Two months after “Black Widow” was released, Marvel’s latest movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” was finally released amidst the speculation of the outside world.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the film was released in just a few days and set the highest box office in North American theaters since the epidemic.
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Earning 90 million US dollars in four days, the world’s cumulative box office reached 140 million.
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” not only has a high box office, but the two word-of-mouth ratings on the Internet also have more than 90%.
It is worth mentioning that this new work does not have synchronized streaming media.
And this also means that since the epidemic, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” can be described as a life-saving straw for traditional theaters.
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But high scores go to high scores. The controversial issues of the film will not stop there because of its good performance. On the contrary, it may make the problem more and more difficult to distinguish.
Before the movie was released, mainland Chinese netizens had been complaining about “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” as insulting to China.
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The reason is that the protagonist candidate is ugly and has Western stereotypes. In addition, the villain played by Tony Leung is also an insult to China.
After the movie was released, netizens all over the world complained that Disney was clearly trying to please China, because more than one-third of the lines in the movie were in Chinese.
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For most foreigners who have not learned much Chinese, it is too uncomfortable to force them to read subtitles to understand the content.
Therefore, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” has caused an embarrassing phenomenon for netizens at home and abroad that “the inside and outside are not people”.
And if you use a physics term to describe it, it is: Schrödinger’s insult to China.
Since the film was released, many netizens from the media or who have watched it have done various analyses on the problems of the film itself, trying to thoroughly find out whether the film has RH.
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Although there are many controversial points, in the final analysis, the root of the problem lies in the sensitive topics involved in the original comics.
1.The mysterious background of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”
The birth of Shang-Chi is naturally inseparable from Bruce Lee’s influence, and therefore his ability is set as a master of kung fu.
There is no doubt that Bruce Lee’s appearance in Hollywood in the United States at the time set off a wave of Chinese Kung Fu.
At the same time, Bruce Lee also broke the American stereotypes of the Chinese.
It is worth mentioning that 1973, when Shang-Chi first appeared in Marvel World, also happened to be the year Bruce Lee passed away.
Bruce Lee’s achievements are certainly remarkable, but some Westerners’ prejudice against Chinese people has not yet been eliminated, especially the previous “Fu Manchu” image is even more lingering.
The collision of the two cultural images of right and wrong created Shang-Chi and his controversial life experience.
In the beginning, Fu Manchu was indeed designated as the biological father of Shang-Chi, and Shang-Chi became a mixed-race Chinese with white descent.
The beginning of the hero’s story was also started when he got rid of the control of his evil father.
But when the copyright expired, Shang-Chi’s biological father’s identity was also revised, and the person’s name was finally named “Zheng Zu”.
The previous “Fu Manchu” used the code name to return to the circle.
Undoubtedly, the early Shang-Chi comics had many Westerners’ discrimination and misunderstandings about China.
The protagonist is of white descent, and has to work for the whites, and then turn to his own father. It would be a proper insult to China today.
In the 21st century, the landscape of the East and the West has undergone tremendous changes.
The international status of the Chinese is getting higher and higher, and the Chinese market has become an important lifeline of the world market economy.
At the same time, Marvel opened its own “movie universe” era, making a lot of money in the global film market, especially in China.
As a businessman, Kevin Feige also knows well that some things that involve the bottom line are best not to be touched.
And this is one of the reasons why the movie setting of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” has been greatly revised.
Of course, many Marvel characters in movies have also undergone many changes and modifications, not just one of them is still upright.
For example, the lineage of Shang-Chi became a native Chinese. He ran away from home because he resented his father and went to the United States alone to start a new life.
The biological father has also become a completely new character “Wenwu” from the original movie.
Kevin Feige has personally clarified this point, saying that the “Fu Manchu” setting that Chinese audiences suspected has completely demarcated the line.
In the beginning, this character was Iron Man’s mortal enemy “The Mandarin”.
Although he and Fu Manchu are two separate characters, they both wear a pair of pants in terms of setting.
However, this change also clearly shows that Marvel is protecting from lightning, and even the ten rings used as weapons have become ten bracelets.
2.Cultural differences
Although there are endless criticisms, the good reputation of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” movie is a fact that you can’t deny.
As a Marvel movie with martial arts as the core element, the action scenes in the film are also quite amazing.
In order to faithfully restore the characteristics of kung fu movies, the film also specially invited Bradley James Allan, the first foreign member of the married class, to be the martial arts instructor.
Then the film incorporates the unique artistic conception of martial arts films in terms of special effects.
Let this Marvel universe, which has always been full of magic and science fiction, more of the fantasy of the Eastern world, such as the scene in the picture below where Tony Leung and Fala Chen played tricks.
For one thing, Tony Leung’s performance in the film is still so impeccable.
The villain Wenwu became flesh-and-blood and emotional under his interpretation.
In Marvel, there are not many three-dimensional villains, except for Wenwu, but also Loki and Thanos.
Charismatic villains are naturally very popular, plus Tony Leung is the starring role.
You have the strength and the human touch, so that the audience complained, “This old man is so handsome, why is his son so frustrated?”
This point also hits the biggest slot of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” at present-the protagonist’s casting is not good at all.
Whether it is the male protagonist Shang-Chi, or the female protagonists Xialing and Katy, the looks are really hard to describe.
In the comment section of the film review website, many netizens also made quite a few more pertinent comments.
But everyone’s praise points are basically not on the appearance of the male and female protagonists, but they do not praise Tony Leung and the special effects of the film.
This is a very embarrassing place, because Marvel’s casting really makes everyone not want to make too many comments. It is better to pay more attention to other content.
Simu Liu, as the core protagonist of the film’s story, did not become the focus of the audience’s discussion, which shows how dissatisfied everyone is.
But they didn’t insult China, nor could they directly blame the actors, so they had to ignore them as much as possible.
Speaking of the casting of the Chinese protagonist, it is indeed a point of controversy.
There are currently two different opinions on the Internet. One is that Westerners deliberately vilify the image of Chinese people.
The second is that Asian talents with such faces are considered to be attractive in Western aesthetics.
Indeed, there have always been huge cultural differences between the East and the West, including human aesthetics and concepts.
But it is clear that Marvel did not really investigate what beauty looks like in the eyes of the Chinese.
However, on the international stage, the hostility of Westerners towards China is also evident, and the arrogance of the Angsa people can be said to be carved into their bones.
In such an atmosphere, how many of the local people can view China without tinted glasses?
In short, the casting is indeed the most difficult part of the film for Chinese audiences to accept.
Most netizens also comment on the film in an attitude of treating things and not people, and have no intention of rising to other levels, so they avoid talking and discuss the content of the film itself.
Speaking of the film itself, it is still the old problem—the common problem of popcorn movies.
In the current Marvel movie, every time it reaches the climax of the battle plot, it must be a battle of some big scenes, even if it is based on the Kung Fu movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is no exception.
From the very beginning, like Chen Jiaju in the driving car, to the bamboo forest competition between parents, and finally to the decent camp with various beasts to launch a grand battle against the enemy.
The whole picture is back to the Marvel-style battle we are most familiar with.
Under the gorgeous special effects, there are not many points in the plot, but it is not useless.
This Marvel hero growth line adopts a process model from evasion to acceptance, starting from the contradiction between father and son.
Although the world of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is full of Chinese culture, the film is still an American film, and many of the Chinese elements are just permeating the table.
Especially when the content of various fairy fights in the later period comes out, you can quickly feel the boundless fantasy of Westerners about Eastern culture.
But there is no way. This is the difference of culture. It is hard to say that you can get the core of Eastern culture without being born and raised in China.
As a foreigner, it is not easy for Marvel to study so detailed.
Besides, it is a commercial film, so don’t expect too many deep-seated things.
3.Asian “Political Correctness”
The not-pure Chinese culture presented in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is more like the spiritual world of overseas Chinese.
Living in the West, with Eastern beliefs and culture.
Their world is like the content of this movie, full of all kinds of interweaving and mingling, and no one will feel it is against it.
And Marvel presents the inner world of this group in the movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”.
Previously, the starring Simu Liu had said in the video that this would be a Marvel movie dedicated to Asians.
In the old days of Hollywood, Asian actors had few opportunities to act as the main characters of movies.
Like other minorities, most of them play some humble supporting roles.
For Simu Liu, who has won the title of protagonist, such an achievement is naturally a rare and good opportunity, so that’s why he expresses such feelings in the video.
In general, the situation of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is actually similar to the previous “Black Panther”, and there is a concept of “political correctness” between the two.
One is mainly black and the other is mainly Asian.
Therefore, many Chinese netizens said that after watching “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, they have begun to understand why African American audiences love “Black Panther” so much…
No matter who the movie audience of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is, at least Disney and Marvel are not stupid enough to offend other people’s culture this time.
After all, business ethics are based on making money, and a good attitude towards customers is the most basic professional ethics.
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