Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

The latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has arrived with “Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings”. The film introduces audiences to Shang Chi (Simu Liu); an easygoing San Francisco resident who spends his time parking cars and hanging out with his friend Katy (Awkwafina) and her family. Life is steady if unspectacular until he is accosted on a city bus by a group looking to take a pendant his mother gave him. When Shang Chi shocks Katy and the occupants of the bus with his martial arts abilities; he attempts to find his sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang); who runs an underground fight club. While Xialing is estranged from her brother; their father Wenwu (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) has conspired to bring them and their pendants before him. Their father uses the power of sacred devices known as the Ten Rings to rule for over a thousand years and destroys all who would oppose him thanks to their power and the army he has gathered over the centuries. Wenwu wants to revive their long-dead mother as he is convinced that she is calling to him and he wants to be with her as he was able to be a better man and forsake the power and abilities the rings offered him. When it is

Rewatched for the Once Upon a Franchise podcast. Listen to the full episode here: open.spotify.com/episode/5ocYTfyec0F4eXA4C2qG9O?si=37b2cc91c3674863 Rating: A- SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS remains, on rewatch, one of the MCU's most confident and culturally rich origin stories — a film that pairs some of the best hand-to-hand action the franchise has ever produced with a genuinely tragic, three-dimensional villain in Tony Leung's Wenwu, all wrapped around a story about grief, legacy, and identity that never loses its own voice even while working inside Marvel's familiar formula. It stumbles a little in a third act that trades grounded choreography for greyer, weightless CGI spectacle, but between Simu Liu's star-making turn, Awkwafina's surprisingly controlled comedic work, and a genuine Dragon Ball fan's delight at that closing energy-blast callback, it holds firm as one of the better entries of Phase Four.

**Take That 👊 💥 DELTA-21 . . . . . . Marvel Studios Presents The " M o t h e r " Of All Superhero -{ FANTASlES }- . You've Been Warned . . . . . . The Bonkers Level Here Is, Er, Well : " E X P O N E N T I A L 😂 🐲❗" .** A - B I G - Screen MINI Review. Viewed Sept. 5, '21. ________________________________________________ Katy : "That's fine...... you can just explain on the plane". { Said to Shaun a.k.a Shang-Chi, marking a "sudden and unexpected" twist of events }. ________________________________________________ 1. " So -{ MANY }- Upsides : "Crouching Tiger, Hidden MARVEL" { Gosh . . . . where do I even start❓} " : Ang Lee's circa 2000 quasi-mystical Martial arts spectacular is the -Very- first film that came to my mind whilst watching a certain beautifully -{ " Atmospheric " }- segment of the opening-act of 'Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings' ( 'Shang-Chi' for short ) . . . . you'll know it -Immediately- upon seeing it . . . . featuring "ever-fabulous" Malaysian Mega Star Michelle Yeoh ; who of course was one of the -Principal- characters in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', -As well- . { FYI : this is by no means intende