*Spoilers.*
Okay, so I only
did one Marvelous Wednesday post that was mostly unrelated to Wenwu before
sliding right back into it. But hey, baby steps! The relationship between
Shang-Chi and his dad is the heart of the film, so it’s only fitting that we
talk more about it.
Dads, and daddy
issues, have loomed large throughout the MCU. Whether the characters are alive
or not, their impact on their adult superhero (or villain) children is strongly
felt. We’ve got evil adopted dads like Thanos, distracted/disinterested dads
like Howard Stark, and ostensibly well-meaning dads that still screw up their
kids like Odin. As for Shang-Chi, he’s got a real doozy of a dad – his first
film devotes extensive time to flashbacks depicting his messed-up childhood
with Wenwu. It’s weird enough when your dad is a 1000-year-old former war lord
who only recently stopped wearing the Ten Rings that grant him lethal power and
immortality, but for the first few years of Shang-Chi’s life, his childhood is
about as normal as it could possibly be under those circumstances. I remain
obsessed with the brief flashback of the Xu family playing Dance Dance Revolution and then cozying up on the couch together as
the kids fall asleep. For me, that’s the “Avengers hang around drinking beer
and trying to lift Thor’s hammer” scene of The
Legend of the Ten Rings, and I love it so much.
But after
Shang-Chi’s mom is killed (in retribution against Wenwu for something he did in
his war-lord days,) any pretense of normality is forever gone from the family.
Wenwu decides to rebuild the Ten Rings army, takes his 7-year-old son to watch
him murder some gangsters in revenge, and then trains said 7-year-old son to be
an assassin, again in service of revenge. While Shang-Chi eventually runs away
from home and tries to start a new life for himself away from his dad’s
influence, it’s not until after he takes his first life at the age of 14.
The two don’t
see each other for 10 years, and when circumstances/Wenwu bring them back
together, it’s a real head trip. First Wenwu sends Shang-Chi a postcard that
appears to be from Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing, then he sends some of his men to
recover Shang-Chi and Xialing’s Ta Lo pendants by any means necessary (but he’s
confident that his men “couldn’t kill [Shang-Chi] if they tried,” so let
bygones be bygones, right? Right?) After picking them up in his helicopter and
flying them back to his compound, Wenwu has dinner with his kids, drops an
unbelievable bombshell on them, and then has them thrown in his dungeon when it
looks like they’re going to get in the way of his plans. It’s not a surprise
when Shang-Chi comes to the conclusion that, because Wenwu needs to be stopped
at all costs, Shang-Chi will have to kill him.
All that is
classic hero kid/villain dad dynamics: the manipulation and abuse, the “join me
on the Dark Side” invite, the “I’ll never be like you!” defiance. But this
isn’t a Luke-Vader situation where the one redeeming moment comes at the
eleventh hour. Wenwu is objectively terrible,
but he’s also bizarrely, sincerely loving too, and that makes the whole thing
even harder for Shang-Chi (and Xialing, but more on her another day) to deal
with. As Shang-Chi is telling Katy about his twisted upbringing and his father
shaping him into an assassin, he admits, “I would’ve done anything he asked.”
And the way he says it, it’s not out of fear. It’s a kind of admiration, a kind
of love that Wenwu engendered from his son. Wenwu draws it out of Shang-Chi
with the way he kneels down to 7-year-old Shang-Chi’s eye level and earnestly
entreats Shang-Chi to help him avenge Li’s murder. With the way he tenderly
cleans Shang-Chi’s bloody knuckles after training, with the way he tells
Shang-Chi about the family legacy of the Ten Rings with just the slight hint of
a fairytale. Wenwu is powerful and imposing, but he’s magnetic too. He knows
when to use a light touch, and for many years, that kept Shang-Chi caught in
his orbit. A huge part of the reason Wenwu is so compelling, as both a dad and
an antagonist, is that all of his menacing scenes are about 10% tender and all
his tender scenes are about 10% menacing. It’s love and care and power and
possession and rage and grief and vengeance and longing all rolled into one. No
wonder he throws Shang-Chi off-kilter.
This is why
their big fight scenes in the second half of the film are dramatically engaging
as well as being excellent action. You can feel the force of the emotion on
both sides. Shang-Chi defiantly insisting he’s not afraid of Wenwu and Wenwu
coolly replying, “Yes, you are.” Shang-Chi’s accusation that Wenwu chose the
Rings over his family when his children needed him the most and Wenwu hurling
back that Shang-Chi should have protected his mom on the night those men came
for her. Shang-Chi’s taunt, “Is this what you wanted?” as he faces down Wenwu,
preparing to imitate his dad’s own ruthlessness, and then Shang-Chi choosing to
be better when he’s positioned to land the killing blow. Shang-Chi trying to
get through to Wenwu as he tries to break down the gate in Ta Lo (thinking it
will free a still-alive Li when really, it’s the Dweller in Darkness luring him
in,) sadly insisting, “She’s not back there, Dad,” Wenwu’s desperation as he
avows, “I have to save her!” These fights are charged and personal, and they
illuminate Shang-Chi (and Wenwu) for us in ways that the spectacle of the
climatic battle with the Dweller in Darkness just don’t.
By the end of
the film, Wenwu is gone, having pulled the classic last-second redemption move
of putting himself between danger and his son when the Dweller in Darkness
escapes the gate, giving Shang-Chi the Ten Rings with his dying breath. And I
mean, I get it. 1) Marvel probably didn’t want to bank on getting an actor of
Leung’s stature to sign on for more than one movie, and killing Wenwu off is
the cleanest way to get him out of the picture. And 2) Wenwu is such a
foundational presence in this film and in Shang-Chi’s life, so for Shang-Chi to
ultimately be established as his own hero, he needs to get out from under his
dad’s shadow, both personally and narratively. But it’s still a damn shame.
Even if the MCU is littered with sons and daughters who have complicated
relationships with their dads, this was one was done spectacularly well, and I
really wish we could’ve seen more of it going forward.
(Quick side
note, because I can’t help myself: not to mention, I just kind of wish we
could have Wenwu in everything. I would watch the hell out of a movie/Disney+
series/whatever that showed the rise of the Ten Rings, and I saw this fan art
of Wenwu facing off against Tony Stark (the Mandarin is primarily an Iron Man
villain in the comics) and was blown away by the sheer thought of all that
coolness we won’t get. Unless… What If…?
Maybe? Leung enjoyed working with you, Marvel – if you play your cards right,
you might get him to make more appearances in the universe!)
