Is Chinese fantasy soluble in the universe of Marvel superheroes?
It really seems like yes.
And we owe this small feat to the talent of the young director Destin Daniel Cretton (
Le château de verre
, in 2017) who succeeded in mixing these two universes a priori quite distant from each other.
Read also Marvel: the Chinese critic not convinced by
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
As in the days of
Black Panther
, which would draw directly from the genre of “blaxploitation” of the 70s, the new face of Marvel, Shang-Chi is a paper character born in 1973 in comic-books under the Steve Englehart's quill and Jim Starlin's brush.
At the time, the super-hero Shang-Chi was also adorned with a Homeric epithet as clear as possible: "Master of Kung-Fu" (master of kung-fu), and this about a year before the creation. from another martial arts master, Iron Fist, which Netflix has taken on for a Bruce Lee-style action series.
In the comics, the character of Chang-Chi has always been more anchored in Asia and the legends of ancestral China.
This is why screenwriter Dave Calaham and Destin Daniel Cretton (who participated in the screenplay) naturally turned to Chinese fantasy cinema, be it
Tiger and Dragon
,
The Secret of the Flying Daggers
,
Stories of Chinese ghosts
or
The Monkey King
.
The Chinese bestiary (dragons, monsters and other ryuu), the subtle magic and this perfume of Asian enchantment bathe their film, without a doubt ...
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Marvel's
Black Widow
: the combative melancholy of the Black Widow
The story of
Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings
features a young man named Shaun (Simu Liu) who fled his father to take refuge in the United States, in San Francisco, where he became a valet driver. hotel with her best friend Katy (played by Chinese actress Awkwafina).
But you don't always run away from a domineering father like Wenwu.
Wong Kar Wai's favorite actor Tony Leung (notably in
In the mood for love
) interprets with accuracy, force and a touch of melancholy this painful, inconsolable character, who never ceases to drown in the anger of an impossible mourning. heal.
Head of the criminal organization The Ten Rings, this subtle villain ends up tracking down his son and sends a commando to retrieve him.
Caught up in his past, Shang-Chi will have to face his destiny, and assume his inheritance while making an alliance with his sister and her friend Katy who, by her comical projections and her well-felt lines, bring the comic element or even the second a degree dear to Marvel.
See also
What if…?
: Marvel superheroes shaken up on Disney +
While remaining a Disney blockbuster, this American blockbuster, which hunts in the lands of the Middle Kingdom, will drink from a source other than that of previous Marvel films.
This is pleasing.
This is what makes the difference.
A great wind of freshness is blowing on
Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings
.
Of course, the action sequences, Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai or Chinese kung fu fights offer chunks of bravery bursting with energy.
As for the mythology of the rings, in the memory of young Westerners, it resonates with another literary and cinematographic saga, that of the
Lord of the Rings
by JRR Tolkien, adapted on the big screen by Peter Jackson.
Nevertheless, by immersing the initiatory story of this new Marvel hero in the ink of ancestral Chinese fantasy, the director Destin Daniel Cretton renews the genre thanks to an unprecedented creative melting pot.
The spectacle is often breathtaking.
There is even sometimes a certain poetry in the fights and the choreography of the final sequences ... a bit as if
Tiger and dragon
meet the
Avengers
...