Throughout the literal two years I spent anticipating this film, and this performance from Tony Leung Chiu-wai, I was supremely excited but also just a tiny bit anxious. I was thrilled for Leung to be making his Hollywood debut (I knew he was fluent in English, so I didn’t worry at all about his ability to bring it in that language,) and the thought of him joining the MCU was scrumptious. At the same time, much has been said over the years about Marvel’s “villain problem,” and more than one acclaimed actor has been wasted by the franchise in an underwritten antagonist role. But as I’ve said, the more that came out about the film as its release finally approached reassured me that the MCU provided Leung with a role worthy of his time and talent and that, with it, he created something pretty special. Let’s get into it (Wenwu-related spoilers.)
Yes, this character is “the Mandarin” in that he possesses the Ten Rings and wields their power, and yes, he shares DNA with Fu Manchu in that he’s the “evil father” Shang-Chi has tried to divest himself from. But Wenwu is very much a creation of this film. Much like Ryan Coogler, Winston Duke, and Black Panther turned the racist comic villain “Man Ape” into the scene-stealing badass M’Baku, I knew that Leung, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Shang-Chi could shed the racist trappings of both the Mandarin and Fu Manchu and make something cool.
And from moment one, Wenwu is undeniably, almost unspeakably cool. A 1000-year-old warlord with immense power, Wenwu moves through every scene with this quiet self-assurance, this intrinsic knowledge that he can bend the world to his will through his power, both the supernatural abilities given to him by the Rings as well as his vast operation/army that obeys his every word. He carries himself with such an understated swagger – he doesn’t need to prove himself to anyone because he knows he’s better.
This is a man who didn’t pursue Shang-Chi when he ran away. Instead, he simply kept tabs on his son from halfway across the world, biding his time until he was ready to bring Shang-Chi (and later Xialing) home. While we’re introduced to Wenwu through flashbacks, our first glimpse of him in the present comes at this moment. Shang-Chi has fought his dad’s henchmen on two continents, holding his own against anyone sent after him, but just as he’s about to defeat his last opponent, he finds himself unceremoniously incapacitated by the Ten Rings. After all the noise and clamor and fighting in San Francisco and Macau, Wenwu steps in and shuts it down in an instant. (Side note: when I saw that moment onscreen, the first thought that came into my head was, “Oh, you know that wasn’t the first time he’s used the Ten Rings on one of his kids.”)
He’s powerful, stone cold, and deadly. And yet, he also exudes such warmth. There’s not a single doubt that he loves Shang-Chi, as terrible as he’s been to his son. (His feelings toward Xialing are more complicated, wrapped up in patriarchal attitudes as well as her resemblance to her late mother, but I would think he loves her too, in his effed-up way.) Much has already been made about Wenwu’s complex motivations in the film, driven by a desire to rescue his wife – who appears to him to have been imprisioned rather than killed – and reunite his family. In so many little moments, his genuine care shines through, which makes his damaging actions hit even harder. Within a moment of disabling Shang-Chi with the Ten Rings, Wenwu steps forward and tenderly rests his forehead against his son’s. In the opening flashback sequence, his first meeting/fight with Li shows us a jaded, power-hungry warlord falling in love with a serene warrior right before our eyes – his quiet smile when she beats him is just everything. There’s another flashback of him lovingly cleaning and bandaging young Shang-Chi’s bloody knuckles after a hard day’s training, even though these injuries are a direct result of Wenwu’s deranged insistence on raising his son to be an unstoppable assassin to avenge Li’s murder. This is a father who will preside over a family dinner with his children, telling stories with charm and just a hint of menace, and then throw them in his dungeons when they threaten to interfere with his plans.
It isn’t a combination that seems like it should work, at least not as organically as it does. But of course, that’s the power of Tony Leung Chiu-wai. While I’ve said before that his infrequent darker/more “villainous” performance tend to have a cold feel to them, Wenwu still has the warmth and soulfulness that Leung displays in his best roles (while also being completely different from Sam in The Longest Nite, another “warm villain” of his.) In Leung’s hands, the film manages the feat of giving us a villain who is unequivocally bad/evil while also being inescapably sympathetic/heartfelt. It’s probably a bit soon to be making any “best MCU villain ever!!!” decisions, but I can certainly say this is the best villain performance I’ve seen in the MCU and very possibly the best performance for any Marvel character altogether.
And the really wild thing? If I were to try and rank it with Leung’s other work, I don’t know if it would crack the top ten. He’s just an incredibly actor, painting with such rich detail across a fantastically subtle canvas, creating a performance that leaps off the screen and seizes you by the wrist and heart, walking away with an entire film and it’s not even the best he can do. I’ve been doing A Little TLC(w) long enough to know that every film/performance of his isn’t an instant masterpiece, but each time he really taps into that well of what he can do, there’s nothing like it.
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