Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Simu Liu has been cast as the Mandarin and Shang-chi in MCU’s upcoming film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Awkwafina has also been cast (her film The Farewell by director Lulu Wang is currently in theaters now!). Guess we missed the mark on calling this one (but at least we got Mulan right!) .
Cfensi
Your source for Chinese Entertainment News
Awkwafina was also cast for this movie (she was hilarious in Crazy Rich Asians).
Great news for Simu Liu (Canadian!) who’s on Kim’s Convenience (available on Netflix) and in the WangFu productions.
The letter he wrote to his parents that was published in a magazine really resonated with me and my relationship with my immigrant parents.
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/a-chinese-canadian-to-his-parents-privately-i-yearned-for-your-love/
Mulan has been a disappointment for me from casting to director and production crew. So I’m really hoping this movie will be awesome. I have more faith in Marvel movies than the Disney live adaptations =P
I love Awkwafina, and I’m happy for Simu Liu, but I also agree with the complaint in China that the casting seems to suggest a continuation of the trend of Hollywood imposing what their idea of what is “Chinese” is in those films.
My biggest fear for Shang-Chi is it’ll get the Black Panther treatment – i.e. it’ll have a random smorgasburg of Chinese elements, many of them outdated and symbolic of a backwards culture that most young Chinese do not support. While that might work for a fictional African country, it will not work for China. For example, if at any point they accessorize women with unhealthy tall necklaces and suggest it’s still a thing in China, the Chinese audience will throw a riot.
likHope it will be a big improvement from the old film Big Trouble in Little China where the traditional characters were made to look damn ugly and creepy.