‘Shang-Chi:’ An Action Film with a Deeply Personal Resonance For Its Cast

When Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings fully opens on Friday, it will mark the culmination of an incredible and incredibly personal journey for its director, Destin Daniel Cretton.

Initially fearful of taking on a massive project along the scale of a Marvel film, Cretton reached out to another veteran director of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to ease his concerns.

“I did have a conversation with Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), and I was scared of stepping into a big studio movie like this and scared of what it might do to me. Will I cave to the pressure?” Cretton recalled. “The thing that Ryan said to me, which really eased my mind, was the pressure is hard. It’ll be the hardest thing potentially that you have done up to this point, but none of that pressure or none of those complications come from the people that you’re working with or for. And that’s what I found.”

Based on the Marvel Comics series, Shang-Chi marks Marvel Studio’s first cinematic foray into an authentic representation of Asian culture, of course mixed with the legacy and action sequences one would expect from a Marvel film. The film follows the events of Avengers: Endgame as Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) becomes involved with the secret Ten Rings organization and finds he must confront painful truths about his past. Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung, and Ben Kingsley co-star.

Cretton also remarked that Shang-Chi’s journey as a superhero gradually unfolds in a radically different manner than other Marvel heroes.

“I really, personally connect with Shang-Chi’s journey. I love that this is a superhero that doesn’t get splashed with chemicals to get his superpower. That it is a journey of self-discovery, of growing up, of learning how to finally deal with pain that he’s been running away from his entire life. When he is finally able to look inside into his past and embrace good, bad, the joy, the pain, and accept it all as a part of himself, that’s when he finally steps into his big boy shoes. I think that’s kind of what we’re all doing as humans in some way or another. I really connect with that.”

Star Simu Liu famously tweeted at Marvel once the Shang-Chi film was announced, looking for a chance to take on the title character. But that outreach did not win him the role, according to producer Kevin Feige. Liu’s consummate professionalism, acting prowess (for which he’s received strong critical praise in early screenings), and athletic ability made him the perfect choice for the role.

In fact, the team amusingly recalls a little extra oomph Liu put into his audition.

“He did do a back flip. He did actually the exact back flip.. that pose that’s made fun of in Black Widow,” Cretton laughed. “He did a back flip into the Black Widow kneel pose hair flip up straight-looking straight into the camera as the closer to his first audition.”

And how did Awkwafina top her audition off?

“I did a really slow somersault at the end of mine,” she shared.

Obviously, Shang-Chi brings a new level of inclusivity and representation into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet, it goes beyond the mere presence of a predominantly Asian cast and setting. The film gives us a wide array of authentic Chinese dialects.

According to Cretton, the choice of what dialect the actors would speak was rooted in the logic of the characters.

“That conversation started in the writer’s room, and then, once our actors came in, it was always a dialogue. These are all bilingual, trilingual, quadrilingual characters who could speak whatever made sense at the time,” Cretton explained. “So, we were constantly having the discussion of what made sense for the scene.”

Liu and Awkwafina particularly reference a moment in the film where Awkwafina’s character is challenged when faced with the Chinese dialect. Shang-Chi responds by telling her, “I speak ABC,” which references American Born Chinese language skills.

“That was really a big moment,” Awkwafina shared. “Culturally, you just never see that.”

As Liu adds, it provides the film a sense of a lived-in experience, bringing an extraordinarily authentic sense of the Asian culture to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.