IGN: Marvel developing Shang-Chi, its first asian superhero film

[kidfresh512]

This has enormous potential IMO. I think they should use the Black panther formula which was unapologetically black. Go straight up hardcore old-school martial arts, spy, mystical if the story calls for it. Don't try to white wash it. Go to China get the best choreographers, the fight choreography martial arts should be the best. Immerse us in the culture.

Shang Chi doesn't need to be able to meet the Guardians or Thor to be successful. He can be fully tied to MCU and maybe meet Black Widow on a mission in her movie. That would be a similar level character where it wouldn't be weird for them to be on screen together.

[BeastieRunner]

Doctor Strange and Iron Fist make the most sense for him to meet.

IMHO.

[comicscollector]

Besides the comic book that i am hoping will be made now with the news about the movie,the movie itself shoud be great.
Shang-Chi was a fairly popular character among other great super heroes of Marvel and had great comic books so i am looking forward to the movie.

[Jabare]

How does a movie about this guy fit within the realm they work on? He's a Chinese Captain America, sans shield and superhuman strength.

Or am I missing something?

he's nothing like Captain America. They can both throw hands like dozens of other heroes.


Just think back to the dozens of great action and martial arts movies. Marvel isn't restricted in anything they do

[qwerty3w]

I was thinking about this a while ago. You're right, that doesn't really make sense. But they could could make find a different shang and chi possibly?

Depends on what they want, is Shang-Chi supposed to be his full name or given name or his nickname? Does the name need to have some sort of thematic meaning, or sounding like a natural Chinese name would be enough?

Shang as a surname could be 尚 or 商, chi could be 起 which means "raise".

[Elden]

did you watch Iron Fist season 1?!

Of course, and Season 2 where it improved vastly.

[Hypestyle]

i wonder what all sort of melee weapons will be showcased in the movie? Could be interesting, depending on the fight choreography.

[Jabare]

Of course, and Season 2 where it improved vastly.

which is probably a shame since many dropped it after the piss poor season 1

[Tien Long]

Ha, great to see a lot of us are talking about Shang! I originally posted this over on the Shang-Chi thread on the Marvel Boards, but here are some of my thoughts:

I'll be honest, I actually had trepidation when hearing about a live action Shang-Chi movie. Over the years, there have been many instances when Shang has appeared, but there hasn't been one thing that's absolutely perfect and expresses the character of Shang. That's what made Black Panther do well, because before the movie, writers like Priest and Hudlin established these really key components T'Challa and Wakanda. Over the past couple of years, there hasn't been that one writer with that definitive run who has established Shang for the modern age.

Now, compound that with other things. Kung Fu isn't as popular as it once was, both in America and especially in China (it's mostly MMA over in the big cities. A lot of Chinese see Kung Fu as being old fashioned and useless). The casual audience member wouldn't care about some Bruce Lee pastiche. There has to be an actor who can appeal to a worldwide audience, and especially a Chinese one. The martial arts has to be at a high, authentic level. Old tropes from the past, like the mysterious man from the orient who spouts fortune cookie wisdom or the Yellow Peril villain who wants to conquer the world, they won't fly in today's world. And somehow you have to introduce Shang-Chi's world into the MCU one. All of that is a tall order.


Still.....

Y'know what, I think Shang can do it. At his core is that dynamic between father and son, which is universally interesting. (I said before how I mentioned this to my Chinese friends who were really interested in that). Kung Fu may seem passe, but if done well, like in Wong Kar Wai's "The Grandmaster," it can be beautiful, deep, and effective. Indeed, I want to see that scene where Shang faces some of the baddest muthaf*($K#$s among his rogues gallery, like Zaran, Razorfist, or Tigerclaw and kick the ever living shit out of them with real Chinese Kung Fu. Shang doesn't have to fall into being a mysterious, asexual, stoic man of the Far East, but a confident, mature, real, fully fleshed out character who has real tribulations and relationships. (Seriously, here's hoping he has a thing going on with Reiko Wu). Fu Manchu could be that calculating, brilliant individual, flawed only in his desire to takeover the world. And of course there could be that scene where Captain America and T'Challa acknowledge that Shang is one of, if not THE, best fighters in the MCU.

So yeah, I have my reservations. But the possibilities? Oh there are so many possibilities. Here's looking forward to the Master of Kung Fu finally making it .

What kind of fights are we expecting? I mean, Shang Chi is the master of Kung fu, so he shouldn't be a brawler. But would his opponents use traditionnal martial arts or something more akin to MMA?

I think for Shang, he looks at martial arts through a Kung Fu lens. He'll look at a lot of martial arts techniques, and compare them to those in Kung Fu. He'd probably see how a rear naked chokes, heel hooks, leg locks, and arm bars are similar in principle to a Kung Fu technique (because quite frankly they are). Shang being Shang, he'd probably marvel at how humans, though separated by oceans and continents, can still come to the same conclusions.

[Tien Long]

So, thought I'd address some articles that have been floating around the last couple of days concerning Shang. There was an article published by Bleeding Cool on how mainland Chinese think that a Shang-Chi film may be racist. The article briefly mentions an article published in South China Morning Post (more on that later) and then just proceeds to rant about how deeply rooted Shang-Chi is in racism and Yellow Perilism:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/12...vie-is-racist/

A couple of things on that. So, the writer of that article just took a couple of quotes from this SCMP article:

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...perhero-origin

Granted, there were posters on Weibo (the social media sharing, Twitter like site of mainland China) who expressed frustration with Shang-Chi and Fu Manchu. Still, there were other posters who said this:

Some people expressed understanding, saying, “in many movies, even the American president can be the villain, why can’t we tolerate a bad Chinese?”

Chinese can accept a Chinese villain. Furthermore, I think the Chinese audiences have somewhat of a misunderstanding of who the character is, what is the character, and how Marvel would approach this. Yes, Shang-Chi is rooted in the Yellow Peril epitome Fu Manchu. However, he's always been depicted as being heroic and fighting against his father. Although Shang has been depicted as spouting fortune cookieism, even in his earlier appearances, he was also depicted as a confident, observant, and passionate (he's had relationships with women which is pretty revolutionary if you think about it). I do hope that Shang's depiction would be that of a modern, fleshed out character.

Now, I really hope that Shang's father appears in this. The father/son dynamic is what really defines Shang. (And it can be compelling. I talked about the father/song dynamic of Shang Chi with one of my friends from mainland China and she loved that). The movie probably wouldn't use the term Fu Manchu, though. If they do use Shang's father, I think they'll try to remove him as much as possible from Yellow Peril stigma as possible. Honestly, I do hope they go the route that Brubaker set up, that Fu Manchu was just an identity that Shang's father has used over the centuries. Indeed, Shang's father is really, REALLY smart and cunning character. I think Shang's father tapped into Western fears at the time in order to create this identity, probably to throw off and misdirect his enemies (which is SUCH a Chinese thing to do). He probably thought Westerners were idiots for thinking such things, too. So, that's one option Marvel can go. Maybe they won't use Shang's father at all, but some other Chinese figure like the Mandarin, which is disheartening to me. But if the dealbeaker for people is that no Chinese should ever be depicted as a villain and that every Chinese villain is a Yellow Peril bad guy....I think those individuals have to give a little leeway.

[Tien Long]

So, who could be Shang-Chi? I see a lot of actors mentioned here and there. For me, a crucial factor is that yes, the actor has to have Chinese descent. I can yield on a lot of things, but Shang's ethnicity isn't one of them. Although Iko Uwais is a great martial arts star and Steven Yeun is a fantastic Asian-American actor, they are not of Chinese descent. Shang has Chinese descent. For me, that's the dealbeaker.

Still, I think my choices are rather diverse, starting with the first one:


Lewis Tan checks a lot of criteria. He's a talent martial artist, has done acting in "Into the Badlands," has good buzz within the Asian-American community because of his attempts to play Iron Fist (playing Shang-Chi would come full circle in a way), and he is of the right ethnic blend. (Remember everyone, Shang-Chi's mom was white). Initially, I thought he was a bit too lanky, but looking at recent photos of him, I think he's got the right build.

The other actor who I think would work is Philip Ng:


Philip has the look, the martial arts skills, and the talent. Still, he's still growing in Asian cinema. A lot of his films haven't been big box office successes. Still relatively unknown.

Finally, Ludi Lin:


Ludi definitely looks like Shang to me. Haven't seen Power Rangers yet, but on just the face alone, he can be Shang-Chi.

[Jabare]

Ludi Lin is in Aquaman so unless all his scenes are deleted and he doesn't make it into the theatrical cut or his role is very small, Marvel is unlikely to use him.


Lewis Tan probably wouldn't be my first choice but he certainly fits the role physically.

Marvel's pretty good at casting so I wouldn't mind a fresh face and an actor with actual martial arts experience like Donnie Yen or Jason Lee Scott would be a big improvement we've already seen the downsides of casting an actor as a master martial artist with no martial arts background especially if they aren't wearing a mask and forced to do more of their own stunts.

[Tien Long]

Marvel don't own the rights to Fu Manchu anymore and they retconned that his real name is Zheng Zu and that Fu Manchu was just one of the many alias he used.

Zheng Zu isn't really a difficult villain to redesign. He is essentially just a genius, rich, boss of a criminal empire who is possibly immortal and controls a bunch of assassins. His similar to Batman villain Ra's Al Ghul since Ra's was based on Fu Manchu and Bond villain Draco from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

And that's the beauty of Shang's father. Here is a guy who has been through a lot of history. I daresay he's been intimately tied with events in Chinese history for centuries. Someone like him had to have caused the rise and fall of dynasties. I've always thought why certain characters like Apocalypse or organizations like the Hand haven't had a huge role in China. For me, Shang's father, with his army of assassins and warriors, had something to do with that.

Ludi Lin is in Aquaman so unless all his scenes are deleted and he doesn't make it into the theatrical cut or his role is very small, Marvel is unlikely to use him.


Lewis Tan probably wouldn't be my first choice but he certainly fits the role physically.

Marvel's pretty good at casting so I wouldn't mind a fresh face and an actor with actual martial arts experience like Donnie Yen or Jason Lee Scott would be a big improvement we've already seen the downsides of casting an actor as a master martial artist with no martial arts background especially if they aren't wearing a mask and forced to do more of their own stunts.

Thanks for telling me about Ludi. Yes, it would be difficult to have him as the next Shang especially if he's in the new Aquaman film. As for the actor, I think martial art skill would be a plus. But, well, I throw it to everyone else though, how much of a plus is it? For instance, Chris Evans plays a fantastic Steve Rogers. His Captain America is top notch, especially in terms of fighting. During the Winter Soldier, there were a lot of fight scenes that featured Chris unmasked, and all of them were great. He probably did training for those scenes, but stunt guys took over for the rest. In that case, it was a good blend of actor training, cinematography, and editing which helped, something which Iron Fist season 1 could have done better.

So, maybe casting an actor without martial arts experience wouldn't be a bad thing?

[Tien Long]

In the movie, I hope that Shang shows the depth and character of Kung Fu. Yeah, the father/son dynamic is a core component of Shang, but so is the martial arts. And martial arts doesn't have to be just awesome fight scenes. It can be simple things, like training. For instance, check out this scene from The Grandmaster:



This is just a beautifully shot scene. It involves Kung Fu, but it's not a fight. Rather it shows the memories, love, and joy that a martial artist has for her art. I can guarantee you that Shang has had these kinds of moments while in the middle of training. I hope to see things like that in the movie.

[Jabare]

And that's the beauty of Shang's father. Here is a guy who has been through a lot of history. I daresay he's been intimately tied with events in Chinese history for centuries. Someone like him had to have caused the rise and fall of dynasties. I've always thought why certain characters like Apocalypse or organizations like the Hand haven't had a huge role in China. For me, Shang's father, with his army of assassins and warriors, had something to do with that.



Thanks for telling me about Ludi. Yes, it would be difficult to have him as the next Shang especially if he's in the new Aquaman film. As for the actor, I think martial art skill would be a plus. But, well, I throw it to everyone else though, how much of a plus is it? For instance, Chris Evans plays a fantastic Steve Rogers. His Captain America is top notch, especially in terms of fighting. During the Winter Soldier, there were a lot of fight scenes that featured Chris unmasked, and all of them were great. He probably did training for those scenes, but stunt guys took over for the rest. In that case, it was a good blend of actor training, cinematography, and editing which helped, something which Iron Fist season 1 could have done better.

So, maybe casting an actor without martial arts experience wouldn't be a bad thing?

It's not a requirement at all, but I'm also holding Shang Chi to a higher level. I think his martial arts skills should be significantly above those presented for Cap and other heroes who also have super strength. Also since he's not wearing a mask like the Iron Fist actor he's going to be required to do at least a decent amount of his own stunts. Not all but certainly more than Chris Evans, Scar Jo and Chadwick have had to do. But sure you could just cast anyone and train them for a few months and hope it works out. In my experience especially with martial arts films high level actors like Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li etc. There is at least some martial arts base and it translates into the stunts. But Marvel doesn't have to go this route, so will see.


Unless they are going for a more unconventional approach for a more martial arts type film.