When Tony Leung was cast as the Mandarin in Shang Chi, I was over the moon. I'm not a devout comic reader or anything (though I do dabble) so I didnt know much about Shang Chi when it was originally announced to get major hype for it. What got me hyped was Tony Leung's casting.
I'm a huge fan of Wong Kar Wai's films and I believe theres only three of his films (four if you include The Hand) that Tony doesn't have a role in. Chungking Express is my third favorite film of all time, partly due to Tony Leung and Faye Wong's acting and chemistry together. When Tony's character is talking to a bar of soap (seriously, check out how amazing he is in this scene, it's heartbreaking and believable. In the Mood For Love gives us another brilliant Tony Leung performance, and Happy Together is an incredibly brave performance as well. Like I said, I'm a big fan.
So back to the topic at hand, I knew Tony Leung was going to crush it as Wenwu but didnt expect to come away from Shang Chi having just seen what, in my personal opinion, is the third best villain in the MCU, behind Thanos and Loki. And the love hes receiving for his performance across the Marvel subs I frequent makes me so. damn. happy. Tony Leung is one of the greatest living actors and I'm so freaking glad hes getting his time to shine in a western film, a Marvel film at that. The man deserves all the praise hes receiving for his portrayal of Wenwu and I'm just so happy for him and the attention hes receiving. After more than 30 years in the business, he deserves it all.
Although Shang-Chi was an amazing film, I was pretty disappointed that the โlegend of the ten ringsโ was not explored very much in the Shang-Chi film, but then I saw this as a great opportunity for Marvel to do a Wenwu prequel whilst explaining how he came to find the ten rings!
In โShang-Chiโ, Wenwu was arguably not at the height of his power, that was just before he met Yang Li and gave up the power of the ten rings and disbanded his organisation. I would love a film exploring Wenwuโs journey finding the ten rings and become one of the most feared warlords. He would then finally succumb to a lust for power and ultimately becoming the villain we now know.
This would of course be an interesting venture for Marvel as a Wenwu prequel would be set in ancient China and most likely all dialogue will have to be in Chinese to maintain the accuracy. Iโm not sure how the mainly western audience of marvel films would take to solely reading subtitles for the entirety of the film however, I guess Iโm fine with English too.
Tony Leungโs performance in Shang-Chi was a standout! It was obvious that he was the most seasoned actor in the entire cast. His eyes alone conveyed so much emotion. I left the cinema wanting to see more of Tony! Given the end of Shang-Chi, I hope Marvel will bring Tony back in some form, either in more flashbacks or another film!
