“There is a bigger connection to that longing between East and West,' director Destin Daniel Cretton said. 'We all have family back in mainland China, Japan, the Philippines, and sometimes there is a weird conflict between the two parts.”
Aug. 26, 2021, 6:09 PM UTCWhile filming the Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” director Destin Daniel Cretton said he and actor Tony Leung, who portrays villain Wenwu, discussed a profoundly difficult question: Does Wenwu, a man fiercely depicted as a Machiavellian megalomaniac, love his children?
Leung’s study of Wenwu the father resulted in an on-screen villain who was not only intensely human but also, to many Asian Americans with loved ones scattered across the planet, likely somewhat familiar. Though the movie is heavy on fantastical elements and is largely set in Chinese-inspired land guarded behind a mythical forest, so much of what the characters confront — a longing for a cohesive family unit, the mismatch of cultures and the pain that brews under the surface due to separation — mirrors what people in the Asian diaspora face, those in the film said.
The tensions between Shang-Chi, played by Simu Liu, and Wenwu are an uncomfortable yet searingly truthful representation of loved ones who are deeply bound by familial bonds but also distanced by years, borders and diverging values. As Liu put it, Wenwu isn’t so much a villain in the traditional Marvel sense as he is an antagonist in the film.
“I was 19 when I went back to meet my family, and I realized how this aspect of distance definitely plays a part in how you keep up and also your sense of belonging and what family means,” she said. “I think there is a very familiar aspect with [Shang-Chi] going back to confront a lot of things in our own lives like meeting family members later in life and trying to kind of restart that relationship.
Though historically there’s barely been a differentiation, culturally or perception-wise, between Asians and Asian Americans in Hollywood depictions, this movie succeeds in making strong distinctions, most notably through its three main characters. Katy, for example, is a born-and-bred San Francisco chick who has a penchant for karaoke and soju, so beloved by all across the diaspora, but she is very much regarded as an American once in Asia.
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