OVP: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Film: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Stars: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Tony Leung

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Visual Effects)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I'll be real-coming out of Spider-Man: Far From Home, I was a bit over the obligation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  I knew that I wouldn't entirely be able to escape it-projects like the OVP and just general osmosis were going to keep me coming back even if I decided to skip some installments, but I wasn't thrilled about what a post-Thanos world would look like for the organization.  Something happened, though, during the pandemic when I couldn't see any major blockbusters-I developed a hunger for them.  In retrospect, for me the MCU became a place of nostalgia that it couldn't have been in its ubiquity.  Most of the product since Avengers: Endgame, though, has been lacking.  Spider-Man and Black Widow were too dry, Falcon & Winter Soldier and Loki were a snooze, and What If has yet to live up to the fun of its potential.  Only WandaVision, a complete departure from the MCU's traditional formatting, has shown itself to be truly worthy.  That is, until Shang-Chi, currently lighting up the box office & totally defying convention, potentially changing some of the "evolution to streaming" conversations (supposedly Shang-Chi has convinced Disney that they should release Eternals exclusively in theaters as well).  Shang-Chi is doing this not just through exclusivity-it's also one of the best films in the MCU, showing that even if it's sticking to the formula, it can find ways to drive a fun action-adventure that doesn't need a name-brand to keep it afloat.

(Spoilers Ahead) Taking place in the years after Avengers: Endgame (though weirdly it's never explained which characters were blipped or not), the movie is about Sean (Liu), a valet driver who speaks multiple languages but doesn't aspire to much more in his life other than hanging with his friend Katy (Awkwafina).  Things change, though, when a man on a bus tries to steal Sean's necklace, and rather than giving it up, Sean fights the man in a blistering whirl of martial arts, to Katy's shock.  It turns out that Sean is actually Shang-Chi, the son of a ruthless crime boss named Xu Wenwu (Leung) master of the mystical "ten rings," who is attempting to steal these magical necklaces from both Shang-Chi and his sister Xu Xialing (Zhang) in order to take on the home village of their mother, whom he believes is trying to keep her captive, despite them understanding that she was killed when they were children.  They initially are captured by their father, then escape and go to the village, lead by their aunt Ying Nan (Yeoh).  Nan leads them in battle against their father, who in turn awakens the Dweller-in-Darkness, whom Shang-Chi and Katy ultimately kill.  The film ends on something of a cliffhanger, with Shang-Chi and Katy joining up with Captain Marvel, the Hulk, and Wong, presumably joining the Avengers in the process.

Shang-Chi suffers in some regard from some of the problems you get from the Marvel franchises.  The third act is a bit sloppy (they really are not great with ending their films), throwing too much CGI into the battle with the dragons (it made it a bit blurry & washed out, which is the case for a lot of the Marvel films where they simply have too much CGI to make it look realistic), and I will admit that there is maybe not enough information in the pre-Shang-Chi period of our main character's life (I would've liked at least one scene of him as "Sean" without Katy there so we could understand what he was like while he was alone).

But these are small complaints, as Shang-Chi is the best MCU film since Black Panther.  Casting Simu Liu in the lead turned out to be a stroke of genius, as he is totally prepared to play the slacker qualities of this figure, while also believably rising to his destiny as the film continues (also, it must be said, Liu is the hottest addition to Marvel's universe since Thor took off his shirt).  Awkwafina's character might need a bit more explaining in a future film (like, does she have a superpower other than being good at shooting arrows...and isn't that Hawkeye's thing?), but she proves to be one of the most reliable comic reliefs currently in movies, totally nailing the the "comic" part of this and giving us a playfulness that has been lacking in a lot of recent Marvel product.  The remainder of the cast is superb, particularly Leung & Yeoh, both icons of Asian cinema for decades, proving their movie star chops in a big-screen American product.  About the only thing I wanted out was Ben Kingsley's unnecessary connection to the larger Marvel universe (was anyone really clamoring for him reviving his work as "the Mandarin?").  Combined with some terrific stunt work & fight scenes (the fight on the bus is epic, as is the sequence where we first meet Xialing), Shang-Chi is a spry shot-in-the-arm for the MCU films headed into a consequential fall, where both Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home come with sky high expectations...it's proof that Marvel can believably achieve such levels still.

OVP: The Grandmaster (2013)

Film: The Grandmaster (2013)
Stars: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Zhang Ziyi, Song Hye-kyo, Zhang Jin, Wang Qingxiang
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Cinematography, Costume)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

There are a few directors amongst modern art house cinema buffs that you feel the need to hit the movie no matter the reviews, no matter the plot, because they are so celebrated, and because their films are so rare, you feel that it's you duty as a member of the cinema-supporting public.  Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Pedro Almodovar-these are some of the directors that make up this list.  Toward the top of the crew is Wong Kar-Wai.  The man who brought the world Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love has come out with his first film in six years (the last being My Blueberry Nights, a movie that fizzled with critics), which is definitely reason enough to get out to the movies and celebrate.

The film is about the legendary Ip Man, who was a man who taught martial arts to multiple students, including most famously the actor Bruce Lee (who would go on to introduce martial arts to the western world).  It's the sort of biopic you pray for-one about an important and interesting individual who has not been chronicled ad naseum by directors, though in this case, because I know next to nothing about him (aside from the brief bits that a Google search provided), I cannot vouch remotely for the film's authenticity.

The movie is not about Ip Man's relationship with Bruce Lee, but it isn't exactly an origin story either.  We only briefly see a young Ip Man, at the beginning of the film during an extended fight sequence, but primarily we see Ip Man in his thirties to his fifties, all-the-while played by Tony Leung.  One the opening fight is over, we then move into a period where Gong Yutian (Qingxiang), a martial arts master, is about to retire, and wants a geographically southern successor in addition to his son being the northern successor.  Of course, considering he is the main character, after battling three different artists with very different styles, Ip Man is put forward as the potential successor before Gong Yutian competes with him in a battle of thoughts as much as actions.  Ip Man succeeds, but later fails in a fight against Gong Yutian's daughter Gong Er (Ziyi) who is clearly meant to be his true successor, not her spoiled, less-talented brother Ma San (Jin).

Despite his married status, Ip Man and Gong Er maintain a flirtatious friendship for many years, and we  watch as both of their lives change in ways that they did not expect.  Ip Man goes through hell during the Second Sino-Japanese War, losing his home and family and eventually finds himself at the bottom rung of the ladder in Hong Kong, having to fight with a burgeoning population of martial arts "masters" in the city).  Gong Er becomes a doctor, though we learn that she had at one point defeated her brother in an epic battle on a train station.

The film at that point takes a detour to show us a young Bruce Lee, and to try and refocus back on Ip Man, but the film is more about his relationship with Gong Er than the eventual source to his worldwide fame, and Gong Er's confession before her death (she becomes addicted to opium due to injuries sustained in her fight at the train) that she loves Ip Man is easily the climax of the film.  The movie ends explaining Ip Man's impact to the world, and though there's a bit of a break between the first set of credits and the second (make sure not to be fooled there when you're leaving the theater), the final few minutes seems like way too much of a tag-on.

The film's great strength is its visual appeal.  The movie looks spectacular, and the fight sequences are a a superb dance.  This is not the same film that, say Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers are (sorry, I'm not super well-versed with Chinese martial arts cinema, so I don't have more recent touchstones)-it's a modern telling, and doesn't have room for as much embellishment, as it's trying to stay grounded in fact.  Therefore, we get more focus on the movements than the high-flying acrobatics we associate with the resurgence of martial arts films in the past decade.  The cinematography and score are both lyrical and poetic-when we get one snow-covered scene, it's so startlingly bright and real (we've been used to lantern glows and rain-soaked nights), Kar-Wai gets the impact of "this is going to be important" across right away.

The film's plot didn't carry me as much as it was supposed to, however.  I'll admit that I didn't follow a good chunk of the film until it refocused on the love story, and while that is likely to do with my lack of knowledge surrounding martial arts, it still hurt my enjoyment of the film.  When the film became about the love story and the lead performers, it became much easier to interact with the movie on a common ground level.  The leads, both brimming with movie star confidence, looked excellent, and Ziyi in particular hasn't been this good in years.  

Overall, I'm going with a middle-of-the-road three stars-this isn't going to set the cinematic world on-fire like Chungking Express did, but it's still a worthwhile trip to the cinema, and with the stunning exception of Instructions Not Included, is likely to be the highest-grossing foreign language film of the year.

What did you think of The Grandmaster?  Where do you think this ranks in regard to Wong Kar-Wai's overall filmography?  And with this film destined to hit at least $10 million domestically and Instructions likely to have hit $30-40, is this year going to see a renaissance of the foreign-language film in the States?