Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Martial Media, Culture and Other Arts Martial Media and Popular Culture
21

Who’s it gonna be?

JULY 15, 2019 11:48PM PT
China Thrilled by Prospect of Chinese Casting for Shang-Chi, Marvels First Chinese Hero
By REBECCA DAVIS


CREDIT: MARVEL/DISNEY/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK

Chinas internet is thrilled by news that Marvel appears to be insisting on casting an ethnic Chinese actor as Shang-Chi in the master of kung fus own spinoff film and has begun scouting out candidates for the role.

Variety reporter Justin Kroll tweeted Sunday that Marvel is apparently putting out test offers for a group of men in their 20s for its Shang-Chi movie. He added that the studio has been adamant to reps offering up their clients for the role that candidates have to be of Chinese ancestry, with no other Asian ancestry accepted.

Twitter is blocked on Chinas highly censored internet, but that hasnt stopped the tweet from going viral in the mainland. Users have screen-grabbed it and spread it on Chinas parallel Weibo platform, where the hashtag Shang-Chi casting has since been viewed 100 million times, and the hashtag Marvels first Chinese hero has been viewed 590 million times, as well as picked up by all the major entertainment media outlets.

First we got Chinas first Disney princess, and then we got Chinas first Marvel hero! one publication declared excitedly, referring to Disneys Mulan, whose title character is played by Chinese-born actress Liu Yifei. Last week, the first trailer and poster for the film caused a sensation on the Chinese internet, with some users saying they even shed tears of excitement.

Most of the online chatter about Shang-Chi at present is about whom users would love to see in the role. Age notwithstanding, some of the more popular names bandied about have been Eddie Peng (Operation Mekong), Zhang Jin (Ip Man 3, Wong Kar-Wais The Grandmaster), Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior 2), Huang Jingyu (Operation Red Sea), Ashton Chen Xiaolong (Ip Man 2), Li Xian (The Founding of an Army), rapper Jackson Wang, Leo Wu Lei (TV series Nirvana in Fire), and Liu Haoran (Detective Chinatown 2). Peng, who is starring in the upcoming big-budget Dante Lam blockbuster Rescue, is a clear favorite.

China is a critical market for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has an enormous, vocal fan base in the worlds second-largest film market. In April, Avengers: Endgame broke dozens of box office records in the mainland to earn a massive $614 million, becoming the countrys third-highest-grossing film of all time. Spider-Man: Far From Home has grossed $166 million so far in Chinese theaters, while Captain Marvel brought in $154 million in March.

Ashton Chen Xiaolong would be awesome. I knew him when he was a little boy. Here’s my cover story on his dad, Chen Tongshan - Shaolin Masters Keeping the Faith (NOV+DEC 2008) :cool:

22

Does he even know Kung Fu?

[SIZE=3]Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi’ Finds Its Lead[/SIZE]
By Justin Kroll

Marvel has found its next superhero.

The studio announced that Simu Liu has been tapped to star in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” during its Hall H presentation at Comic Con, joining cast member Awkwafina, who was also announced during the presentation. Additionally, Veteran actor Tony Leung has joined the film as The Mandarin, an uber-villain introduced in “Iron Man 3. “Destin Cretton is on board to direct.

Insiders say Liu was one of several actors who tested this week for the part and was chosen by Marvel just before the studio headed into Comic Con.

The original Marvel Comics Shang-Chi follows Shang, a half-Chinese, half-American superhero created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Jim Starlin. In the comics, Shang-Chi is a master of numerous unarmed and weaponry-based wushu styles, including the use of the gun, nunchaku, and jian. Shang-Chi first appeared in Special Marvel Edition #15 in 1973.

Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is producing the film. Marvel’s Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Jonathan Schwartz are executive producers on the project.

Liu, whose family moved from China to Canada when he was a child, originally worked as an accountant, before moving over to acting as an extra in Legendary’s “Pacific Rim” in 2012.

Soon after, he began nabbing smaller roles in films like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Nikita” before getting his big break in the short lived NBC series “Taken.” Following “Taken,” he landed one of the lead roles in “Kim’s Convience.”

Liu is best known for his Canadian TV show “Kim’s Convenience,” which has been on air since 2016. Liu was also recently tapped to join the cast of “Fresh Off the Boat” upcoming season.

23

Marvel’s first Chinese superhero: Simu Liu cast as Shang-Chi

//youtu.be/YJ8E8iy3YNs

I was at SDCC but no, I didn’t get into the Marvel panel in Hall H. There were people camped out for that the night before.

24

Jin Hyun·July 22, 2019·7 min read[URL=“https://nextshark.com/simu-liu-marvel-shang-chi/?fbclid=IwAR3IX99ZdJ05MDhYOV_IyHWpwsYX-Nei-U1nWwK8fg8dH5e64euKKkGd96U”]
Simu Liu Became Marvel’s First Asian Lead With a Tweet

The Asian American community has been dreaming of getting our very own Asian superhero for years, especially after the success of Marvel’s “Black Panther”.

This past weekend, we saw the official cast announcement for the highly anticipated film, “Shang-Chi”, with Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu revealed to be portraying the titular martial arts master.

Liu opened up to The StarThe Star in en exclusive interview on the announcement:

“I honestly hope this will help to change perceptions of the way Asian Americans and Canadians perceive themselves. Millions of children will watch this movie and feel like they belong in the larger part of the conversation, that they can accomplish anything themselves.”

//youtu.be/3fN04CYvxL0

As it turns out, Liu has been campaigning for an Asian American superhero long before plans for “Shang-Chi” were even announced.

Back in 2014, he tweeted at Marvel, writing, “Hey @Marvel, great job with Cpt America and Thor. Now how about an Asian American hero?”

[QUOTE]
Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
Hey @Marvel, great job with Cpt America and Thor. Now how about an Asian American hero?

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Liu has been showing interest in playing a superhero for quite a while now, making this an even more exciting moment for him and his fans everywhere.

Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
People ask why I go shirtless a lot; look, I’m just waiting for Hollywood to make me a superhero suit. #stillwaiting #sunfire #namor #terrymcginnis #amadeuscho

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Four years after his initial tweet to Marvel, the Disney-owned company officially announced its plans for its very first Asian-led superhero film, to which Liu once again tweeted, “OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi“

Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi

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The 30-year-old “Kim’s Convenience” star’s tweets have clearly charmed the creators of the film as months after his second tweet to the studio, Liu was finally revealed as the actor portraying the character of Shang-Chi.

Last night, Liu jokingly responded to his own old tweets, thanking Marvel for getting back to him.

[QUOTE]
Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
· Jul 17, 2014
Hey @Marvel, great job with Cpt America and Thor. Now how about an Asian American hero?

Well ****.

— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) July 21, 2019

See also

January 5, 2015

Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
Thanks for getting back to me https://twitter.com/SimuLiu/status/1069696323056586752 …

Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi

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While fans are celebrating this announcement, it hasn’t been lost on Liu that the role of Shang-Chi is a huge responsibility to take on, and is a great opportunity for all Asian Americans. “There is so much at stake here; we are fighting for our identity, for our right to be seen, to BELONG,” he wrote. “Eternally grateful to Marvel, to Kevin, Jonathan and Destin for this gift. @awkwafina LET’S GET TO WORK BABYYYYY!!!”

Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
Now that the craziness is over, the work begins.

There is so much at stake here; we are fighting for our identity, for our right to be seen, to BELONG.

Eternally grateful to Marvel, to Kevin, Jonathan and Destin for this gift. @awkwafina LET’S GET TO WORK BABYYYYY!!!

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Alongside Liu, “Crazy Rich Asians” star Awkwafina and legendary Hong Kong actor Tony Leung have also joined the cast.

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is set to hit theaters on February 12, 2021 as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four.[/QUOTE]

I only looked into Liu cursorily. Does he have a martial background?

25

All Hail the King

Marvel’s Forgotten One-Shot: All Hail the King

Marvel Studios held a showstopping Comic-Con panel last weekend, but the most intriguing announcement was about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The Asian-actor-led Marvel movie doesn’t hit theaters until February 2021, but in the meantime, we have a bit of required viewing for anyone excited to see Shang-Chi on the big screen: a direct-to-video short called All Hail the King.

Released as a bonus feature with the Thor: The Dark World Blu-ray (a Marvel Studios low point), this One-Shot was easy to miss. Back then, the studio packaged each movie with a short film that expanded the MCU even further, and All Hail the King is one of the best, featuring Ben Kingsley’s phoney Mandarin villain in jail as he comes face-to-face with the secret criminal organization he pretended to lead.

With Shang-Chi slated to reveal the actual Mandarin (played by Tony Chiu-Wai Leung), All Hail the King feels like necessary viewing now. The 13-minute short film offers a compelling look at the Ten Rings, a group that could play a huge role in the MCU as we head into Phase Four. It also features Ben Kingsley in top form, and it ends on a thrilling cliffhanger that might even lead straight into Shang-Chi.

You can find the entire thing right here, or just dig up a Blu-ray copy of Thor: The Dark World to watch it the way Marvel intended. — Jake Kleinman

//youtu.be/mceyJxMuYFE

26

can’t please everyone…

…especially Chinese netizens. :rolleyes:

I just hope he has decent Kung Fu, ya know?

Some Chinese think Shang-Chi isnt hot enough (for them anyway)
Photo: Handout
by Qin Chen

When Marvel cast Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, the studios first Asian superhero, the Chinese internet reacted with a collective gasp.

The casting of the muscular Chinese-Canadian heartthrob, known for his role in the sitcom Kims Convenience, may be celebrated in the West, but for some Chinese, he just doesnt look the part.

He looks like how Westerners think us Asians all look, said one commentator on Chinas Twitter-like Weibo. The message is the second-most liked response to a report about Marvels casting decision on July 20.

Single eyelid, small eyes, square face, check, check, and check, said another popular post.

Many say they prefer someone along the lines of Eddie Peng, a Canadian actor born in Taiwan. Peng fits what most Chinese would prefer to see in a romantic leading man: deep-set eyes, narrow nose, chiseled face.

The reaction on Chinese social media highlights the large aesthetic gap that exists between the East and West about whos considered hot (or not) among Asians.

The kind of Asian beauty embraced by the West would not be considered mainstream in China at all, Maggie Mao, fashion director of Grazia Magazine China edition, told Inkstone.

And the complaints would be hard for Marvel to ignore given that China is one of Marvels key markets. Avengers: Endgame made 22% of its box office earnings in China.

Separately, Shang-Chis casting of a beloved Hong Kong actor to play a villain that many argue has roots in racism has some calling the film anti-Chinese.

Chinese people have long griped about Hollywood directors casting only stereotypical-looking Asians.


Sandra Oh, a Canadian-American actress, won the 2019 Golden Globe’s Best Actress in TV drama.

From Lucy Liu to Sandra Oh, massively successful entertainers of Asian origin found attractive in the US are often considered unconventional in China.

Mao, the fashion director, said many Chinese dont understand why Western tastemakers arent casting an aspirational kind of Asian beauty.

If you look at the Kardashians, how they have become all-consuming in the US, you find both Americans and Chinese are pursuing similar things: a heightened sense of beauty, she said.

As in many parts of East Asia, celebrities in China, especially female stars, are often pale and slim, with perfectly symmetrical and chiseled features.

Mao said Hollywood rarely seems to cast Asian actors with pale complexions or doe eyes, which are strongly preferred by Chinese.

[QUOTE]Kim’s Convenience

@KimsConvenience
“We can accomplish great things when we just turn off that fear in ourselves.”
Head over to our Facebook page to learn more about what drives @SimuLiu
https://bit.ly/2LzoAIk

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Chinese netizens believe Hollywood is narrow-minded when it comes to Asian looks.

Ruonan Zheng, a senior reporter of Jing Daily, a digital publication on luxury business in China, said: I think the real complaint is of Americans’ lack of understanding of China and whats considered beautiful in China.

Stunning round eyes, curly hair, and pale skin tone, those are in-vogue beauty trends in China.

Fan Bingbing and Kris Wu are two prime examples of the most sought-after looks in China.


Fan Bingbing (left), Chinese actress, and Kris Wu (right), a Chinese-Canadian actor and singer. Photo: EPA-EFE/Franck Robichon and handout

Take Lu Yan, for example, most Chinese find her unattractive, and cant wrap their heads around how Lu would be qualified as a supermodel, said Dr Wei, a plastic surgeon in Beijing who declined to give her full name.

Lu, 37, was one of the first Chinese models to make it big in the West. At home, her look was considered unusual.

Dr Wei attributed this aesthetic difference to what she calls aesthetic fatigue.

When you are in Asia and almost everyone has a flatter nose and smaller-set of eyes, a defined feature helps you to stand out of the pack, she said.

It also explains why Westerners sometimes seek an Asian look, because it’s exotic and different from what they have, Wei added.

Mainstream Chinese beauty standards are heavily influenced by Korean and Japanese popular culture, which took Western aesthetics and mixed them with Asian trends.

Fashion editors say Chinese beauty standards are rather uniform, perhaps because of the countrys relatively ****genous population.

QIN CHEN
Qin is a multimedia producer at Inkstone. Most recently, she was a senior video producer for The New Yorkers video team. Prior to that she was at CNBC, making short documentaries and writing about how technology shapes lives.[/QUOTE]

27

Fu

[URL=“https://screenrant.com/shang-chi-villain-fu-manchu-marvel-movie-rights/”]
Marvel Doesn’t Own The Movie Rights To Shang-Chi’s Biggest Villain
BY NICHOLAS RAYMOND – ON AUG 26, 2019 IN SR ORIGINALS

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to finally introduce Iron Man’s most iconic villain, The Mandarin, to the MCU, but Shang-Chi’s greatest enemy, Fu Manchu, will be nowhere in sight. Why? Because Marvel no longer owns the rights to the character. Mandarin is replacing Fu Manchu as his primary antagonist and possibly as his father as well.

It was confirmed at SDCC 2019 that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be part of Marvel Studios and Disney’s lineup for Phase 4 of the MCU. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the movie stars Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung as the Mandarin, and Awkwafina. Shang-Chi will be the first Marvel film to focus on an Asian superhero, too, which has drawn even more attention to the project. In Marvel Comics, Shang-Chi is the Master of Kung Fu and one of Marvel’s two most prominent martial arts superheroes, with the other being Iron Fist.

In the movie, Shang-Chi will face off against the Mandarin, a villain who has been teased since the first MCU movie, 2008’s Iron Man, with the introduction of a terrorist organization called the Ten Rings. Marvel notoriously faked out audiences with Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin impersonator in Iron Man 3, but the Marvel one-shot, All Hail the King, proved that the real Mandarin exists somewhere in the MCU. He’ll finally make his long-awaited debut in Shang-Chi, taking the place of the character’s comic book arch-rival, Fu Manchu.

WHO IS FU MANCHU?

Created in 1913 by Sax Rohmer, Dr. Fu Manchu was an evil Chinese criminal mastermind who was often identified by his iconic mustache. Fu Manchu was the leader of a Chinese gang called the Si-Fan. He used the Si-Fan to carry out his dream of returning China to its past glory. His schemes were often thwarted by MI-6, as well as his long-time nemesis, Sir Denis Nayland Smith.

Rohmer featured Fu Manchu as the titular villain of several novels, published between 1913 and 1959. Due to Fu Manchu’s popularity, Rohmer’s novels were eventually adapted to the big screen. In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics acquired the rights to Fu Manchu from the Rohmer estate and arranged for the character to be used as the main antagonist and father of a new kung fu hero, Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi’s comic book series, The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, borrowed a sizable chunk of the supporting cast from the Rohmer novels, but also introduced a few new characters to join Shang-Chi in his quest to defeat Fu Manchu.

In Marvel Comics, Fu Manchu is an immortal criminal genius who is often described by Shang-Chi as the most evil man in the world. He trained Shang-Chi to be an unquestionably loyal instrument of death, but was disappointed when Shang-Chi turned against him. Shang-Chi teamed up with agents of MI-6 to take down Fu Manchu and his criminal empire. Fu Manchu and MI-6 clashed numerous times over the course of the series.

MARVEL DOESN’T HAVE THE RIGHTS TO FU MANCHU

Marvel’s The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kun Fu series had a successful run that lasted from 1974 to 1983. Around the time of the book’s cancellation, Marvel’s licensing rights to Fu Manchu expired. Since the series was cancelled, Marvel opted not to renew the rights. In the years that followed, Shang-Chi appeared in only a handful of comics as a guest star. Later on, Marvel took an interest in reviving Shang-Chi’s story and his battles with Fu Manchu, but they no longer had the rights to use the villain. So the comic book writers avoided mentioning his name.

Using Fu Manchu was an issue even though Rohmer’s novels are now in the public domain. According to CBR, the Rohmer estate trademarked the “Fu Manchu” name, which kept Marvel from using it in marketing. Eventually, this problem was solved when a Secret Avengers comic renamed him “Zheng Zu” and declared “Fu Manchu” to be an alias.

To this day, Marvel still doesn’t have the rights to use Fu Manchu, and now that they have found a way around this problem, it’s highly unlikely that this will change, despite the fact that it also keeps them from using other Rohmer creations as well. Sir Denis Nayland Smith, Dr. Petrie, and Fu Manchu’s daughter, Fah Lo Suee, all appeared in Master of Kung Fu but have been ignored ever since the licensing rights expired.

MARVEL DOESN’T WANT HIM ANYWAY

Marvel not owning the rights to a hero’s greatest villain may look like an enormous obstacle when it comes to giving him a solo movie, but this isn’t the case for Fu Manchu and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Fu Manchu isn’t in the same category as Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, or other big-name properties that Marvel fans have wanted to see in the MCU. In fact, Marvel Studios wouldn’t use Fu Manchu in a Shang-Chi movie even if the character’s rights weren’t a problem.

When Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was confirmed at SDCC 2019, some Chinese fans reacted in anger over Shang-Chi’s connection to Fu Manchu, a character who many feel is an insulting caricature of Chinese culture. It’s been said that his appearance, personality, and plan to bring China back to its ancient glory are offensive to Chinese. Fu Manchu was a reflection of “Yellow Peril”, and the idea that East Asia was a threat to the western world. This response to Fu Manchu is actually nothing new. The controversy surrounding Fu Manchu goes all the way back to 1932, when the Chinese embassy issued a complaint about MGM’s The Mask of Fu Manchu, a movie which saw Fu Manchu on a mission to kill white men and take their women.

Shang-Chi creator Jim Starlin confirmed that he quit writing Shang-Chi’s comics after being “horrified” by the Fu Manchu books. Starlin also hopes that Fu Manchu will be kept out of the movie, and this appears to be exactly what Marvel intends to do. Fu Manchu is problematic for Marvel Studios in more ways than one (considering how important China is to Disney’s box office), and since Marvel has already found a perfect replacement in the Mandarin, this is one villain who may never appear in the MCU.

Those flesh tones in those old comics…:rolleyes:

28

Destin Daniel Cretton

[URL=“https://collider.com/how-destin-daniel-cretton-got-hired-to-direct-shang-chi-marvel-movie/”]
‘Shang-Chi’ Director Destin Daniel Cretton on His Vision for the New Marvel Film
BY MATT GOLDBERG OCTOBER 14, 2019

Marvel made another excellent hire when it brought on Short Term 12 director Destin Daniel Cretton to helm the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Marvel hopes that the film will be able to take off with Asian-American audiences like Black Panther was able to with African-American audiences, and they definitely have a talented director for the job.

Christina Radish recently spoke to Cretton for his upcoming drama Just Mercy (click here for my review from TIFF) and asked what it was like pitching the movie to Marvel:

[QUOTE]What’s the process like, when you go in to pitch for a movie like that? What is the experience of pitching to Marvel and Kevin Feige like? Is it terrifying?

CRETTON: Yeah, it’s terrifying. I didn’t think I was going to get it, so that helps you feel not as terrified. The process of pitching is like anything. You just go in and speak your heart, and speak what you feel is important, and what you would love to do. And if they respond to that, then that’s going to be a good relationship. If they don’t respond to it, you don’t get the job, and it’s probably good that you don’t get the job.

How did you then find out that you got the job?

CRETTON: They just called me back in and told me I got the job.

When they brought you in and actually told you in person, did you try to play it cool?

CRETTON: No. They’re all so warm there. It’s a really warm family. So, it was a lot of hugs, and then it’s just, “Let’s get to work.”


Image via Marvel Comics

Cretton noted that they plan to start filming early next year. He also talked about hiring The Matrix cinematographer Bill Pope for Shang-Chi and how his style will fit with what they’re going for on the film:

What made you choose Bill Pope as your cinematographer? Is there something that he brings to that kind of world that you were specifically looking for?

CRETTON: Yeah. He has a really beautiful style, that’s both naturalistic and grounded, but also heightened, in the best way. And anybody who can shoot The Matrix is probably gonna do great with this one.

Is that within the kind of tone that you’re looking to bring out with the story?

CRETTON: Yeah. I think particularly for our first Asian/Asian American step into the MCU, that tone feels right.


Image via Lionsgate

Finally, Cretton talked about how exciting it is to give young Asians and Asian-Americans the chance to see themselves up on screen with a superhero who looks like them:

If you could go back and tell the child version of you d that you’d be making this movie, what would that have meant to him to know that?

CRETTON: It would have been amazing because I would have been able to have a superhero that looked like me, rather than choosing the superheroes that I could imagine looking like me, under the mask. I was really into Spider-Man, or even the Incredible Hulk, because they I could picture myself under the Spider-Man mask, or as The Hulk because, when he was The Hulk, he was not really specific to any ethnicity. So, it’ll be nice to give that kid somebody who he can at least say, “Oh, that one looks like me.”

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens February 12, 2021. Look for more from our interview with Cretton closer to the release of Just Mercy, which opens Christmas Day.[/QUOTE]

Matrix eh?

29

Simu Liu

Meet Simu Liu: the actor playing Marvel’s first Asian superhero Shang-chi is battling global stereotypes
Cinema
The Chinese-Canadian plays a martial-arts master in 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which Marvel hopes will be an Asian Black Panther
Charley Lanyon
Published: 5:00am, 7 Dec, 2019

This hotel room in West Hollywood, dimly lit with the curtains drawn, shows no signs of film-star excess. No half-full bottles of flat champagne, no overflowing ashtrays. No powder-flecked mirrors on the countertops. No cracks in the plasma television. Just some fresh clothes folded neatly over a chair and, on the table in front of us, a Nintendo Switch and a big bag of sour candies.
And anyway, its occupant isn’t exactly a film star. At least not yet. Thirty-year-old Simu Liu clears off a spot on the couch and apologises for the mess. This room – what a TripAdvisor review might deem “perfectly adequate” – has been his home for the past few months. The only clues Liu has spent that time intensively training are empty Muscle Milk cartons strewn around the place. That and the muscles themselves, defined but not ostentatious under a form-fitting shirt.
As we talk, Liu is the consummate Canadian: welcoming, warm and unfailingly polite. He seems relaxed. Rested. There’s little to indicate this sweet, earnest Torontonian may soon count himself among the most famous actors in the world.
“Kids are going to dress up like me for Halloween,” he beams.


Shang-Chi is a fictional character, often called the Master of Kung Fu. Photo: Marvel

We’ll have to wait to confirm this, but the prediction is not outlandish. Liu has been tapped for the eponymous lead role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, due out in 2021: the Marvel cinematic universe is about to get its first Asian superhero.
Asian-Americans make up 6 per cent of the United States population but account for only 1 per cent of leading roles in Hollywood, according to a 2018 study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, in Los Angeles.
The buzz is unanimous in hoping that Shang-Chi will do for Asians what Black Panther (2018) did for Africans: barnstorm sorely lacking mainstream representation; prove non-white stories can deliver at the box office; and, in this case, sell a few tickets to China’s coveted cinema-going millions.


Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu will play Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first major Asian superhero Shang-Chi. Photo: AFP

While there has been progress – recent films Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Abominable (2019) and The Farewell (2019) cast Asian actors and focused on Asian experiences – the enormity of the exposure and sheer cultural clout of an Asian Marvel hero is unprecedented.
“When I found out Simu got the role, I literally screamed in my car,” says Philip Wang, an LA-based actor and a co-founder of Wong Fu Productions who has worked extensively with Liu. “This is a guy who truly deserves the mantle of being the first Marvel superhero Asian lead.”
Liu’s trip to San Diego Comic-Con, in July, where he met fans who will likely define his celebrity – and had lunch with Angelina Jolie – left him delighted but reeling.
“It’s terrifying,” he says. “When I got the call from Marvel, I was crying, just hysterical, and I remember thinking immediately after, ‘Why am I crying?’ I think it was because this is such a wonderful opportunity, and my life is going to change forever. But I am going to have to say goodbye to certain parts of my life. There’s a kind of grieving process that has to start as well.”


A young Liu. Photo: courtesy of Simu Liu

Liu never expected to be an actor. Just six years ago his career consisted of one on-screen appearance as an uncredited extra. But now he has only a year or so to go from being a Chinese-Canadian immigrant with zero martial arts experience to playing the greatest kung fu master in the universe.
There’s a phrase in Hollywood for what he is about to experience: “the Chris Pratt effect”, cannonballing from well-liked supporting sitcom actor to global superstar shouldering a profitable film franchise. He may be smiling – he’s always smiling – but inside, Liu is freaking out.
Even he describes himself as a “partial celebrity”. Liu is recognised in LA mainly by his visiting countrymen, thanks to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s runaway 2016 hit Kim’s Convenience, centred on a Korean immigrant family in Toronto. Liu played Jung Kim, a reformed bad boy, or as a friend recently squealed, “the super hot one”.
Always a critical darling – Ashley Westerman, at National Public Radio, in the US, described the show as “quippy and smartly written” and said it “found lasting success in being both funny and deep” – Kim’s became a bona fide global hit after premiering on Netflix last year.
Pivotal, no doubt, but to equate Liu’s story with Kim’s would be to fail him, and to do that thing Liu condemns so vocally: reduce a wrenching, triumphant and unique immigrant story into something bite-sized and saccharine for mass (read: white) audiences.
Simu Liu was born on April 19, 1989, in Harbin, the capital of China’s northernmost province, Heilongjiang, best known for its frigid winters, annual ice festival and namesake beer. He was raised by his grandparents after his parents moved to Canada to attend graduate school at the prestigious Queen’s Univer*sity in Kingston, Ontario, intending to send for him once they were established.

//youtu.be/HIBbB6giJ7c

Liu’s years in Harbin had their privations – even running water was intermittent – but his “gentle and patient” grandparents doted on him and he was happy. When he turned five, everything changed. Liu’s father arrived in Harbin to collect his son – the earliest memory he has of his dad – and take him across the world to Mississauga, a bland western suburb of Toronto, Ontario, and a common landing point for middle-class Asian immigrants.
The adjustment was harsh, and not just because it was every bit as cold as Harbin. Liu went from being the coddled firstborn and only son in a traditional Chinese home to a much less forgiving situation: the firstborn and only son of young, first-generation immigrants who had sacrificed everything for his eventual, and very much expected, success.
Instead of his grandparents’ loving warmth, there was criticism, pressure and, as Liu wrote in an open letter to his parents in Canadian magazine Maclean’s, in 2017, levels of affection limited to “letting ‘put on a jacket, it’s cold outside’ stand in for ‘I love you’”.
Liu studied finance at the University of Western Ontario – like Queen’s, one of Canada’s Ivy League-level institutions – then bagged a parent-pleasing job at accounting powerhouse Deloitte, in downtown Toronto. There was just one problem: “I was a serial slacker,” Liu says, laughing. “I just wasn’t a motivated person.” He was soon fired for what he says were obvious reasons. “Make no mistake, I was doing a subpar job.”

[QUOTE]I realised I had been living my life all wrong. The more times you get to redefine yourself, or get to change the course of your destiny, the more you want to do it
Simu Liu, actor

Adrift and feeling that he had nothing to lose, when he saw a casting call on Craigslist for extras to appear in Pacific Rim (2013) – a sci-fi film being shot by Guillermo del Toro in Toronto – he went for it. Try as you might, you won’t be able to pick him out of the crowds on-screen, but the experience was life-changing.
“I realised I had been living my life all wrong,” he says. “The more times you get to redefine yourself, or get to change the course of your destiny, the more you want to do it. The more you learn not to take the world as it is, the more you learn to see what things should be. For people who may not have had those catastrophic failures in their life, they might not have the ability to do that.”
The former slacker began hustling for roles, winning forgettable walk-on parts in films and a few lines in cheesy television action shows. And when he couldn’t land an acting gig, he worked as a stuntman.
Then, in 2015, he got his first break, in Blood and Water, a little-watched drama targeting Canada’s Chinese popula*tion, in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
“Although I was a pretty new actor, it was the first time I had been part of anything of that calibre,” Liu says. “And it was the first time I felt like I had a platform. True, it was a tiny Canadian show that nobody ever watched, but I was a series regular.”
His role as Paul Xie, the secretive son of a billionaire real-estate developer whose brother is murdered, helped him secure representation – he is still with the same managers – and brought him to the attention of the Kim’s Convenience casting agents.[/QUOTE] continued next post

30

Continued from previous post


Liu in the cockpit of a plane as a child. Photo: courtesy of Simu Liu

Americans got their first taste of Liu in the short-lived TV action series Taken, which premiered on NBC in 2017 and was based on the eponymous film trilogy starring Liam Neeson. Liu played Faaron, a stereotypical tech guy who sat at a computer supporting spies in the field. “I said ‘enhance’ a lot,” Liu jokes.
He made a big impression on set. Actress Jennifer Marsala remembers him fondly: “He was fun to be silly with, backstage. We were supposed to be at this covert government agency and we’d all be singing and dancing, and Simu would be doing backflips. He has this incredible singing voice, and he’s also a really good dancer.”
Liu was apprehensive about leaving a show on a big US network for a quiet sitcom back home, but matters were taken out of his hands when virtually the entire cast of Taken was replaced before the second season.
“We knew Kim’s was important, but we didn’t know the show was going to hit the way it did,” Liu says.
Each episode attracted nearly a million viewers, coast to coast, in a country where the Stanley Cup, the biggest game in ice hockey, Canada’s national sport, drew audiences of four million this year.
Kim’s Convenience boosted Liu’s stature, but that exposure also politicised him. “[It] introduced me to issues that were greater than just being an actor getting a job. I’d been talking about issues of representation for a while and basically just not doing a good job at it,” he says.
He started to wrestle with what it meant to be a Chinese actor in North America and what responsibility he had to his viewers and community.
“I realised that representation is not just the ability to see yourself reflected on screen, but to see what you can be. So if I see Asians portrayed as losers and nerds, at least on a subconscious level, that’s all I believe I can be,” he says.

[QUOTE]I realised that representation is not just the ability to see yourself reflected on screen, but to see what you can be
Simu Liu

Pushing that envelope, eight months before the Shang-Chi casting, Liu tweeted: “OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi”. Months later, after the role had been announced, he followed up his original tweet with a typically wry: “Well s***.”
He recalls the incident with a laugh. “I didn’t just send a tweet and then they called,” he says. “[It was] a long process of phone conversations, callbacks and auditions that happened over a couple of months.”
Shang-Chi the character was conceived in 1972, as the son of super villain – and notoriously racist stereotype – Dr Fu Manchu. For a time, he joins the Avengers and in one storyline teaches Spider-Man to fight after he loses his “spidey sense”, helping Peter Parker develop his own martial art, “the way of the spider”. This bit of arcana was not lost on Liu, who has tweeted his support for Spider-Man staying in the Marvel cinematic universe amid rising tensions between Marvel and Sony, who share ownership of the character.
Having been so careful to avoid playing into Asian stereotypes, the irony of being cast as a “kung fu master” caught the attention of the actor.
“Starting out, I wanted to be an American leading man,” he says. “I wanted to be Tom Cruise. I wanted to be Matt Damon. And it’s funny, Tom Cruise has done plenty of action movies, Matt Damon has done Bourne, but they were never pigeonholed. I’ve done one family crime drama and then a family sitcom and now I’m doing an action film and I’m likely going to follow that up with something completely unrelated.”

Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi

43.9K
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Before being cast, Liu had said publicly he didn’t “want to be a kung fu star”. Not only are the optics problematic but, until recently, he had no fight training whatsoever.
Learning to play a master of all the world’s martial arts in a year of pre-production is no easy task.
“I am training very hard, believe me. I have our stunt coordinator, Brad Allan, a phenomenal martial artist who trained under Jackie Chan, and he’s assembled a wonderful team around me,” Liu says.
At least his parents finally seem convinced of his success. Not because he was cast in a big-budget film, but because he will appear opposite Hong Kong movie legend and Wong Kar-wai muse Tony Leung Chiu-wai, star of Chungking Express (1994) and In the Mood for Love (2000). Also cast is another of Liu’s favourite actors, Awkwafina, who has experienced her own rapid rise to film stardom, going from cult rapper to Crazy Rich Asians scene-stealer and the lead in The Farewell.
“I haven’t had the chance to talk to Leung yet,” Liu says, “but I met his visage and his body.”
His what?
“I was at my costume fitting yesterday. It was … weird. They take you to a place and they infrared-scan your body and 3D-print you, life-size, so they can fit clothes. There was a 3D-printed me, Awkwafina and Tony Leung. It’s crazy,” he explains.


Shang-Chi (centre) is set to take his place in the Marvel cinematic universe. Photo: Handout

It is no coincidence that Shang-Chi is slated for release at a time when Hollywood is increasingly covetous of China’s massive cinema-going public, the second largest audience after the US. Co-productions between the two countries are now common, and more films are being produced to appeal to Chinese audiences, even as political and economic tensions between the two nations grow ever more fraught.
Still, American-made, Asian-centred hits have gained little traction in China. Crazy Rich Asians, for example, failed to resonate with audiences in China because, among other things, the American humour didn’t translate.
There is hope Shang-Chi will be an exception – like Abominable – and do equally well in both countries. But early reactions from Chinese cinephiles have not been entirely positive. In one YouTube video, people questioned on the streets of Beijing thought Liu was “too ugly” to helm a Hollywood blockbuster, a charge unimaginable to anyone who has spent a few minutes with him. For Liu, it was less about his appearance than the general atmosphere of distrust, which he puts down to the misinformed and racist depictions of Asians and Asian culture in American TV and film.
“They’ve certainly been burned before,” he says, throw*ing up his hands. “They’re just being rightfully defensive of who they are. They feel like there’s a potential for Hollywood to really eff this up, and maybe it would be easy for me to be like, ‘Well, eff them, what do they know?’” (Yes, he said “eff”; he’s a good Canadian boy.) “But then, I mean, when I look at the leading men in Asia, I agree with them. I don’t look like them. But that’s OK. I look forward to showing them something new, that leading men come in different shapes and sizes.”


Liu with his grandparents. Photo: courtesy of Simu Liu

People who have worked with Liu are convinced he’ll pull it off.
“From the beginning, Simu has been an active voice for our community, unapologetic of his Asian background and mission to help bring us forward,” says Wang. “I know he’ll represent us well and also use this opportunity to be a driving force and inspiration for all of us. He already has been.”
There are a lot of expectations riding on this film and its star is feeling the pressure.
“To take a quote from Stan Lee, the legend himself, ‘With great power there must also come great responsibility’. But I think the reason I have the platform I do is because I’ve leaned into my Asianness. If you are going to ask an entire population to support you, to rally behind you and give you a platform, I won’t shy away from that responsi*bility. I feel like we’ve been shying away from it as people for too long, especially the children of immigrants who are taught to keep their heads down. We have reached the limit of that philosophy.”
Heady topics perhaps for a superhero film?
“Well,” says Liu, as self-assured as a superhero should be, “I really think this movie could change the world.”[/QUOTE]

I need to check out Kim’s Convenience.

31

‘leak’

DECEMBER 24, 2019 BY CHARLES MURPHY
EXCLUSIVE: SHANG-CHI Casting For Ring Announcers; Could Support Longstanding Tournament “Leak”

Shang-Chi is preparing to begin filming after the new year and is currently casting a plethora of small, supporting roles. One such role, for a ringside fight announcer, might just support one a plot “leak” that appeared on Reddit just a short while ago. You can read a transcription of the now deleted leak below:

[QUOTE]An alien spaceship landed in China hundreds of years ago. The ship was powered by the Ten Rings, magical relics that all serve a different purpose. The rings were looted by a secret society known as the Avatars, which is led by a wise martial artist simply called the Ancestor. The Ancestor wore the rings and used them to become an expert fighter.

The Mandarin grew up hearing about the ancestor’s story and was fascinated by it, despite everyone else believing it was just a myth. He began to idolize the Ancestor, and devoted his life to finding the rings. This inspired him to form his own mafia, which is the Ten Rings gang. Basically, the point of the gang is look for the rings all around the world. He adopted his niece, Fah Lo Suee (Awkwafina) and taught her martial arts.

After years of investigation, he discovers that the legend of the ten rings are real, and that the Ancestor is dying. There was a leak a little while back that Shang-Chi is a tournament film, and that’s actually true. When the Ancestor dies, the Avatars will run a secret tournament/kung-fu trial in which the winner will be granted the rings. The Mandarin is too old to compete, and he doesn’t want to risk Fah Lo Suee’s life. That’s where Shang-Chi is going to come in.

Shang is a street urchin who meets the Mandarin after he starts dating Fah. The Mandarin takes a liking in Shang and starts training him as his apprentice. His first task, as an act of gang initiation, is to kill Trevor for impersonating the Mandarin. People speculated that they would be related, but it will be more of a Walter White/Jesse Pinkman dynamic.

When the tournament begins, the Mandarin will send Shang to win and get the rings for him. That’ll be the basic gist of the film pretty much. I know that defeating Fin Fang Foom will be an obstacle. Leiko Wu and Clive Reston will be in the movie as SHIELD agents who are investigating the Ten Rings gang. Shang-Chi will obviously betray the Mandarin and become a hero over the course of the film. He will get the ability to create multiple duplicates of himself. It will be an ‘Orphan Black’ situation, where each clone of himself has their own personality. So the fights will obviously be insane to witness.

Marvel is casting Shang’s enemies in the tournament, and one of them will be a character named Chao.

While I certainly can’t speak to the authenticity of every one of the plot points included in that “leak”, the fact that the film is currently searching for ringside fight announcers, combined with the prior knowledge that they were casting for several of Shang-Chi’s comic book kung-fu opponents could very well lend a bit of credibility to this leak and we may see an MCU version of the 90’s classic martial arts film, Bloodsport. As shocking as having Fin Fang Foom and the ability to create duplicates might seem, there is enough other evidence out there to support a dragon living in certain locations and it’s possible that one of the rings could grant Shang-Chi the power to create dupes.[/QUOTE]

So is Awkwafina in training now?

32

February 12, 2021

‘Shang-Chi’ director hints a big change to the film’s villain, the Mandarin
“Family” isn’t just for Fast & Furious. Director Destin Daniel Cretton hints that his Marvel film will explore the concept of family in a big way.

By Eric Francisco on January 2, 2020
Filed Under Iron Man, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Movies, Marvel Universe, Movies & Superheroes

In 2021, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will meet its next big superhero in Shang-Chi, a kung fu secret agent in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. While Marvel previously announced that the Iron Man 3 nemesis the Mandarin (but this time, the real one) will play a big role in the film, director Destin Daniel Cretton dropped a subtle hint that the Mandarin is, in fact, Shang-Chi’s father.

In a December 24 episode of the podcast They Call Us Bruce, hosted by Jeff Yang and Phil Yu, Destin Daniel Cretton appeared to promote his newest film Just Mercy. At the end of the episode, the hosts took a detour to the MCU, providing a small glimpse into 2021’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Noting that Shang-Chi is “a very different type of movie than Just Mercy,” Cretton revealed both movies share similar themes and ideas on family.

“In the same vein, the emotional aspect and the ideas of camaraderie, family, and connection is something that will definitely be a part of this movie,” he said.

That “F” word — “family” — doesn’t just belong to Fast & Furious. While the plot for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is still under wraps, Cretton’s quotes suggest that Legend of the Ten Rings will follow Shang-Chi as he challenges his blood family, as well as cooperate with an adopted new one.

In Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu comics, which Shang-Chi starred in for over a hundred issues in the 1970s, Shang-Chi embarks on a journey to defeat his father, Fu Manchu, the same pulp villain invented by English author Sax Rohmer in 1913. Unable to work alone, Shang-Chi teams up with an array of British agents, including Sir Denis Nayland Smith (the protagonist of Rohmer’s novels); Clive Reston, a spy modeled after James Bond; Leiko Wu, a Chinese-British agent Shang-Chi falls for; and “Black Jack” Tarr, Smith’s aide-de-camp.


In ‘Marvel Special Edition’ #15, Shang-Chi’s first solo comic, Shang-Chi confronts his father, the villainous Fu Manchu from Sax Rohmer’s pulp novels. In the 2021 film ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,’ his father may be changed to the Mandarin, played by Tony Leung.

While Shang-Chi learns to work with strangers, it’s Shang-Chi’s family whom he fights. Besides his father, Shang-Chi’s sister Fah Lo Suee clashes with Shang-Chi, while other times Fah Lo Suee tries (and fails) to use Shang-Chi as a pawn in her own attempts to overthrow her father.

Shang-Chi also has two brothers; One is an adoptive brother, M’Nai, a refugee from Africa whom Fu Manchu raised to become the assassin called “Midnight.” The brothers clashed in an early issue of Shang-Chi’s comics (Marvel Special Premiere #16). The second is Moving Shadow, who was raised in secret from Shang-Chi and lives to fulfill his evil father’s wishes. Moving Shadow first appeared in the 2002 Marvel MAX series, Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu.

At the time of Shang-Chi’s creation in 1973, Marvel had a working agreement with Rohmer’s estate to incorporate characters from Rohmer’s stories into the Marvel Universe. When that agreement expired years later, Marvel kept Shang-Chi but downplayed Fu Manchu to avoid copyright infringement.

Aside from the legal issue, there was also a matter of changing cultural attitudes as Fu Manchu was (and is) a dated “Orientalist” stereotype of Asians in popular media. It was these attitudes that inspired Marvel to subvert its own Orientalist villain, the Mandarin, in the 2013 film Iron Man 3.


Cover of ‘Marvel Special Edition #16,’ where Shang-Chi fights his adoptive brother, Midnight.

With Marvel obviously unwilling to incorporate Fu Manchu, Kevin Feige et al appear to be rewriting Shang-Chi’s canon. While Marvel has yet to explicitly say so, it appears Marvel is turning the Mandarin (played by Hong Kong acting legend Tony Leung) into Shang-Chi’s birth father in place of Fu Manchu. And because of Iron Man 3, there is already the groundwork for fans to accept a less offensive, modern interpretation of “yellow peril” villainy.

In a separate feature interview with BuzzFeed, Cretton revealed he took a meeting with Marvel with only the intent on enlightening the studio on how to avoid offensive portrayals inherit to the source material.

“I didn’t think I was going to end up getting the gig,” he said. “I honestly thought at best I could maybe, through the process of meeting with them, just explain some of the things that would be offensive to me, and maybe guide it in some way just by getting my voice in someone’s ear.”

It was during that meeting that Marvel decided Cretton was their choice for Shang-Chi.

On They Call Us Bruce, Cretton revealed his excitement for Shang-Chi, fueled by lament on the lack of Asian faces in superhero pop culture.

“It’s really exciting to just be a part of another movie that’s going to put some new faces up on the screen,” he said. “I didn’t even know why I loved Spider-Man until I was old enough to realize I couldn’t see his face, and I could imagine myself underneath that mask. There weren’t any Asian faces to identify with in the superhero word. So to be able to give a new generation an option is really cool.”


Simu Liu, revealed as Shang-Chi at Comic-Con.

Shang-Chi will star Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu in the title role, alongside Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) and Tony Leung as the Mandarin. In an October 23 visit to the New York Film Academy (uploaded to YouTube on December 28), Marvel’s Kevin Feige said Shang-Chi will have a “98 percent” Asian cast.

“We’ve wanted to make that movie for a long time. We want to make a movie with a 98% Asian cast,” he said. “Shang-Chi is gonna be so much more than a kung fu movie. But it has elements of that, which we’re excited about.”

Meanwhile, Just Mercy is a superhero story for the real world. In theaters now, the film stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, and Tim Blake Nelson, in the true story of Walter McMillian (Foxx), an African-American man sentenced to death for the 1986 murder of Ronda Morrison, a white woman, in Alabama. McMillian was convicted despite dozens of eyewitnesses confirming McMillian at a church fish fry during the murder.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will release in theaters on February 12, 2021.
Anyone heard who’s directing fight choreo yet?

33

hold the phone…Sharon Stone was on Bumble?

As I’ve said before, I don’t really know Simu Liu, but this has endeared him to me. :cool:

Marvel Star Simu Liu Asks Out Sharon Stone After She Posts About Dating App
By JAMIE JIRAK - January 4, 2020 02:59 pm EST

Earlier this week, actor Sharon Stone went viral for having a mishap on the dating app, Bumble. The star known for films such as Basic Instinct and Casino was blocked from the app after fellow users reported her as a fake account. Stone took to Twitter to try to resolve the issue and it became a trending topic on Twitter. Another star, Simu Liu, the actor who will soon be playing the titular role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, decided to shoot his shot and try to score a date with Stone. Here’s the initial interaction between Stone and Bumble:

[QUOTE]Sharon Stone

@sharonstone
· Dec 29, 2019
I went on the @bumble dating sight and they closed my account.
Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me!
Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary ? *
Don’t shut me out of the hive

[QUOTE]Bumble

@bumble
There can only be one Stone. Looks like our users thought you were too good to be true. We’ve made sure that you won’t be blocked again. We hope that everyone in our community takes a sec to verify their profiles. (Catherine Tramell from Basic Instinct gets a pass today!)

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[/QUOTE]
Here’s where Liu decided to join in on the conversation:

Sharon Stone

@sharonstone
· Dec 29, 2019
I went on the @bumble dating sight and they closed my account.
Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me!
Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary ? *
Don’t shut me out of the hive

[QUOTE]Simu Liu

@SimuLiu
Hey, I don’t have bumble but uh… what are you doing like six months from now?

1,856
6:19 AM - Dec 30, 2019
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[/QUOTE]

Stone didn’t reply to the actor’s request, but maybe she’ll change her mind after she sees him kicking butt on the big screen as a Marvel hero.

In the comics, Shang-Chi is raised to become a deadly assassin, and his life gets turned upside down when he discovers nefarious details about his father. Shang-Chi then sets out to right his father’s wrongs, becoming Marvel’s “Master of Kung Fu” and serves as a member of Heroes for Hire and the Avengers.

The film will be helmed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) on a script by Wonder Woman 1984’s David Callaham. Awkwafina and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung have also been confirmed for the film, with the latter playing The Mandarin.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, WandaVision in 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.[/QUOTE]

34

Destin Daniel Cretton

From ‘Just Mercy’ to ‘Shang-Chi’: Why Shifted Gears for Marvel’s Superhero Film


George Pimentel/Getty Images
10:30 AM PST 1/5/2020 by Rebecca Ford

“I would love to give my son a superhero to look up to,” says the director of helming Marvel’s first Asian-led superhero film, which he leaped to following his social justice drama starring Michael B. Jordan as a lawyer who helps exonerate innocent prisoners.
When director Destin Daniel Cretton’s latest project, the real-life social justice drama Just Mercy, finally hit theaters Dec. 25, he already was deep into his next project — a leap in a very different direction, helming Marvel’s first Asian-led superhero film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But the busy helmer took some time to talk to THR about working on Just Mercy, which stars Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping exonerate innocent prisoners, many of whom were on death row.

How did you end up on this project?

Our producer Gil Netter sent the book to me. I was so moved by it. I was just so surprised with how much life was given into these characters. They just were so relatable to me. So I signed on with that, and the only person we could think of to be perfect for this was Michael B. [Jordan]. I was on the phone with Ryan Coogler talking about something else, and I was telling him about this book and how I thought this character would be perfect for Michael, and he just said, “Hold on,” and called Michael B., who I believe was in Vegas. So just out of the blue I was pitching to Michael B.

How closely were you working with Bryan on the film?

He was involved from the very beginning. Before we even started writing, [co-writer] Andrew Lanham and I took a trip down to Montgomery and Bryan gave us a tour of The Legacy Museum and [The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which explores America’s history of racial injustice from the slave trade]. He took me to Monroeville, Alabama, where all this took place, and walked me out into a cotton field. I’d never been in one before. He showed me how to pick cotton, showed me how t***** cotton bushes are. It was a very powerful experience.

What did you see as the biggest challenge of making this movie?

Everything. (Laughs.) I don’t look up to many people more than I look up to Bryan Stevenson. And I wanted to show people who he really was, and that was a very intimidating thing to take on. That is why I stayed so close to him throughout the process. I’m so grateful that he is such a gracious person to collaborate with. He was great at guiding us and making sure that we were doing the legal stuff right, that we were capturing the characters in the right way. But he was also very understanding of our own process, and he was very gracious on that level. I’ve never grown so much on a movie, and I’ve never been so relieved when Bryan Stevenson watched it and gave me a big hug afterward.

Did he say anything to you or was it just the hug?

He said, “You captured my heart.” And the heart of these people that he really cares about.

What do you see as the throughline with the films you’ve made?

There are two throughlines: One is a theme of family, whether a literal family or a family created through circumstance. Family is very important to me. And I personally have been really moved by movies that allow me to feel less alone in the world and allow me to see characters in a way that makes me say, “Oh, they’re just like me.” That, to me, is where society can actually change. Movies can allow us to get so close that we can see [others] as just like us. That’s what I hope this movie can do for other people.

You seem to have a lot of empathy as a filmmaker.

I try. I spend so much time on a movie — especially if I’m writing and directing it — so I typically ask myself, “is this a world that I’m willing to swim three years through? And does it have the potential to make me a better person?” Because to me, of course I’m always trying to make the best movie I can, but the outcome of it isn’t the grand prize, if it is I’m constantly going to be disappointed in some way or another. But if the experience itself can teach me something new about the world or show me something about myself that I didn’t know and make me a better person, that’s what I’m striving for. So any story that has the ability to do that is something that I feel good about signing on to.


In Just Mercy, Michael B. Jordan (left) stars with Jamie Foxx, who plays a man on death row.
Jake Netter/Warner Bros.

Shang-Chi feels like a big step in a different direction. Why that next?

I grew up without a superhero to look up to. I gravitated to Spider-Man when I was a kid, primarily because he had a mask covering his face and I could imagine myself under that mask. I would love to give my son a superhero to look up to. I feel very privileged to be a part of telling that story.

Being from Hawaii and of Asian descent, did you ever feel like an outsider in this industry?

It was a huge culture shock going from Hawaii to the [U.S.] mainland. I moved to San Diego when I was 19 to go to school, and I was not prepared for the culture shock. You don’t feel “other” in Hawaii. I didn’t understand why I felt weird when I came here because I didn’t know I had an accent. I didn’t understand why it felt weird for someone to call me Bruce Lee. It was an adjustment. In Hawaii, things are laid-back. In L.A., there was too much fear-based competition and ways that you were supposed to be to make it in this industry that were complete opposites to my personality.

Such as?

I was a terrible networker. I would go to a party and stand in the corner … really awkward. My growing-up experience was just owning the fact that I am uncomfortable — owning my shyness. Owning just my personality and saying, “**** it, I’m going to be myself, and if they’re not going to like that, then we’re not supposed to work together.” That’s a daily thing I have to tell myself. As soon as I started doing that, I became much more happy doing this work. It didn’t scare me anymore. I don’t think anybody should be scared to do what they love. That was a big lesson for me to learn.

What do you think about the way Hollywood has been opening up with more inclusive stories and more opportunities for filmmakers from different backgrounds? Does it make you optimistic?

I’m always optimistic that it will go in the right direction. I think we’re in a transition now. Even when we were trying to crew up for Just Mercy, there’s a realization that there are not enough minorities just in the positions that you would want them to be to hire minorities. So on Just Mercy we were giving so many people their first opportunities to be the heads of a departments, which is so exciting. On this movie with Marvel, just in terms of casting — how many famous Asian actors are there? It’s really exciting to be able to make some new famous faces for other films to choose from. It would be a failure if Shang-Chi was, like, the first and last. That would suck. But I hope it’s the first of many more movies that represent the world that we live in.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

A version of this story first appeared in a January stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

I really need to familiarize myself with the work of Destin Daniel Cretton and Simu Liu. I got a year…:rolleyes:

35

‘So Much More Than A Kung-Fu Movie’

Given the hot mess that was Iron Fist, I’ll be satisfied if the MCU can deliver just a good Kung Fu movie. :rolleyes:

Kevin Feige Says ‘Shang-Chi’ Is So Much More Than A Kung-Fu Movie – Will Awards Season & Wildfires Lead To A Delay?
By Christopher Marc -January 8, 20200

Back in October, Marvel Studios head and Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige sat down for Q&A session with the New York Film Academy.

While talking about the origin of the shawarma button scene in the original Avengers film, revealed that Shang-Chi hasn’t started filming and that filming begins in a few months (from October).

FEIGE: “I went to my then assistant Jonathan Schwartz, who is now in Australia producing Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings that goes into production in a few months.”

Kevin also recognizes that Shang-Chi is going to be seen as a kung-fu action film, but is much more than that.

FEIGE: “Shang-Chi is going to be so much more than a kung-fu movie, but it has elements of that which we’re excited about.”

I think there will be a James Bond/spy element to the character as he did have involvement with MI6 and the private outfit Freelance Restorations (expected to have characters from that group in the film).

However, there is a good chance that Shang-Chi might not begin shooting this month and may hold off a start until after the awards season/Oscars is over. Considering that Destin Daniel Cretton’s film Just Mercy is an awards contender and Shang-Chi lead actress Awkwafina is also likely in the running for a Best Actress nomination for The Farewell (recently won a Golden Globe).

There is also a heap of wildfires ongoing in New South Wales, Australia where Fox Studios Australia is located, the main sound stage facility that will be used on Shang-Chi and the fourth Thor installment (aiming for August start) from director Taika Waititi.

Marvel might want to give the authorities and local crew a little breathing room due to those events.

I wouldn’t be shocked if it doesn’t begin filming until February/March as the Oscars will take place on February 9th.

HN Entertainment exclusively first revealed that the working title of Shang-Chi during production will be Steamboat, a direct nod to Asian-American professional wrestler Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.

Speaking of director Destin Daniel Cretton, he recently spoke with TheHollywoodReporter and revealed what interested him in the Marvel project, giving his son a superhero to look up to.

CRETTON: “I grew up without a superhero to look up to. I gravitated to Spider-Man when I was a kid, primarily because he had a mask covering his face and I could imagine myself under that mask. I would love to give my son a superhero to look up to. I feel very privileged to be a part of telling that story.”

Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings is set for an official release date of February 12th, 2021.

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Awkwafina in Australia

It’s really impressive how she is parlaying her talents into a successful career.

Shang-Chi Star Awkwafina Arrives in Ahead of Marvel Filming
By NICOLE DRUM - January 23, 2020 12:15 am EST

As one of the most-anticipated of Marvel Studios’ upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films, there has been a lot of speculation about precisely when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will commence filming. Earlier this month, Kevin Feige confirmed that the film would head into production soon with work taking place in Australia and now it appears that “soon” could be sooner than we think. A post from star Awkwafina on Tuesday revealed that the actress is in Sydney, Australia, potentially to begin work on Shang-Chi.

On Tuesday, Awkwafina posted brief clip on her Instagram Story in which she opened up curtains in what appeared to be a hotel room to take in the view of the Sydney Harbour. She captioned the short clip “Good morning Sydney!”

While the post doesn’t directly indicate that she’s there to work on Shang-Chi, as was noted previously, Feige has indicated that Australia is a location where production on the film will take place.

“I went to my then assistant Jonathan Schwartz, who is now in Australia producing Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings that goes into production in a few months,” Feige said during a talk with the New York Film Academy. “Shang-Chi is going to be so much more than a kung-fu movie, but it has elements of that which we’re excited about.”

Feige’s not the only one who has talked about the potential of Shang-Chi, either. Simu Liu, who recently joked about the rumors of when the film would start filming himself, told the South China Morning Post that the film could “change the world.”

“To take a quote from Stan Lee, the legend himself, ‘With great power there must also come great responsibility’,” he said. “But I think the reason I have the platform I do is because I’ve leaned into my Asianness. If you are going to ask an entire population to support you, to rally behind you and give you a platform, I won’t shy away from that responsi*bility. I feel like we’ve been shying away from it as people for too long, especially the children of immigrants who are taught to keep their heads down. We have reached the limit of that philosophy.”

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in the fall, The Eternals on November 6, WandaVision later this year, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

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Relative ugliness

‘Asian-American actors are ugly & your films make us look backward’: Hollywood sets movies in China, locals don’t want to watch
Michael McCaffrey
Michael McCaffrey lives in Los Angeles where he works as an acting coach, screenwriter and consultant. He is also a freelance film and cultural critic whose work can be read at RT, Counterpunch and at his website mpmacting.com.
21 Jan, 2020 14:04 / Updated 3 days ago


The Farewell (2019) Dir: Lulu Wang © 24 studio

Hollywood thinks that by telling Chinese stories they will woo its massive market they so crave…they couldn’t be more wrong, as the failure of the Farewell amply illustrates.
The critically adored American film, which tells the story of a Chinese-American woman who returns to her ancestral homeland to visit her dying grandmother, opened in China at the weekend.

As The Farewell was written and directed by a Chinese American woman, Lulu Wang, and stars Chinese-American, Golden Globe winning actress Awkwafina, while the film’s dialogue is mostly spoken in Mandarin, Hollywood’s expectations were that the movie would be well received in China.

That did not work out.

//youtu.be/RofpAjqwMa8

The Farewell has been largely ignored by Chinese audiences as evidenced by its embarrassingly dismal take at the Chinese box office of just $580,000, and scathing audience reviews from viewers who largely thought that the story was dull, patronizing, and had nothing to say to them.

The film’s failure is reminiscent of the poor showing in China by another Asian themed Hollywood movie, Crazy Rich Asians, which was a breakout smash hit in America in 2018, bringing in $174 million at the US box office. American audiences cheered Crazy Rich Asians largely due to its Asian cast, which was deemed a great success for representation and diversity for Hollywood. In contrast, China, which has plenty of its own movies with all-Asian casts, had no such love for the film as proven by its tepid box office receipts.

Crossing the cultural divide and tapping into the Chinese market has long been the Holy Grail of Hollywood, as every studio executive in town is constantly trying to crack the Chinese code in order to fill their coffers.

Of course, studio executives are not always the most ambitious creative thinkers, so the only plan they’ve been able to come up with thus far is to pander. Not surprisingly, Hollywood’s ham-handed attempts to cater to Chinese audiences have consistently backfired.

Disney thought Asian representation would attract Chinese audiences when they cast Asian-American actress Kelly Marie Tran in a major role in the most recent Star Wars trilogy. The problem was that Ms. Tran (who is of Vietnamese descent anyway, which is like appealing to the English by casting an Italian) did not conform to classical Chinese standards of beauty and thus Chinese audiences never warmed to her.

Chinese audiences have voiced similar complaints regarding Awkwafina, with some Chinese people on social media going so far as to call her “very ugly,” which may be one of the reasons why The Farewell is doing so poorly. And this is before we get to her Mandarin, which was widely considered laughable for a first-generation immigrant, even a one who left China early, according to the plot (the actress herself did not speak Chinese fluently before the film).

Another example of this cultural divide is Simu Liu, a Canadian-Chinese actor who was recently cast in the lead of the upcoming Marvel movie Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Liu is considered handsome by Western standards but some Chinese people say he is “not handsome by Chinese standards” – at least when compared to many of the local action stars – which means Shang-chi might face an uphill battle at the Chinese box office when it comes out.


Simu Liu of Marvel Studios’ ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ © Getty Images for Disney / Alberto E. Rodriguez

continued next post

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Continued from previous post

Hollywood has had significant success in China, the world’s second largest film market by revenue.

For instance, of the top 15 highest grossing films in Chinese box office history, four are Hollywood productions. They are Avengers: Endgame, The Fate of the Furious, Furious 7 and Avengers: Infinity War.

It seems Hollywood has not learned the lesson of their Chinese successes though because unlike Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell and even to a certain extent the poorly received latest Star Wars trilogy, the Hollywood films that have found success in China are gigantic franchises telling American stories filled to the brim with spectacle and movie stars…and none of those stars are Chinese.

In 2020 Disney is once again making a major attempt to court the Chinese market by releasing Mulan, a live action adaptation of the 1998 animated film of the same name. While Mulan is based on the Chinese folk story ‘The Ballad of Mulan’ and will boast a very attractive cast of Asian actors, including star Liu Yifei, that is no guarantee of box office success. The 1998 animated Mulan financially flopped in China – though this was before its current cinema-building boom – and one wonders if the live action version is just another culturally tone deaf attempt by Hollywood to try to tell and sell a Chinese story back to the Chinese.

Hollywood’s belief that Chinese audiences want to see Hollywood make Chinese themed-movies with Chinese stars seems to be staggeringly obtuse and based on its own identity politics than how people around the world actually consume entertainment.

China has a thriving film industry all of its own and Chinese audiences don’t clamor to see Chinese stories told from Hollywood’s perspective (even if they’re made by Chinese-American artists) any more than Americans yearn to see American stories told by foreign artists, however, flattering it might be that someone is interested enough in your culture (and pockets) to do that.

Chinese audiences want to see American movies from America and can get over the fact that none of their countrymen look like Chris Hemsworth.

//youtu.be/SEUXfv87Wpk

At its best, the art form of cinema is a universal language that speaks eloquently across cultural boundaries. For example, American audiences this year have embraced the South Korean film Parasite.

Parasite didn’t try to tell an American story with American actors in an attempt to cash in with US audiences; instead it tells a dramatic and artistically profound Korean story about family and class that connects to people of all cultures and looks fresh to foreign audiences.

Hollywood would be wise to emulate that approach, particularly since it already knows how to dominate the global box office.

And if it does want to make what it thinks are “Asian” stories, it should be culturally humble enough to know that it’s making them primarily for the art house cinemas in Brooklyn, rather than the multiplexes in Beijing.

THREADS
The Farewell
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Mulan
Parasite

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I guess that Simu Liu doesn’t look “sissy boy” enough for PRC tastes, LOL.

40

Leiko Wu, Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr

Interesting. I have no idea who these characters are. I’m sure Design Sifu can edumacate me. Or maybe one of you…

POSTED ON JANUARY 31, 2020 BY CHARLES MURPHY
EXCLUSIVE: ‘SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS’ Confirmed to Introduce MI-6 Characters Leiko Wu, Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr

Production on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is set to get underway shortly in Australia and some casting information has begun to leak including some very exciting, if not expected, news: the film will introduce MI-6 agents Leiko Wu, Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr.

MI-6 or Military Intelligence, Section 6 is the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service and has played a major role in the Master of Kung Fu comics on which Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is based. After coming to understand the true nature of his father, international terrorist and crime lord Fu Manchu, Shang-Chi worked alongside and then with MI-6, most frequently teaming up with agents Clive Reston, Black Jack Tarr and Leiko Wu, with whom he also had a romantic relationship.

The film will apparently introduce the idea that Shang-Chi worked for MI-6 at one time, but has since made his “departure from the world.” Reston (whose now confirmed presence in the film was first rumored by HNE) is described as Shang-Chi’s old partner and friend who is now married to Leiko Wu, an elite MI-6 operative who once had “strong feelings” for the Master of Kung Fu. Fellow MI-6 agentBlack Jack Tarr, always up for a fight in the comics, is described as an “elite martial artist who enjoys the thrill of the battle.”

The studio was searching for a Caucasian male, 45-50 for Reston; a Chinese female, 26-39 for Wu; a Caucasian male 30-49 for Tarr. It is believed that these roles have been filled at this time though I was unable to get responses from representatives of several actors.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will hit theaters February 12, 2021.