Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a Marvel movie directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Destin Daniel Crettn and Dave Callaham. The movie was released to US theatres on September 3, 2021.
Around a thousand years ago, Xu Wenwu discovers the mystical ten rings that grant immortality and godly powers. He establishes an organization based on these ten rings that conquers kingdoms and topples governments throughout history. In 1996, Wenwu searches for a town called Ta Lo that houses mystical beasts but gets stopped by the guardian Ying Li. They fall in love and Li chooses to leave with Wenwu because her village rejects him. They have two kids; Shang-Chi (played by Simu Liu) and Xialing (played by Meng’er Zhang). Wenwu locks away the ten rings but opens them again when Ying Li is murdered when Shang-Chi was seven years old. Xialing was not allowed to train with Shang-Chi who goes through brutal years of training and was ordered to kill the Iron Gang’s leader, the gang that killed his mother. Traumatized, Shang-Chi ran away to San Franciso adopting the name “Shaun”
The movie then goes to a modern-day San Franciso, Shaun being a parking valet with his friend Katy (played by Awkwafina). Katy does not know about his past until they were attacked on a bus by a member of the Ten Rings association and steals a pendant that Li gave to Shang-Chi. Afraid of his sister having a similar fate, he searches for her and finds her in a secret fight club that she founded. The ten rings attack the fight club and capture all three of them. They are taken to Wenwu who believes that Li is still alive and captured in Ta Lo. He threatens to destroy the village if they do not give her back. The three did not like that and Wenwu locked them up going to go do the job himself.
With the help of former actor Trevor Slattery, whom the Ten Rings imprisoned for impersonating Wenwu, and his hundun companion Morris, the five of them head to Ta Lo where they meet Ying Nan (played by Michelle Yo), Li’s sister who explains the history of Ta Lo. Thousands of years ago, the universe containing the village was attacked by the soul-consuming Dweller-in-Darkness and its soul eaters but was saved by a Chinese dragon called the Great Protector who helped seal the Dark Gate to the Dweller's world. The Dweller-in-Darkness is impersonating Li so Wenwu would open the gate and set it free. The members prepare for Wenwu’s arrival using weapons and outfits crafted from dragon scales.
Wenwu and the Ten Rings arrive and attack. Wenwu overpowers Shang-Chi, pushing him into the nearby lake, and attacks the Gate with the rings. This allows some of the Dweller's soul eaters to escape, and the Ten Rings join forces with the villagers to fight them. The Great Protector revives Shang-Chi and bears him from the lake to battle the soul eaters. Wenwu and Shang-Chi fight once more, and Shang-Chi wins but chooses to spare Wenwu instead of killing him. The Dweller-in-Darkness escapes from the weakened Gate and attacks Shang-Chi. Wenwu saves Shang-Chi, bequeathing him the rings before the Dweller-in-Darkness kills him. Shang-Chi, the Great Protector, Xialing, and Katy slay the Dweller-in-Darkness. Afterward, Shang-Chi and Katy return to San Francisco, where the sorcerer Wong summons them to Kamar-Taj. There Wong introduces Shang-Chi to Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers and tries to understand the origins of the ten rings as they seem to be a beacon to something.
The outfits and the history of Chinese mythology were really cool. I rarely see any movies that deal with Chinese culture, let alone create these mythical creatures for people to see. The clothes were really cool as well. The fighting was inspired by Chinese boxing and Tai Chi. It was also really nice to see a cast of majorly Chinese actors/actresses for this movie. This movie actually included Mandarin, a dialect of Chinese. It was cool to see them speak their native language and have the movie still be so popular even if people didn’t know what they were saying. There were subtitles of course. This movie also had a family aspect to it. Shang-Chi didn’t want to go against his father at the beginning of the movie but did it because he was destined/told to. Xialing also had issues with family as she wanted to fight and defend her family but couldn’t because her father didn’t want her to.
Overall I think this movie was pretty good and had some really cool Chinese aspects you don’t usually see in movies. If you are a Marvel fan, this a movie you would want to see. In the end, it also ties to the other Marvel superheroes and does a cool universe/character connection.