 hey guys um this is kind of an awkward awkward moment but um i filmed this video about um two weeks ago a week ago a week and a half ago this was filmed before any of the stuff came out about simu um so i just want to put that disclaimer i will not be touched i will not be talking about that in this video this video is about the movie this video is about my thoughts on the story about the projection this is not about the cast or anything like that and this was filmed very prior to any of this coming out um i still wanted to post this video because i really love the movie still and um there's tons of people that worked in this movie not just simu so i'm still gonna post this because i have so much to say about it um anyways i still hope you guys know what this video i put a lot of work into it um and i still want to give it to you guys so i hope you guys like it today we're going to be talking about shang qi you guys probably wouldn't expect this type of video for me because i haven't done one in a while this is gonna be somewhat of an analysis of the movie shang qi now we are going to be splitting this up into three parts there is going to be the plot analysis the antagonist analysis and then we're going to be doing little fun facts and behind the scenes stuff that i researched and i thought would be interesting to share with you guys starting off with the plot i do follow the seven plot theory where i believe that all plots can fall under the seven plots listed here in the seven plots there's overcoming the monster the quest rebirth comedy tragedy and voyage and return and rags to riches there's a book on this if you want to go read it or research it more i follow it loosely where i just kind of put everything into the seven categories the plot we take in this movie is overcoming the monsters shan overcoming the monsters of his past wrongdoings and his current present monster of his father who dragged him into the ten rings organization now we can flip this and use it on any characters and we can see from their point of view what plot they would fall under and i did this with wenwoo as we know wenwoo is the villain of the story and his plot type actually falls under the quest the quest to get back his wife and bring his family back together these two contrasting plots is what sets up our movie our protagonist and our antagonist and that can actually be a really helpful tip if you guys want to understand your antagonist and your protagonist if you're analyzing a movie i was super engaged shot the entire movie three times i was very invested and what i've noticed it's a very quick start i think that if you're making a superhero movie a quick start is the best way to engage your audience because no one wants a slow start when they're watching a superhero movie some people don't like slow starts in general but especially not for a superhero movie we want action we want super magical powers not slow beginnings after watching it three times and removing the surprise ooh ah new character oh my god after removing that i still really enjoyed the movie and i think that is what i kind of back up by saying that it is a fairly good movie is that once you remove those surprise and the ooze and the ahs it's still a good movie i still thoroughly enjoyed revisiting each scene as we went through it and i didn't feel like it was the longest movie ever and sometimes i'm sitting in my room watching an hour and 30 minute movie and it feels like three hours so to be in the theater and sit there three separate times and still enjoy it and still enjoy every single minute of it is very good for shang chi now without being supervised to the movie i do have to point out some of my issues and one of my issues was the introduction to shon now why i'm saying that is not because i think that it was the worst introduction at all but i do feel a little bit of stiffness from the introduction i don't know if that was the first scene they filmed i don't know the timeline in the filming process but it felt stiff it just felt very awkward it felt like um a beginning of like an adam sandler rom-com or comedy movie which i personally didn't like you guys can disagree on that i know that's a very specific opinion to have on a very small scene in the movie i just didn't like it i didn't like their banter that much in the first scene of their introduction i thought it was weird awkward not super we've been best friends for 10 years now why this stuck out to me was because the contrast between that introduction scene and the scene right before it which was the story that his mom told about how she met the dad and all that kind of stuff and the legends of the ten rings that was beautiful that was gorgeous that was magnificent it was like it was like cucumber water i know that doesn't make sense it was like cucumber water in my mouth and then we got to the introduction with katie and shon and it was like waslehouse water we have two quotes from the movie that contrasts greatly throughout the film and that is blood debt should be played with blood and you have nothing to fear now these are the words that stick with shang chi throughout the movie we see that this was the last thing his mom told him was she told him you have nothing to fear i'm so proud of you what stuck out the most from his dad was blood debt should be paid with blood the parents were yin yang and that's why they needed each other and that's why he's all he's all yin no yang he needs something to balance him out because that man is insane and as michelle yaw's character non she says you are proud of the people who came for you this is what leads to him realizing he can't just beat his dad the way his dad taught him he has to beat his dad by using the best of both them because the only person that could stop him was his mom and this was all build up for the third act so this structure that they used to build up for their third act is what sealed the deal for me i think it worked really well for my taste and what i like some people could disagree you could think that's cheesy you can think that's you know boring you know cliche it kind of has that yin yang vibe but i really liked it but overall for the plot structure it's a pretty standard structure for an mcu movie there is not much different from any other mcu movie for second and third act it has a similar format and that's fine i don't mind personally i think the star of the film was a theme now you're probably wondering what's the difference between a theme and the plot look it up the theme of the movie is family relationships and the relationships of abandonment we have the father abandoning his children after his wife died and then we also have shang chi himself abandoning his own sister whenever the pressure of the legend of the ten rings why did i say that the ten rings organization became too much from him and he ran away by doing that by freeing himself from his dad's wants and unethical practices he also abandoned his sister in the process the mcu's have not done very good family plots before i cannot name a single family themed marvel movie that is actually they usually go to found family which is fun and all but it's it is what it is like we get it someone argue that the avengers is a found family i would say they're co-workers i i think black widow would disagree because she is like in love with them she thinks they are their family and my last part about the plot and kind of just the movie in general is the comedy this is not a funny movie this is not ant-man or which some people would even argue that ant-man isn't funny i thought it was funny i loved the trevor moris but i thought that was very funny but they headlined with aquafina a known comedian some would say some would say and you would think after all of her marketing as being a comedian she would be funny in the movie i do not chuckle at a single thing she said now everything i mentioned is essential to the movie it sets the tone builds the world and moves the plot forward or if done improperly can be the downfall of your movie but my question is what makes a movie stand out i just call it the wow factor and the wow factor for me was the mandarin aka wenwoo which was our antagonist of the film bringing back a past fuck-up villain from the mcu marple fixes their former mandarin a fake who pretended to be the leader of the ten rings organization now they've decided to show us the real leader and all his capabilities throughout his life he used the ten rings for power and to gain more and more and more eventually he stopped whenever he met the love of his life and ended up starting a family he then picked up those rings and started his unethical practices after his wife was killed by people who were after him and they wanted an eye for an eye now this has got to be one of my favorite mcu villains due to its depth and the complexity of the character i'm sure there's a lot of other villains in the mcu that give much depth and complexity but you know i'm i don't read all the comics so i'm very sorry but for me the movies i've seen i really love this villain so much and i'm gonna go into depth and explain why while watching this i could tell that the character was not judged while being written this is a very important screenwriting role which i have heard from many different people and even just writing in general not just for screenwriting if you're an author of books or whatever writing literally anything and you're writing a villain you don't want to judge the villain because it's gonna fuck up your entire thing because if you're judging the villain while you're writing them then everyone's you're already gonna fix things like subconsciously you're gonna fix things about them as you're judging them you want the audience to judge them you want the audience to be like that is fucked up so while you're writing the villain you have to be aware that you cannot judge them now wenwoo has already destroyed for power he's done that been there done that and now we're finally getting something that is personal we didn't see anything in his backstory that alluded to fighting for something personal we don't know how you know family relationships we only know now the present which is him finally having something personal to fight for which is hard for him because once you get into emotions and personal things that is not just something that you can destroy for i'm so sorry i'm so sorry he really thought this was going to fix his family he thought he was doing the completely right thing he believed that he was going to save his wife to bring back his family he found his children he's gonna bring he's gonna be the literal shining star at the end of the day he's going to bring back his family he's going to reunite them as he was so caught up in the death of his wife he basically abandoned his children emotionally for years until they eventually ran away for shangchi he abandoned him emotionally for ling he just abandoned her completely he took care of her you know food whatever like he kept a roof over her head but he abandoned her emotionally and didn't even do what he was doing in support for shangchi which was basically training him to pay back the debt you know blood debt should be paid with blood he really believed that training him and putting him through that all abuse of training and all that was gonna you know fix him like once he was gonna be strong enough to kill the person that was responsible for his mother's death like he was gonna be fixed like he was going to like he was gonna be all better obviously that's not the case but i think this opens a very interesting conversation which is emotional abandonment and i think this is very common in asian families asian american families that can happen in any no matter what your background is that can happen in your family i'm just going to speak of it because it is a movie that is representing asian so i'm going to speak about how it relates to the actual real life asian american experience asian parents tend to not talk about emotions they don't really tend to their kids emotional well-being and instead they focus on more acts of service you know they provide for them they support them academically they make sure that they um can build a life for themselves they make money they they can support their family in the future because after coming over to this country and not having that much they don't want that life for their children so their support for their children is pushing them is you know providing the support they need to fulfill their academic needs or passions that will lead to a fully supported life in the future by money of course because money in the capitalist society that we live in is what fuels support and well-being although there's parts of that which is really great it does not make it okay to leave out emotional support emotional support is very very vital to anyone's upbringing this villain is literally wrapped up in how harmful neglect can be especially to children now throughout the film you do get to see his charm his charisma his i think that means the same thing his you know persuasion he has you know like he's kind of like enticing like i was like kind of being like you know i was like oh my god hey like maybe you're right maybe she's in there because i i even though i am a viewer of the movie when i was watching that scene of him being like yeah your mom's back there i was like really you can see from the moment the dweller of darkness escapes through the gate when we finally realize as he was wrong and that's the defeat right there tony lung is actually known for his facial acting there's a video on it where you can really see in depth how he's known and you know the the analysis behind it the man who can speak with his eyes i'm not going to do that because there's already a video on it why do you need to do it you can totally totally see so many small little details he puts into his facial expressions that actually convey a lot of emotion and a lot of his character depth you can see him changing throughout the film and how his face becomes more stern becomes more hard becomes you know jaw clenched all the time whenever you know his he sees his kids against him but he's still putting up he's still saying you know these kind of like cocky lines and he's like whatever but his his face is tense and you can see tony lung just literally carrying this entire film on his back now if you've watched the film already i do want to point out one scene that really stood out to me with this facial acting facial acting this is when shang chi is having his battle with his dad his daughter if you will his daddy um sorry when he's having that conversation when they're fighting he's like she needs me she's speaking to me like she needs me to save her like she's in there shang chi is like i wish that were true like he's basically saying like dad you don't think i wish that were true i wish mom was behind there and you can see tony lung's face and he just kind of like he grimaces or something and he it's almost like he's shaking off that he's he's just shaking off the possibility that she's not back there and you see him kind of breaking and that scene i just love it i you know i just think tony just really hit that that was now it's my one of my favorite points in the movie is that you know like two seconds you would think after just completely diving into this analysis about when will i would just be like oh my god like it's literally a movie about him like this is literally a when will movie this is not about shang chi it's still just enough it just reaches that point where it's just enough and it doesn't overshine shang chi and simu's performance making a protagonist and antagonist that balance out through the movie they kind of get to this midpoint and then it finally switches back at the last act i think is my favorite personal personally which is kind of a basic storytelling format but i don't want to be on the the the protagonist side too long i want to be able to see the antagonist point of view and understand the villain truly because i don't want to go out of the movie and be like well why was the villain even doing that like what was he even doing like i don't even understand why he did all that if it's just for power like you're literally so boring that's why i loved this villain so much because it was like a little bit more personal and i like a little bit more connection what can i say there's not much more to give to a villain we have a great actor that is it conveys you know the wrongdoings of him and how how detached from his emotions he is but also in a way where he's like almost too attached to his emotions with his love for his wife but also detached in his way that he just kind of kills whoever it gave a very very similar vibe to magneto and i love magneto i love him now i did a lot of research on some tidbits and facts about the behind the scenes and my tidbits and facts i mean i looked up every single mythological creature from that from and i also did some you know a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of this with the stunt work because those are two things that i very much enjoyed from the film obviously morris i love morris this lovable faceless creature is actually called a di zheng i don't know if i'm saying that correctly sorry i am i'm a little chinese girl that doesn't know chinese i'm so sorry and can also be referred to as hundun which translates to chaos basically this creature is just known for being chaotic and kind of senseless when it comes to direction so i don't know if it was ironic that he was the one that directed them to tallow but i think it was i think it was a little bit of irony because this whole like it's a literally such a chaotic creature that like doesn't know direction doesn't even a face and he's the one that guides them through the forest the ever-changing forest whatever you say whatever you say next we have the guardian lions the huge dog lions who were seen protecting the tallow warriors they have many names including lion dogs fulions stone lions or shishi which i think is what they refer to them in japan as shishi these fluffy creatures in the movie in real life are seen outside of chinese buildings temples guarding and protecting the said building from harmful spirits and or harmful people that might be a threat so the symbolism of them is not really symbolism it's just what they do in the movie they protect the they protect tallow they are as you know guardian lions which this was a really it was kind of like a really crazy moment for me that i i've seen these everywhere um you know i we have we literally have these statues in my home seen them all the time so seeing them in a movie was so surreal because i'm like you see like dragons and unicorns and all that kind of stuff in movies all the time i've never seen a guardian lion brought to life to CGI in a movie so that was i was like about to cry just at that the beautiful white multi-tailed fox we see as we enter tallow's land is the nine-tailed fox you've probably seen this in many different um i think they use them a lot in uh anime i believe so like i feel like they're a very common figure within a lot of japanese stuff as well because there are you know kitsune's are kind of bigger like fox spirits in japan i believe um i don't i don't know necessarily i haven't done the research but these creatures are referred to greatly in many historic books on chinese mythology most of the fomal fox spirits in the book are smart brave and would sacrifice for their loved ones but most of the time when i see foxes they're female for some reason feng huang i think i'm saying that right feng huang the birds on fire that fly through the sky and warn tallow people when danger enters they can be referred to as the chinese rooster the chinese phoenix or even just phoenix we've seen phoenix in a lot of stuff phoenix is one of the more common common mythological creatures phoenix rising from the ashes or to the phoenix i love that movie legend indicates that the phoenix appears just before the yellow emperor's death and during the zhao dynasty the bird became synonymous with political prowess and prosperity so you know it it kind of lines up with what happens in the movie they appear before the danger comes i get it i get it i get it qilin the fantastical four-legged creature that strolls in front of the car as they enter tallow and trevor refers to as a horse is actually known as a chinese unicorn which i thought was very fascinating because i didn't know they were different the qilin is one of the four noble animals along with the dragon the phoenix and the tortoise which we saw two of the other figures we saw the dragon and the phoenix in this movie so i wonder if there was a tortoise in there that i just didn't see maybe there was a tortoise and i just didn't see maybe it was floating along one of those ponds but i didn't see it and i've watched it three times but that would i would think that would be kind of cool if the four noble animals were in the movie lastly we have the great power which is the dragon that we that is amazing the the the wonderful huge dragon that saves the day from the evil dark entity the dweller of darkness whenever she said that i was like you are crazy like why did you guys give it such a weird name the dweller of darkness such a mouthful but the chinese dragon is often seen as a symbol of divine protection and diligence it is regarded as the supreme being amongst all creatures it has the ability to live in the seas fly up in the heavens and coiled up in the land in the form of mountains being the divine mythical animal the dragon can ward off wandering evil spirits protect the innocent and bestow safety to all that hold his emblem the chinese dragon is looked upon as the ultimate symbol of good fortune which makes sense in the movie the great power saves the day what else were we expecting from the great dragon also i really want to mention this quickly the movie shang chi was supposed to be released in 2020 um so i looked up what year 2020 was for the chinese zodiac and that is actually the rat the rat is actually the first chinese zodiac in the chinese zodiac lineup and it actually means fresh starts new beginnings you know it's the first in the chinese zodiac so it means fresh starts is a great year to start new things um and i'm thinking my little theory filled the brain is saying that i think it's kind of representing phase four of the mcu because i think shang chi is starting it off or somewhat in the beginning of it i believe so so from the trailers of the movies we were promised and we were hinted at great stunt scenes and boy did it deliver i was i was so enchanted by the stunt scenes you know the bus scene if you didn't know it was simulud did all of that simulud did the whole bus scene that was that was him there was no stunt doubles obviously there's effects and there's you know they they mash clips together and you know all the kind of stuff but he did it he did that all in this movie we finally got the grand shots of these fight scenes which was amazing in this you know in the bus we got even some wide shots on the bus which was crazy you know we have outside of the building in um mcu and that was all such grand things that i just loved it and most of the fight scenes they do show very grand shots of it which and they show a lot of the moves that they are doing and i just think that is it was so refreshing to see in a marvel movie because i don't really see that that often as we're all agreeing on this had some of the best stunts in the mcu and we can actually think that to the stunt choreographers and all the stunt team that worked on it so i really want to take this time to applaud them because they were amazing so the stunt team actually had two members from the jackie chan stunt team which is so amazing and i'm so glad that they got to have them the leader of the stunt team was actually brad allen and if you stayed till the end of the credits you saw that the film it was in honor like it was there was a dedicated part to you know remember brad allen because he actually passed away this year only in august and he was very young he was about 45 i think he was in his 40s the stunts on this film were masterpiece and you know that goes to him because he was the leader he was actually one of the first non-asians to make it into jackie chan's stunt team and he did like over a dozen jackie chan movies so he did an amazing work on this film the entire stunt team did an amazing job on this film that's part of the reason why i love this film so much and i think that's a part of the reason why a lot of people love this film so much so go show them some love because i think it's very important to support you know stunt doubles and stunt teams on these big movies where they get very little you know praise and credit for what they do so that wraps it up for today's video i know i have so many more thoughts on shang chi but i just wanted to put them into a little video and share it with you guys let me know if you like videos like this where it is not a commentary and it is more of a sit down analysis essay type video because i really did enjoy making this and writing this for you guys go watch shang chi it's still in theaters right now take your friends take your families it's definitely worth the watch um go see it again if you've already seen it because i've seen it three times and i'll probably see it again so you guys better catch up thanks for tuning in and i'll see you guys next time bye