Shang-Chi Review Breakdown With Theories: Who Were They Calling?
Welcome back to HLS Entertainment! Today we are going to do a deep dive on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the implications it has to the MCU going forward. This is going to be a full movie breakdown and theories blog like I did for Black Widow. I want to warn you this is going to be spoiler filled review for the movie itself and all of the MCU including the Disney+ shows. If you are looking for a spoiler free breakdown here is mine
Quick spoiler free thoughts, this movie was an excellent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and opens a whole new realm of possibilities (or seven of them but more on that in theories). My one main "issue" to this movie is the CGI is not up to par to the MCU as a whole. I am curious if they spent less money on the backend during post trying to save money due to Covid. That is the excuse I have accepted in my head as it is not something that ruins the movie by any stretch. The fight choreography and shooting style in this movie is the best the MCU has had up to this point by far. No discussion. The acting, humor and heart were all great in this movie but now, on to the breakdown!
This movie has an opening ten minutes or so of scenes not in English and as a huge subtitle proponent I loved it. You should be watching every single tv show and movie with subtitles on, you miss more than you think and your brain adjusts very quickly. Plus some movies hide details in them that add to the movie. Also a movie not being in your language is not a reason to not watch and enjoy it, you are missing out on so many amazing movies. If this movie only gets you to open up to watching more non English language films it will be worth it. During these scenes we see the history of Wenwu and the Ten Rings, but more importantly the love story that buds between he and Ying Li. Something that is very important for theories later on is the mention of the unknown location of where the rings came from, the line saying he either stole them from a tomb or from a crater.
We get an abrupt jump back to the normal world and "Shawn" waking up and living in San Francisco. "Shawn" has a fun loving normal life hangs out and works with his best friend Katy. They do a great job of setting the stage for their eventual 'will they won't they' relationship. We are set up showing Shang-Chi looking at a postcard with a dragon drawn on it. "Shawn's" fake life comes to an end when he has to reveal his true self as Ten Rings assassins /soldiers show up on the bus looking for the pendant hanging around his neck. We get a cool bus fight that really shows off the idea that this action even when grounded on a bus is very different than what we typically get from the MCU. After fighting off the men and escaping them wrecking the bus he realizes the pendant is gone.
With Katy Shang-Chi rushes home, he starts packing realizing that now that they have his pendant they will be going after his sister Xialing's as well. Katy rightfully upset to find out her bestfriend for over a decade has been lying to her about who he really is but she is a great friend and says he can explain on the plane. We get the funny scene hammering home the pronunciation of his name, but just before that we get the harrowing story of how Shang-Chi was raised and trained to be a living weapon ever since his mother died. Specifically saying he was taught how to kill a man with any weapon by any means.
Once they arrive in Macau (NOT Madripoor people need to stop saying/thinking that) they show up to what we come to find is Xialing's organization. There is an underground fight club / fighting tournament and Shang-Chi unknowingly signs up to fight. During all of this we meet Jon Jon (Ronny Chieng incredible comedian) and see the Wong v Abomination fight. It turns out Wong is training him for some reason (see theories section below). Time comes for Shang-Chi's fight and turns out it is Xialing. Xialing goes off trying to fight and beat Shang-Chi meanwhile he is just trying to talk and warn her that their father is coming for her pendant.
After the fight we find out that Xialing was not the one who sent the postcard, she never wanted to see him, it was their father getting them both in the same place to take them both. The Ten Rings soldiers burst through the ceiling causing mayhem looking for the pair. Xialing leaves Shang-Chi and Katy escaping her own secret route, this is where we get the really cool side of the building fight as they try to escape. Xialing shows up to help throwing it in his face about that is how it feels to be abandoned. Death Dealer shows up and creepily crawls down the post and steals Xialing's pendant. Shang-Chi goes after him and beats Death Dealer, when he is about to kill him his father Wenwu appears and stops him with the rings.
Wenwu takes the three of them back to his compound. Once there we get a quick backstory making fun of Iron Man 3 villain Killian stealing his organization's name. After this Wenwu reveals he has been hearing the voice of their dead mother like a mad man asking for help. Wenwu uses the pendants to reveal the water map that their mother left for them to find their way back to Ta Lo. Wenwu thinks Ta Lo has trapped their mother in their prison.
Obviously the two siblings and Katy think he is crazy and call him so in front of all of his men. Wenwu locks them up after disagreeing, while in the tunnel cell (which is really weird btw this is like the mountain castle version of an unfinished basement?) they here a weird groaning deeper in the cave and they meet Trevor the actor from Liverpool (the fake Mandarin from Iron Man 3) and Morris (The faceless chicken pig). Morris recognizes Shang-Chi (soul of the dragon in theories) and says he can lead them to Ta Lo and get there to warn them in time before their father can and do it without the map. Xialing busts through the wall and tells them the abandoned tunnels are how she escaped as a kid. They break out and steal Razor Fist's car (this is only time we ever see or hear his name in this movie btw).
The five of them make it through the murderous forbidden forest thanks to Morris' directions and Katy's driving. They drive through a waterfall and go through a portal similar to Doctor Strange's sling rings but it is made of water and make it to Ta Lo. We go on a beautiful scenic route filled with many mystical creatures based on real myths (that inspired designs for certain Pokémon if you recognized them). They finally arrive to the village, and are initially met with distrust but auntie Ying Nan stops this aggression and allows them in. Ying Nan then tells them their history about the Dweller in Darkness (I will be calling it DID), after they tell her Wenwu thinks they are keeping their mother prisoner. The history of their civilization implies that this is one of many cities (Theories!!) and they fought off the DID but were only able to trap them when the Great Protector helped. We get training montage showing off everyone's skills. This includes Shang-Chi being retaught the fighting style his mother taught him as a child, Xialing using the dragon rope dart, and Katy showing natural knack at shooting a bow.
Time passes, the Ten Rings show up. We get Ta Lo vs the Ten Rings battle. One thing I should have mentioned earlier is that Ta Lo's weapons and armor are covered and made with dragon scales. We get Shang-Chi vs Wenwu round one in the temple. Shang-Chi is shown to be a better fighter than Wenwu. Shang-Chi "beats him" until Wenwu launches the rings into him, this should probably have killed him easily if not for the armor Shang-Chi and Xialing were given by Ying Nan that is made of dragon scale. It was revealed to us that Wenwu IS hearing a voice in his head but it is just the DID tricking him. He launches himself across the lake with the rings to the prison and we have Wenwu knock knock knocking on heavens door starting releasing the mini DIDs.
Hearing the banging of Wenwu trying to break down the prison door made of dragon scale and seeing the mini DID creatures flying towards them stops the fighting between the Ten Rings and Ta Lo stops. Initially Razor Fist is against working with Ta Lo until Death Dealer is immediately killed and first to be soul sucked. After realizing their weapons are useless against them the Ten Ring soldiers joins forces with Ta Lo using their weapons the fight off the mini DIDs.
While Wenwu continues bashing and breaking down the door we go under the lake and Shang-Chi meets the Great Protector. He Never Ending Story rides the dragon out of the lake, then jumps off to stop his father. During their round 2 fight Shang-Chi starts beating him once again, except now the rings start losing loyalty to Wenwu and start joining team Shang-Chi. Such bandwagon rings. Shang-Chi eventually gets control of all ten rings essentially ending the fight beating his father. But instead of using them against his father he throws the rings to the ground and tries to reason with him. He and Xialing needed him their entire life and now trying to give him a chance to do what is right.
But at this moment the DID, after getting fed souls from the Ten Rings and Ta Lo fighters, breaks free from the prison and is revealed in its true form. Wenwu realizes his mistake and uses the rings to save Shang-Chi before he is grabbed by the DID and is killed by it stealing his soul. But while this happens Wenwu relinquishes the ten rings to Shang-Chi
Xialing had helped the Great Protector and jumped onto it to help kill the mini DID that were latched onto the dragon. She helps guide the dragon to pick up Shang-Chi. This is where we get and awesome kaiju fight between the DID and the Great Protector. Xialing almost falls off when the DID gets the upper hand and is about to absorb the soul of the dragon but Shang-Chi catches his sister. I was happy we avoided the "you have to let me go" trope sacrifice as he refuses to let his sister go. At this moment he ends up not having to, because Katy shoots the DID in the neck giving the Great Protector and Shang-Chi enough time to re-collect themselves. The dragon traps the DID and Shang-Chi uses the same technique he just watched his father do with the rings sending them under ground and controlling their movements. Except this time it is Shang-Chi driving them through the body of the DID shredding it from the inside and then using the force of the ten rings to destroy the DID. Body parts guts and blood go everywhere, that lake definitely can not be used as a source of water anymore.
We get back to Katy and Shang-Chi back at the bar with their friends just casually telling the pair what happened to them, explaining this whole week of exciting events. They tell their friends his sister is currently dismantling the Ten Rings organization. They think they are making fun of them making up stories until a mystical portal opens up behind them and Wong shows up looking for BOTH of them and the rings. The pair get up and join Wong and walk through the sling ring portal arm in arm.
We get to the first post credit scene, a lot of stuff here, the power of the rings were felt all the way in Kamar-Taj but only once Shang-Chi used them not the thousands of years his father used them (we are almost to the theories section). In this brief scene we find out the rings are sending out a signal calling someone, and we see that Bruce Banner has reverted back to his human form and is no longer in the smart/professor Hulk mode. Carol Danvers is there as well on hologram video screen just like Bruce and immediately thinking about this this is a weird set up of people. Is this the new Avengers set up working hand in hand with the mystical side of Doctor Strange? We get to the second and final post credit scene showing that Xialing of course decided to not dismantle the Ten Rings organization but is instead merging her own empire with it taking her father's "throne" and running the Ten Rings. I'm sure this will go well.
Theories
Who Were the Rings Calling? And the Soul of the Dragon:
Okay this one starts in a weird place so let us do some background. The Makluans are an alien species within the Marvel comic universes. The most famous one is a name you might have heard in the run up predictions for this movie, Fin Fang Foom. The Makluans look like dragons but can shapeshift and took the shape of humans to blend in on Earth. This sets the foundation for this theory. I believe some of these Makluans helped found or were a part of Ta Lo and have a special lineage. This lineage flows through Ying Li and now through Shang-Chi and Xialing. This is the heart or soul of the dragon that caused the rings to activate the beacon when Shang-Chi used them and is also how Morris recognized him.
But why the rings? The ten rings in the comics, and we can now assume in the MCU, are actually Makluan technology. They were used in their space ships as an energy source. Now apply this information to the mystery of where Wenwu got the rings, we were told no one really knew if he stole them from a tomb or from a crater. What if it was both? What if Wenwu found the ship the Makluans crash landed on Earth in and retrieved them from a dead Makluan then used the rings to bury the ship.
I believe the rings are now calling out to the Makluan homeworld Kakaranthara, setting up Fin Fang Foom to come to Earth to conquer in Shang-Chi 2 or a different movie/show. This theory does not mean Shang-Chi can change into a space dragon or whatever it is simply a lineage thing. Though it is fun to mention there is a story in the comics where Shang-Chi uses Pym particles to grow giant and fight a giant creature, it could be fun to change that into him growing giant to fight Fin Fang Foom. I want to do a special shout out to Super Carlin Brothers who also had this theory and did a great video on it and you can watch it here they did a brilliant job covering the subject.
Seven Capital Cities of Heaven:
This is something I am very excited for, this movie might have just unlocked a whole "new" fun realm of Marvel comics for the MCU. The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven in the comics are, K'un-Lun, K'un-Zi, Tiger Island, Peng Lai, Kingdom of Spiders, Z'Gambo and the Under City. Now if you watched the Marvel Netflix show Iron Fist this should jump out to you, K'un-Lun is where Iron Fist is from and he fought many people from these cities. I said "new" because Marvel Netflix was originally planned to be a cannon part of the MCU but there was falling outs between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV. The Netflix shows are no longer officially cannon but ideas, characters, and actors can return from them (example being the rumors that Charlie Cox is going to return as Matthew Murdock/Daredevil in Spider-Man No Way Home). Now how this fits into with Shang-Chi is that Ta Lo can very easily be slid into a slot replacing one of the cities and we could have and amazing movie following the Tournament of the Heavenly Cities where each city sends their best warrior to fight.
Wong Working with Abomination / "New Avengers" Set Up:
Okay, in this movie that had nine tailed foxes and water portals and a giant flying dragon the weirdest out of left field thing in it had to be Wong training Abomination. In the trailer for the movie we had zero context to why they were fighting and a lot of people (including myself) assumed Wong was their to bring him in, but it turns out he brought him there. Wong fights and coaches Emil Blonksy aka Abomination during the fight and when it is over we see him take him through a portal. Through this portal we see a cell similar to the one in the Avengers (2012) that was made for the Hulk. We can safely assume that Abomination IS still a prisoner but is being trained to fight. Before dealing with the Wong of this, who wants him trained?? We can guess that that person is General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. Ross runs the Raft prison as seen in Captain America: Civil War and it is assumed that is where the Abomination is kept prisoner. This just furthers the theory that the Thunderbolts are coming. The Thunderbolts are a team of "reformed" villains used as a government run replacement team for the Avengers. I believe we have already been teed up for this with Zemo being taken to the Raft, Val recruiting John Walker in Falcon and Winter Soldier, and Val sending Yelena after Hawkeye in the Black Widow post credit scene. But why is Wong doing this? My theory is because he and Strange were revealed to the world in Endgame this is a part of an agreement in accordance to the Sokovia Accords so Ross leaves them alone.
And now we have a giant power vacuum when it comes to super hero teams. The two leaders of the Avengers Cap and Tony are gone, it would probably then fall to Black Widow but she is also gone. Who fills that space? Thor and Hulk can not / will not take that leadership role, neither would the semi retired Clint Barton. So now the entirety of the original six Avengers are out who leads? But better question who are they leading? The Avengers have been broken up for years, during the five years of the blip Black Widow was leading an Avengers task force working with Wakanda through Okoye and the US Government through Rhodey. But now that everyone is back, Wakanda will go back to protecting their own, the US government will grab back their own power. So a quick rundown of the Earth based Avengers, Spider-Man already did not want to be an Avenger just wants to be ground level, Ant-Man and the Wasp are not really full time Avengers they do their own thing out in San Fran, Vision died and was brought back but its a new White Vision, Wanda is going crazy. Captain Marvel feels regret for not helping out on Earth more so now is making that effort. Point being Bruce might be the last man standing on Earth. Doctor Strange, Wong and all the sorcerers generally stay out of Avengers work because their focus is the mystical. Sam Wilson and Bucky may soon take further strides and could be new leaders as Captain America and the White Wolf but do the rest of the Avengers see them as that yet?
So I want to pose this, what if this is not the forming of the leadership for New Avengers team but the forming of the Illuminati. Just in case you do not know the Illuminati is actually a group in Marvel comics that generally consists of Tony, Strange, Reed Richards, Charles Xavier and T'Challa, they have done both great and terrible things in the name of protecting the Earth. But back in the MCU, Bruce, Carol, Wong and Strange, are the last people standing post to protect all of Earth. This grouping is actually a great group representing many angles of the MCU. I imagine T'Challa would have been a part of this but real world implications changed that. Okoye could fill that slot just as she helped during the blip but she is loyal to Wakanda and Wakanda alone. This new "council" is dealing with threats as they come up and using their combined intelligence and knowledge to protect the world how they see fit.
Thank you so much for reading! Please be sure to follow me on twitter @HaroldLStokes for more comic movie theories as well as other film talk, and football gambling through #HLSBets during the season. Please do be sure to share this will your friends or retweeting it, and leave your thoughts in the comments below!
