Finally. It's happening.
But, really. What do we even expect from the very first Asian-led Marvel movie?
 |
| Marvel Studio |
The genesis of every superhero movie is to emphasize the existence of light of hope and an embodiment of what human beings can do. But if we take it to another level, most kids would find themselves wondering whether it's possible to see their own reflection on screen being represented. For most children of color, this dreams need to be halted before the marvel wave finally took place. But before it even started, we already had Blade as our very first marvel adaptation. But, as much as it made an impression, it should be noted that Blade didn't really have a generic formula of superhero story. That's why when we talk about POC-led marvel movie we would always refer to Black Panther and its legacy on how black panther resonates with black children and even beyond that.
Shang Chi's origin, on the other hand, was pretty much marvel capitalizing the hype of Kung Fu back in the 70s/80s and successfully gained good amount of fans. Before that, Shang Chi was published as a side story until Bruce Lee's movie hit the theaters and Kung Fu became popular. It became so popular that even Shang Chi himself resembled the late Bruce Lee and his family openly requested Stan Lee to tone down the resemblance. But what's more even fascinating is that Shang Chi has a really "racist" background. To make Shang Chi palatable to white audience, Shang Chi was written half white instead of having two Asian parents. His father, Fu Manchu, was a character written by White guy also with racist stereotypes and because apparently the word CHINAMAN appears on the Ouija board after the writer Sax Rohmer asking for his fortune, and of course encapsulated perfectly a criminal as a Yellow Peril that threatens humankind. But as soon as the hype died out, marvel decided not to proceed the publishing, besides Marvel decided to further capitalize what initially was Shang Chi's nemesis, Iron Fist and eventually started overtook Shang Chi's popularity.
So what about the current Shang Chi? Despites its problematic and racist history, both of the director Destin Cretton and the writer David Callaham stated that the team did a comprehensive research on the culture and with team consists of Asian American representation. But criticism doesn't stop on that matter. Another trivial criticisms were directed to the thespians themselves on how their facial features would prolong stereotypes of Chinese people of being not pretty, which I think is a total nonsense but again these types of criticisms are not substantial so marvel didn't take it seriously. Another one is the Shang Chi himself was portrayed by Simu Liu, a Canadian actor. Mainland Chinese audience also questioned Mandarin as a portrayal of Shang Chi's father and replacement of Zheng Zu who is a replacement of Dr. Fu Manchu, despites it problematic and racist origin. Marvel did respond that Fu Manchu hasn't been utilized by Marvel and thus the twist that we all watched in Iron Man 3 about the real Mandarin further explains that Mandarin would have a more complex background. What's more to this is that, compared to DC, marvel hasn't really had any groundbreaking villains. We might answer with Loki or even Thanos but Loki doesn't even have his own story until recently. But not even to the point where the villain has to have its own movie or series, a nice and deep portrayal could actually have a good impact on how good a villain would be, and Marvel quite lacks on that. There's a discussion surrounding Mandarin's role and how it would change Marvel's direction on its Villains, and this is also what wee need to look forward to. Besides, it is also promised that Shang Chi, as a character, would be a three dimensional character through his vulnerability, his background story, his reasonings, his upbringing and many more instead of merely offering martial arts capability, and for sure it's more than just a stereotype for Asian Community.
References
Shang-Chi's China Backlash Explained: Why Marvel Can't Release The Movie (Yet) (screenrant.com)
Iron Man 3's Mandarin Twist Controversy Fixed Marvel's Villain Problem (screenrant.com)
Zheng Zu (Earth-616) | Marvel Database | Fandom
Further Reading for Shang Chi
The Shang Chi Chronology (pjfarmer.com
AND by the way the ALBUM IS FREAKING AMAZING it's on loop now :( check it out!
Comments
Post a Comment