiful fight between Wenwu and Ying Li that looked like they were dancing. The director Destin Daniel Cretton whose directing credits included the critically acclaimed Just Mercy and few others really did a great job in here.

In addition to those qualities, the awesome special effects were definitely one of the main factors that made my wife and I loved this movie a lot. Especially with the appearance of the mythical creatures during the climax scene. Having Katy as Shang-Chi's sidekick also made the film had some light moments that made us laugh. And for the whole duration of the movie (which has 132 minutes), there was never a dull moment. We were actually pretty captivated by the film and enjoyed every minute of it.

Oh aside from the cast mentioned above, it would not be a nice Marvel movie without some connections to the previous films. This time there were the appearances of Benedict Wong (Deadly Class TV series etc) as Wong the librarian of New York Sanctum and Ben Kingsley (Locked Down etc) as Trevor aka Mandarin. And if you continue watching during the closing credits, there was a mid end credit scene with surprising Marvel characters and there was also a post end credit scene which likely was to setup the future of MCU movies.

Overall my wife and I had a great moment watching this movie. We truly enjoyed this and my wife was especially delighted with it. I personally love that scene in the speeding bus and also at the fight club in Macao. Both of us were happy that we decided to see this one in the cinema despite it has been playing for a while, since the experience of seeing it on the big screen was definitely worth all the challenge we faced, even if we were very tired after having the movie marathon. So if you have not seen this one and you have the chance (and the comfort) to see in the cinema, then you can certainly give this a try. But if you are still not comfortable yet, don't worry, this movie would be available in Disney+ next month.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars