Chinese Cultural Breakdown of Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

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[Danny.._]

shang chi's mom meeting a 2000 year old warlord: "i can change him"

[ihavenoclueeither]

The idea that Wen Wu was just sitting in the background thinking of new ways to fuck up the government is absolutely incredible.

[inasaira]

the implication is that katy can but does not want to get a better job. she's afraid of failure. hence the "“If you aim at nothing, you hit nothing". honestly i find this character relatable. i graduated from a good school and wasnt able to get a job in my field so i kind of stopped trying and convinced myself i was okay where i was so her attitude makes a lot of sense to me especially if your parents have really high expectations of you which i image katy's parents do since she's asian.

[qxduxgf]

I'd just like to say, from my personal interpretation anyway, Shang Chi is completely justified in saying that their mum would be disgusted with the man their father became. It's shown that she clearly loved her family and her children and while she could see beyond his past I'm not sure if she as a caring mother could forgive him for fracturing their family and abusing their children when she gave up so much for them and tried to protect them.

[NinjaxPrime]

My question is did the Ten Rings and Hydra know about each other or were they always just sort of passing each other like ships in the night through the whole 20th century?

[rhysfayne]

I can't tell if you missed it or deliberately decided to not mention it but there was an end credit scene that showed Xialing taking over her father's empire. So in the end, Shang-chi and Xialing did end up splitting things from their father.

[Garbaz]

I love the line "I've eaten more salt than you have eaten rice". It's subtle enough to take a second to understand, which only adds to the burn, but I think straightforward enough to be understood in the moment. They definitely should have included it.

[waddledeeart]

I'm a fan of the MCU so I'm biased, but I absolutely loved Shang Chi as a Chinese Canadian! As always though, Xiran makes some very good points on how they could have improved the film. I do have to respectfully disagree with the ending though, I really loved it. In my opinion, I think Wenwu let himself die after he confirmed that his wife wasn't behind the door. He probably knew she wasn't there, but never would have forgiven himself if there was even the slightest chance it was true. Thus, after he found out for sure, he just caved in. He couldn't face the truth that he was wrong, and also gravely hurt his children. I think the look he gives Shang chi when he passes on the rings conveys that. It's a silent apology and admittance that he was wrong, tragically all to late. Similarly to how he said avenging his wife was shang chi's right as a son, I think he let himself die because he believed his son was worthy of the rings and his time had come. (He would make matters worse.)

As for the inheritance, I think it was brilliant. Shang Chi gets the rings because he has the most memories of his mother (the techniques she showed him for how to use them) and Xialing gets the other "ten rings" the organization, because she has more experience running a system like that. If Xialing took any rings, I imagine people would think she would repeat her father's power hungry actions. So it seemed fitting that the inheritance was split down the middle. "Ten rings" for both!

[noneness]

My parents always preferred drinking luke warm water instead. Saying that cold water was bad for your health. So when you compared the movie to luke warm water I thought you were complimenting it and saying it was good for your body 😂

[josephjarosch]

Weirdest thing about the Marvel lore is that we have fantasy-immortals in China and sci-fi-immortals that apparently never knew about each other.

[SkwithOv]

oh no - better help is really awful actually please consider watching a video that was recently posted by Mickey Atkins (about not taking a $1, 000 sponsor deal)

Totally not blaming you or anything but the company is really gross and prioritizes money over the wellbeing of both their customers and their therapists and exploits both as well as selling your personal data, which is against what therapists are typically allowed and is totally immoral

[Yuunarichu]

Xiran saying Tony Leung should've spoken Cantonese is what I hoped since even though my grandma is fluent in Mandarin, but since Tony Leung is from Hong Kong and Fala Chen spoke Cantonese well too, thought it would've been nice. But then Simu Liu wouldn't be able to communicate with them. Lol.

[Chigou]

Technically, "Talo" was a reference Daluotien which is the highest realm of the Daoist 36 heavens. Marvel originally used it as the Chinese version of Asgard where all the Chinese gods lived. I am guessing that when the MCU decided to do away with "gods" and made Thor just an alien, they needed to repurpose Talo for something else. Mythological inaccuracies aside, "Talo" does have some Chinese cultural basis.

[thegnoblin]

In that scene where Katy's Grandma mentions Qingming Jie but the subs call it Day of the Dead, my mom was confused and asked me what that was about (since I speak Chinese and she doesn't). I told her that it was the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, and that cleared up the confusion, but I also thought it was a bit weird that they translated it that way. Glad I'm not alone!

[sage_in_palmmall]

I love how you continuously refer to Wen Wu as Tony Leung, it honestly makes it so funny thinking about if he actually did these things

[princekrazie]

I feel like the story of Hundun’s death means that you should not try to be like everyone else. Every animal has bodily orifices: mouth, eyes, years, nose. But Hundun’s primordial energy leaked out from his body when the two guys made orifices for him. It worked for others but not for Hundun.

[inasaira]

i felt like this was the one time i actually liked the "reformed by love of a good woman" trope. i think its because the movie does suggest he really wasnt involved with the ten rings until she died which means he was having some legitimate character growth and was a legitimately good husband to her and not just her constantly having to "teach" him how to be good.

[vadalia]

I didn't think the dad blaming the son for watching while his mother died was something he actually believed intellectually, more that it was one of those illogical ideas brought on by grief that we know aren't true but still can't help thinking. Shang probably similarly blames himself for his mother's death even though both men know there was nothing Shang could have done. The father just brings it up to emotionally compromise his son in the fight. Shang's words probably have more truth to them as while the mother did fall in love with someone she knew used to be evil, he was supposed to be reformed and a good father and he'd never been a threat to the mother's home. Since her death, he'd gone back to his evil ways, become a shitty father, and now was directly threatening the mom's hometown & birth family.

[capoeiranger]

Once Wen Wu realized that it WASN'T his wife calling him from beyond the grave, he chooses to 1. Gave the Ten Rings to Shang Chi, as he FINALLY realized during the fight, his son will do BETTER with it. And 2. He chooses death, knowing it's the only way to cure his longing for his wife, and (spiritually) the only way to meet her.

I think it's a romantic death. Look at Wen Wu's eyes at these last few seconds of his life and you will realize this. This is Tony Leung's signature craft!!

[jacoba]

Gotta love how Wenwu lived for thousands of years and probably has experienced and learned so much but never bothered to question his sanity when he started hearing his dead wife