By all accounts, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been one of Hollywood’s most triumphant success stories in a long time. It’s drawn glowing reviews, with many fans and critics labeling it upper-echelon among the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 25 films releases. It’s topped the box office for three weeks straight, racking up $181 million in the U.S. and $325 worldwide at a time when movie theaters continue to reel from a pandemic that won’t end.
And it’s made a profound cultural impact as the first major superhero movie with a predominantly Asian cast, starring Simu Liu as the eponymous slacker-turned-warrior who embarks on a quest to save his late mother’s mystical homeland with the help of his wise-cracking best friend Katy (Awkwafina) and estranged sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang).
It’s that third point that’s hit director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, Just Mercy) and his co-writer Dave Callaham (The Expendables, Wonder Woman 1984) the hardest.
“There was a 22-year-old young man who posted a picture of him and his dad going to watch the movie and he just said, ‘Thank you for healing my relationship with my father,’” Cretton laughed, calling to mind the film’s deep family themes — and complicated relationship between Shang-Chi and his omnipotent father Wenwu (Tony Leung) — that have resonated with many first-generation viewers.
