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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Movie

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

2021 • Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Woke Score
5.6
out of 10

Plot

Shang-Chi, the master of weaponry-based Kung Fu, is forced to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization.

Overall Series Review

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is an action-adventure film centered on Shang-Chi, who must reconcile his mundane, Westernized life in San Francisco with his powerful, ancient Chinese family legacy. The film's existence is a deliberate effort to foreground Asian-American cultural identity and representation within a major franchise, making race and heritage central to the narrative. The plot sends the hero from his low-ambition urban life back to his father's ancient, criminal organization and then to the mystical, hidden village of Ta Lo, which is portrayed as a source of transcendent spiritual and physical power. Female characters are consistently depicted as highly capable: the hero's mother is a superior martial artist who civilizes the villainous patriarch, and his sister is a powerful 'Girl Boss' who builds her own empire and ultimately takes over the Ten Rings organization. The climax involves a clear battle between good and evil, but the source of all power, morality, and hope is explicitly rooted in a non-Western, mystical Eastern spiritual and philosophical framework.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics7/10

The movie is constructed around the explicit purpose of Asian and Asian-American representation. Characters are defined primarily by their cultural identity and the struggle to reconcile the two ethnic worlds of China and San Francisco. This focus on race as a primary lens for the protagonist's journey places the narrative firmly within the scope of identity politics. The main villain is a non-Western patriarch motivated by love and grief, not a vilified white male.

Oikophobia8/10

The film utilizes the 'Noble Savage' trope by contrasting Shang-Chi's directionless, unmotivated existence as a parking valet in the West with the spiritual superiority of the hidden, non-Western, ancestral village of Ta Lo. The narrative requires the hero to reject his modern Western life and embrace the mystical Eastern culture and heritage to gain the power and moral clarity needed to save the world. The film is considered by some to have an 'anti-Western formula' that promotes the superiority of the other culture.

Feminism7/10

Shang-Chi's sister, Xialing, is a clear 'Girl Boss' trope; she is neglected by the male-dominated family structure and responds by building a successful, powerful, underground business empire. She ends the film by taking over the family's powerful criminal organization and restructuring it. The hero's moral strength and ultimate fighting style come from his mother, a fierce but peaceful warrior who is superior to the male antagonist. The male hero is defined by his initial lack of ambition and need to be found by his family.

LGBTQ+1/10

The film focuses on the hero's family drama and platonic friendship with Katy. There are no explicit LGBTQ+ characters, narratives, or lecturing on sexual ideology within the story itself. The structure adheres to a normative male-female standard for relationships.

Anti-Theism5/10

The film embraces an entire spiritual and moral system that is non-Western and non-Christian. It presents Taoist dualism, ancestor veneration, and the mystical world of Ta Lo as the objective source of power, good, and morality against a demonic evil. This does not demonize traditional religion, but replaces it entirely with an alternative transcendent morality drawn from Eastern mythology.