SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS was a triumph on so many fronts. It marks a lucrative return to in-person theaters, a much-needed boost to another industry crippled by the pandemic. It waves a glorious banner for Asian inclusion in Hollywood, a much-needed salve for the tragedies that triggered the Stop Asian Hate movement. But most of all for KungFuMagazine.com, it’s a great martial arts movie.

This year has been a windfall for Hollywood Asian-led martial arts films. Preceding SHANG-CHI were SNAKE EYES and MORTAL KOMBAT. Although these other two didn't share in the box office success, they were both excellent martial arts films that were also inclusive. And just prior to the pandemic, back in 2020, there was MULAN (which was disappointing, but we won't dwell on that). There hasn't been such a windfall of major Hollywood martial arts films like this before. Normally, KungFuMagazine would be all over these with reviews and coverage. We’re always excited whenever martial arts are showcased in movies.

But the last two years have been anything but normal. Typically, we’d expect a decent bump in popularity and exposure, but it was all clipped by Covid. And despite assiduously following the production of each of these films on our Martial Media and Popular Culture subforum, we didn’t publish any official coverage our website.

Until now.

Three the Hard Way

I just can’t leave KungFuMagazine.com bereft of coverage for these three groundbreaking films in 2021. It would be remiss to do so. Despite the pandemic, we remain stalwartly true to our mission to promote the Chinese martial arts, and these films have a significant impact upon that. Even though our coverage here is after the fact, their inclusion in our archive of over a thousand cover stories and exclusive articles is important.

To be fair, I confess that I’ve already covered these films elsewhere. When our print magazine became an early Covid casualty, I was out of a job. Truth be told, even without the pandemic, the death of Kung Fu Tai Chi was inevitable. We had been struggling for years and Covid was the final nail in our coffin. However, as it says in Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour knoweth no man,” and the abrupt end sent me scrambling to find work alongside countless others who lost their jobs to Covid. I returned to being a freelancer – a Ronin again, or more appropriate to here, Youxia (wandering knight 游侠). I was invited to do some writing for Den of Geek and consequently covered all three films over there.

I’m still working here for KungFuMagazine.com (obviously since you’re reading this here), but now it’s a part time position. After nearly a year of freelance hustling, I secured a fulltime position with YMAA Publication Center. Den of Geek was one of my freelance gigs that stuck. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying writing about pop culture, especially on topics outside of the martial arts. While I’ll always be loyal to KungFuMagazine.com, Den of Geek has a wider audience, some 10 million readers a month, and every writer seeks to be read. And I’m grateful for the opportunity there.

I write differently for Den than I do here. It’s a general readership, one not passingly fluent in the martial arts. More to the point, I have an underlying mission here - to sell martial arts gear so we can keep the lights on at KungFuMagazine. To be blunt, MartialArtSmart pays our rent. Whenever a movie comes out, if there’s related gear, we’ll promote it alongside the review. For example, when THE KARATE KID reboot, Karate uniforms did well. Halloween is a good barometer of how the martial arts is doing in the public eye. Most Halloween stores offer a selection of Ninja costumes. MartialArtSmart offer the real thing, and only for a fraction more. I’ll come back to this point later.

This demonstrates a point about our movie coverage here. When the movies capture the attention of popular culture, our martial arts economy gets an always needed bump from increased school attendance and gear sales. However, Covid clipped this too. The influence of these three films did not move that sales needle. Unfortunately, the pandemic has impacted shipping globally. It’s that supply chain break. Almost all martial arts gear is imported, and it is extremely difficult to get products into the country right now. The shipping lines are overloaded, customs are backlogged, and supplies aren’t getting replenished at their normal rate. Consequently, most companies are out of stock of the bulk of their regular items. It’ll be a while until things get sorted out. Sure, I can plug Tiger Hooks for Ten Ring aficionados since that was their weapon of choice, but we’re currently out of stock of them.

But that’s enough bellyaching about the woes and worries of the world. Let’s escape to the movies.

MORTAL KOMBAT – Premiered April 23 – $83 million

I was excited for this film because the main role of Cole Young went to someone I know – Lewis Tan. I met Lewis at a press dinner for INTO THE BADLANDS in Dublin in 2017. Martial artists have a way of spotting each other and Lewis eyed me right away. With a self-assured cockiness, he told me he was going to be on the cover of Kung Fu Tai Chi someday. At the time, it annoyed me. People always bugged me about the cover, and it was so tiresome. That’s something I’m so glad to have left behind. But in retrospect, he was right. Had the magazine survived, I would’ve totally put Lewis Tan on the cover for MORTAL KOMBAT. He deserves it and I’m sorry I was unable to make that happen.

We kept in contact after the Badlands and he has always been generous with his time for me. I interviewed him for KungFuMagazine in Lewis Tan on DEADPOOL 2's Shatterstar and INTO THE BADLANDS and in our successive correspondences, he mentioned that he was involved in MORTAL KOMBAT, but didn’t allude to the magnitude of his role. When I interviewed him Den of Geek, he acknowledged our previous interactions right when the interview began, but it was a quick online press junket so we didn’t get to chat beyond the interview.

I’m so happy for him. He was great in the film. He really shined, not only with his martial arts skill but with his acting chops. Cole Young was a role that Tan was born to play. Along with reconnecting with Lewis, I also interviewed Joe Taslim, who I’ve been a fan of for years. That was a delight and I tried not to fanboy too much over him. He’s one of the leading martial arts actors to watch right now, a genuine competitive champion who’s been taking on a wide range of roles.

I’m not sure what I would’ve sold for this. Mileena (Sisi Stringer) uses some wicked Sai and there’s a story arc about a Kunai (which due to the aforementioned supply issues, is out of stock at this writing), but we don’t carry anything akin to Sub-Zero’s ice sword.

SNAKE EYES – Premiered July 23 – $37 million

I had reviewed the previous installment in G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, Ninjas and Femme Fatales and the most outstanding memory I have of that film was the 3D Ninja battle while rappelling down a mountain side. Truth be told, that was all I remembered from the that film. It was an incredible action piece, exactly the kind of spectacle we come to expect from this franchise. While it was entertaining, it was also vacuous.

Unfortunately, despite some teases from PR reps, I didn’t get to interview any talent, and there were several cast members that I would’ve loved to chat with. Through Den of Geek, I had interviewed Andrew Koji (Storm Shadow) for his previous work on WARRIOR (see Warrior, Snake Eyes, and What’s Next for Andrew Koji) and enjoyed our conversation immensely. He has a charming British accent and was very easy going about it all. I hoped we might reconnect again for SNAKE EYES but it didn’t happen.

Among the others on my interview wish list, it would have been fun to interview Henry Golding (Snake Eyes) too. I would’ve loved to put him on the cover just because of the potential crossover. He has a huge fanbase from CRAZY RICH ASIANS and to have a popular celebrity like him was a guarantee to move some extra issues on the newsstands. Traditionalists would have balked at our mag going for a non-martial artist movie star over a genuine practitioner (unlike many of his castmates, Golding had no martial arts background) but that was life on the newsstands. If you’ve never sat in the publisher’s seat of a niche newsstand magazine, you have no idea what it’s like. Nevertheless, Golding carried the role well, a testament to the fine work of the fight coordinators Bryan Sloyer and Kenji Tanigaki.

Another interview candidate was Ray Park too because he was the original Snake Eyes and another cover master. It would’ve been a good excuse to reconnect.

But the star that I truly wanted to interview was Úrsula Corberó because I’m a huge fan of MONEY HEIST. She’s not a martial artist, nor is she that well known as Golding here in the U.S., but she was the star of this movie for me. She stole every scene as the Baroness. I confess that it’s my unabashed fanboying over her. I hope the next G.I. Joe movie is just about the Baroness. However disappointingly, no fresh interviews came my way for this one and I didn’t have the leisure to pursue them.

Ironically, there wasn’t much to sell here either. Sure, we carry plenty of Ninja Gear including Ninja weapons, but the film didn’t use traditional Ninja costumes. The Ninja uniforms were more like superhero costumes or space suits. MartialArtSmart doesn’t sell those.

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Premiered September 3 – $414 million

In anticipation of this film, I peeked at KIM’S CONVENIENCE to get a sense of Simu Liu (Shang-Chi). I was just going to get a taste to see what Simu was all about but ended up getting totally hooked. I loved it and binged all four seasons quickly, eagerly gobbling down Season 5 afterwards as soon as it was released. Ironically Jung (Liu) was my least favorite character but by no fault of his. It was just the way he was written. The show was working up to a reconciliation between Jung and his father Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) but it ceased production before it got there. Coincidentally, father-son reconciliation is a major theme of SHANG-CHI.

I wasn’t confident Liu could carry the role. He didn’t have a martial background like Lewis Tan or the acting accolades like Henry Golding. But he was in great shape, a running joke on KIM’S CONVENIENCE, so he had the discipline it takes to get his martial arts up to speed. Plus, the film had a top-notch team of fight choreographers: Andy Cheng (who like Lewis Tan, I had met previously in the Badlands), Guillermo Grispo, Lu Junchang, Alan Tang, and the late great Brad Allen.

SHANG-CHI exceeded my expectations. It struck every note precisely like a phoenix-eye fist targets an acupoint. My only complaint was more martial fanboy quibbling – it needed more of Master Guang Bo (Yuen Wah). Anyone who knows Kung Fu cinema knows what a titan Yuen Wah is in the genre – a Kung Fu brother of Jackie and Sammo, known as the ‘Somersault King’. I was delighted to see him included in the MCU, but I hoped for more of him.

Sadly, due to political issues, SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS still has not been approved for distribution in China. The film was built for the Chinese audience. It’s closest MCU predecessor IRON MAN 3 was a major blockbuster there. Imagine what SHANG-CHI’s global box office might have been if it was shown in the most lucrative theatrical market in the world. Another pandemic shift was the rise of China as the world’s biggest film market.

Don’t believe me? Well then, what’s the latest global blockbuster for 2021 so far? It’s not SHANG-CHI. It’s not 007 either. It’s a film that only showing in China now –THE BATTLE AT LAKE CHANGJIN. That stars Wu Jing, another person I was hoping to get on the cover, but that will never be now. At this writing, this film has been in the theaters for three weeks and has racked up a whopping $770 million. That’s $236 million more than all three of these films combined. And that’s not even #1 for 2021. The biggest 2021 box office take right now is another Chinese movie HI, MOM, which has brought in $822 million.

There was a lot of gear I might have promoted for SHANG-CHI: Iron Rings, Rope Darts, mostly those aforementioned Tiger Head Hooks. 

On Halloween and Cosplay

Back to my earlier comment about Halloween – costuming is a major part of the martial arts. We formally call it uniforms but sometimes, especially in the Chinese circles, it’s closer to cosplay (there’s plenty of reasons for this, but I’ll save that for some other article).

I minored in cultural anthropology in college, so I look at the meaning behind costuming. I always love seeing the various seasonal offerings and stop at every Halloween store I can every year. It’s a barometer of what’s trending. What’s more, I’ve often complained about the lack of Asian cosplay options. Of course, there’s anime, but that tends to be obscure. I’ve done Kung Fu movies. I even wrote a piece about that - The Pai Mei Cosplay Experiment at Silicon Valley Comic Con. Now with SHANG-CHI, SNAKE EYES and MORTAL KOMBAT, there’s a whole new selection of Asian options.

But this was not to be either. Take a look for yourself. Remember that supply chain break? Where do you think all the cheap Halloween costumes were made? Not domestically. The 2021 Halloween stores are stocked with costume remainders from last year.
 

How Shang-Chi Truly Inspired Me

But beyond slinging gear to make rent around here and getting bummed out by the persistent lack of Asian cosplay alternatives, the Ten Rings connection to Tiger Head Hooks affected my personal practice. I used to love the hooks. They are so sophisticated, so many edges, and so characteristically Kung Fu. I have several sets of hooks in my collection including an antique pair and a sharpened Dragon Well pair. However, I had not practiced them in years and long forgotten the form.

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS inspired me to take up Tiger Head Hooks again. I dusted off my form (with a little help from Sifu YouTube - thankfully versions of the form I learned are available from my teacher and classmates) and have been really enjoying working them again. This is where martial arts movies hold the most power for the Wulin. Beyond that always needed boost to our niche economy, good martial arts movies can inspire us to practice more, and that’s what it’s all about.

I’m grateful to see all three of these movies succeed as best as they could, given the pandemic. I’m also saddened because just imagine what kind of year it might have been for martial arts movies had the pandemic not happened.