I went to go see Shang Chi last night, super pumped but also a little bit… nervous? I’d been looking forward to this moment since summer 2018 when Comic Con told me the guy behind Jung from Kim’s Convenience was about to enter the MCU.
The representation sweats are real. First stand-alone Asian super? Lead role, not the sidekick or anything? Yeah I wanted this to be goooood.
Thankfully it’s the real deal.
The choreography that goes into a classic martial arts film, bringing the elegance of dance, intensity of combat, and wizardry of film is its own art form. (Jet Li’s Fearless, anyone?) And this film is such a glorious bask in the craft for most of its runtime. But from a distinctly Asian American POV, not with an exoticized foreigner.
I was wondering what layered cultural issues they might pack into the plot and- that stuff is there. Becoming your whole self by embracing your past, the richness of your ancestry alongside generational traumas and toxic upbringings, but more important than me being able to connect the stuff on screen to academic level conversations about Asian American relations was what the 10 year old a couple rows back was taking in.
Deanna once asked me what on screen characters I saw myself in growing up, and the answer was thin. Maybe the Fresh Prince both going from Philly to Cali?
But yeah, I’m thankful for a whole generation that’ll have much better answers than that.
Shang Chi
