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November 14, 2021 at 6:12 pm #350geektalkKeymaster
SHANG-CHI Breakdown: Every Easter Egg, Hidden Details, Things You Missed And Comic Book Changes
SHANG-CHI Breakdown Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Things You Missed And Comic Book Changes. We explain, breakdown and point out all the hidden details in Marvel’s Shang-Chi. This covers the characters, the original comic books, easter eggs and lots of things that set up the future of the MCU in the Post Credits scene.
Ok so with Shang-Chi being released on Disney Plus I thought we’d do a big deep dive onthe film and point out all the easter eggs, hidden details and callbacks to the comicsthat make this one of the most faithful Marvel Movies out there.There will be heavy spoilers so if you haven’t had a chance to check it out then I highlyrecommend that you check out now. If you enjoy it we’d really appreciate the thumbs upand don’t forget to subscribe for videos like this every day.With that out the way, Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, Now let’s get into Shang-Chi.Ok so we open with a flashback to the early days of the Ten Rings with Wenwu leading thecharge.The flag of the Ten Rings is notably different to the one in Iron Man 1 which is where theorganisation was first introduced in the MCU.If you look closely you can see that they’ve swapped out the swords for the hooked weaponsthe followers use later in the movie.The symbols on the flag from the bottom left to bottom right mean, Vast, Majestix, Strong/Powerful,Might/Awe, Authority/might, power/strength, strong/robust and greatness, all of whichare mantras of the groupNow The Ten Rings group are an original creation but they take clear inspiration from IronMan’s greatest comic villain The Mandarin and also the Ten Rings themselves. Back inthe day, we were very excited that these ten rings could literally lead to the introductionof The Mandarin but we got one of the oddest deviations from the comics in the entire MCU.Wenwu is of course Shang Chi’s father but his father in the comics has a difficult historyas originally he was Fu Manchu, a literature figure created by Sax Rohmer who was one ofthe most insensitive cultural stereotypes of all time.Often played by white actors on screen, Marvel Studios wisely decided to deviate from thisand change his parental figure from Fu Manchu into Wenwu.In the source material they eventually renamed Fu Manchu to be a character called Zheng Zuand they changed up his western wife to Jiag Li who was Shang-Chi’s mother.He was introduced as Shang Chi’s father in the comics, which was made to capitaliseon the boom in martial arts movies at the time.Zheng had an organisation to do his bidding in the comics called the Five Weapons Societyand like him their name would change over time.Now in the movie we learn The Ten Rings have existed for thousands of years and it is unclearif the Ten Rings from Iron Man 1 were his group as the film takes place during Wenwu’sretirement.Now I mentioned that Wenwu was a composite of Shang’s father, but his identity is alsomerged with The classic Mandarin from the comics. Of course the Mandarin was introducedin iron man 3 as a made up figurehead for Aldrich Killian to do strike fear and TrevorSlattery who acted as as patsy. Interestingly in Shang chi we learn how he was tricked intothinking it was a BBC production and this ties into Slattery being from jolly old England.As for the Ten Rings, originally in the comics they were created by a race of dragon likealiens called the Makluans and they crashed on Earth millenia ago.The Makluans are the same species as Fin Fang Foom a giant Dragon Humanoid from the comicswho is somewhat referenced in the great protector who appears later on in the film.The rings are changed up to be worn as bracelets whereas in the comics they were originallyrings. However due to their size it is possible that they could be rings for a Makluan butthat’s all just guessing and we know what happened with our Mephisto fan theories.The movie plays coy with their origins as the mystery of where they came from is teasedin the very cool post credits scene that will likely lead into some sequels.Each one has their own powers and these include a Matter re-arranger, Impact beam, Vortexbeam, disintegration, black light, white light, electro blast, ice blast, flame plast andmento-intensifier.The movie simplifies this a lot though and instead makes them pretty much bangles thatall work together.They are inspired by the real life iron rings used in martial arts and these have been featuredin the legendary 36th Chamber of Shaolin movie and Kung Fu Hustle.Interestingly Kung Fu Hustle can be seen on a poster in Shang’s room tying this alltogether so that it’s all connected.Now in the flashback We learn that Wenwu became an almost Alexander the Great like figurewho’s kingdom stretched across the continent.Searching for more power he ventured to Ta Lo, a place introduced in Thor #301.In the Eternals Kingo actually mentions that Thor used to follow him around all the timewhen he was a kid so it is possible that we might get some more nods to this in futuremovies.This is actually one of the highest god realms and it’s the home to the Xian.Thor went there for help to revive asgardians and he found people that were more than anymere mortals. The race is powerful and strong, being immune to things that would kill normalhumans. In the comics, Ta Lo even has a pocket dimension adjacent to Earth much like whatwe see in the movie.It also seems like it might be combining elements of Kun Lun which was a mystical city fromthe comics that only had it’s entrance open up every ten years. You might know of it fromthe show Iron Fist and whether that’s gonna remain cannon or not should be cleared upafter Spider-Man No Way Home.During his hunt for Ta Lo, Wenwu meets Shang Chi’s future mother which is an interestingone as Fu Machu originally sought out an American woman so they could have the perfect biologicalchild. However, this was retconned and his mother was actually Jiang Li, a woman whodisappeared into the negative zone. Here, his mother is a guardian of Ta Lo and in theirfight we see two distinct different styles where Wenwu is forceful and hard with hisfighting, while Ying Li is graceful and almost dancing.It’s reminiscent of Yin and Yang, an ancient Chinese philosophy that explains two oppositeforces that are complementary to each other, which is exactly what we see.Shang Chi only found himself truly when he learned to mix his fathers rage and angerwith his mothers calm and graceful nature to protect his loved ones and the world andhe makes for a perfect combination.As well as Shang Chi, Wenwu also had a daughter Xu Xialing and if you thought the backstoryof Wenwu was complicated, Xu gives him a run for his money. Shang has had many sistersover his comic book run and there was Zheng Bao Yu formerly Fah Lo Suee who was initiallya loyal servant of her father. She would later go on to become the leader of her own organisationwhich matches Xu creating her fight club that we aren’t allowed to talk about here.It seems Marvel truly did pick and choose as he also has a sister named Esme who becameangry at him for abandoning the five weapons society and the pair would later reconcile.The colour of XU’s suit later in the movie matches Esme who also used daggers albeitnot on a rope like Xu. And another sister was Zheng Shi-HUA aka Sister Hammer and sheand Shang were raised at their fathers compound together.After this intro, we cut to Shang as he lives his life as Shaun in San Francisco. Alongwith the Kung Fu Hustle poster, you can catch one for the Godfather poster which is a movieabout the son of a crime boss taking his father’s place in the family business after a periodaway from it.Weirdly depending on what country you’re in can depend on what posters you get and wecan see in this image that there’s an Outkast poster for their album Stankonia. Howeverin other versions this is removed so I dunno what my Boy Andrew I love You 3000 did tobut he must have been a Bad Boi to have this dropped out in some places.Shang was seemingly allowed by his father to move to America for 10 years so he couldlive his life and see the world. It’s similar to the comics where Shang Chi would completehis first assignment and also disappear but instead of moving to America to go to schooland be called Gangnam Style, he would work with MI6 and Dennis Nayland Smith, to bringdown Shang Chi’s father.Gangnam style is a song that comes from Korean and it may be a nod to how Simu made his nameon Kim’s Convenience, a show about a Korean store where he was one of the only none Koreansin the cast.We catch him as he works with his best friend Katy as a car valet. Katy is an original characterand she likens herself to Jeff Gordon who is a legendary NASCAR drive.The pair are incredibly similar having amazing talent and potential but they choose to squanderthem. This is something which is a theme for the movie as Wenwu wants his son to fulfillhis own potential just like Katy’s parents want her to be more than a valet driver. Juxtaposingthis their childhood friend outgrew their fun lifestyle and now just views them as notliving up to their full potential.Next they go to a Kareoke bar and sing the mega hit Old Town Road by Lil Nas X enthusiasticallyhinting that 1. Nas wasn’t snapped as the song came out in 2019 2. Shang and Katy weren’tsnapped as they know it quite well considering the people came back earlier that year.—-Shang-Chi also wears an Eagles 17 shirt after the restaurant which was a year between thesnap and the blip, hinting that he survived.—-Also I would presume Wenwu was also not snapped as his organisation was very strong stillin 2024.Now the blip is referenced by posters outside showing Blipsync and a support group whichis similar to the one Steve attends in Endgame.Getting some reaching in but Blipsync could be a nod to NSync as everyone said bye byebye Mr Start.We get a good look at Katy’s family and Katy’s grandmother is possible homage toGrandma Wang who owned the bakery Shang Chi he worked at in 2020’s Shang Chi #1.The grandmother is honouring her late husband and she even saves a place for him at thetable. She clearly accepts his death which is an opposite to Wenwu who will do whateverhe can to get his wife back.Katy’s mother is pushy towards her going down a certain path which is also mirroredin Wenwu. This is actually known as Tiger Parenting and it harkens back to the ancientphilosopher Confucius.I was really hoping that the twist in the movie would be that Shang actually killedKaty’s grandfather and that he had to reveal this at some point but alas that’s gonnaremain fan fiction for me.Now On the bus we have some very cool moments as it travels through san francisco whichwas also the setting of Ant-Man and The Wasp. On the bus we have the actor who asked PeterParker to do a backflip in Spider-Man homecoming and I love how this character gives a breakdownof the fight. Better breakdown than most of the crap on this channel.Now Shangs past comes back to haunt him as his fathers lackeys come for the necklacehis mother gave to him.He’s confronted by Taserface…sorry Razorfist and we see the amazing fighting and choreographyin action. He fights while taking his jacket off, an homage to Rumble in the Bronx withJackie Chan who had a similar move.Now A deleted scene provided more context of how he came into Wenwu’s employment andthis was given more depth by interviews with the actor. He said how there were plans toshow how razorfist was taken off the streets by Wenwu and raised. This differentiates fromthe source material as in those he was introduced in Master of Kung Fu 29 and employed by CarltonVelcro. However the Brothers William Scott and Douglas Scott shared the mantle and wereemployed to hunt down shang chi.Another time of the lackeys of Wenwu is the death dealer. Death dealer was introducedin the comics in Master of Kung Fu 115 and their real name was Li Ching Lin and was adouble agent working for Fu Manchu and was only in the comics for a short time just likethe movie.—-Now shoutouts Erik Voss at New Rockstars for pointing out that one of the screen nameswatching the video is Auntie Darkness which could be a nod to Agatha Harkness. InitiallyI was a bit unsure on this but in Wandavision we also had an easter egg that said AuntieA’s Kitty Litter and Agatha referred to herself as Auntie quite a lot.I also found it hilarious how it was Auntie A’s Kitty Litter as just like Kitty Littershe was full of sh**.Now Shang-Chi’s necklace is taken from him by Razor fist and you might notice that throughoutthe fight that he constantly tries to grab at his neck. It’s actually a bit difficultto spot exactly when this moment happens but if you pay close attention you might be ableto follow it.When Shang jumps up between the buses you can see that it’s there and then when RazorFist slams him against the window we can see it hanging. Razor fist then grabs his neckand then his wrist and it’s during this time that if you look closely you will see thatthe necklace disappears from this point onwards. So Razor fist did it in the split second hemanaged to grab his neck which is some amazing attention to detail.Now one of the best parts of the movie was the scene on the plane in which Shang explainshis life story to Katy. He goes over how he changed his name and explains the pronunciation,Thisrelates to a tweet by Simu by giving a lesson on how to pronounce each character’s namecorrectly.When the movie was first announced many people pronounced it Shang instead of ‘Shong’so I think this might be poking fun of that.His name also roughly translates to mean ‘Rise and Growth of the spirit’. This is superblyaccurate for the movie version of this character as he was stuck in a rut after being donewith his dad’s brutal and punishing nature. It was not until he learnt his mother’sspiritual techniques from his auntie that he became a whole person and use both partsof his upbringing and lineage.We learn how busy Shang’s sister has been in her time away as he and Katy head to herfighting tournament, the Golden Daggers club. This name is a reference to the secret groupShang’s half sister Zheng Bao Yu led in the comics.Later we learn how Wenwu actually wanted both of them here as a way to have them in thesame place at the same time so that he could announce his arrival.This is probably the most dense scene in terms of easter eggs and we see the undercard fighterswhich includes Helen, a widow from Black Widow. We still have zero insight as to what happenedto Dreykovs Agents post Black Widow and it seems like after the snap that the charactersfell on hard times and went to fight for money. She going head to head with an Extremis userwhich is a further nod to Iron Man 3. They also appeared in Agents of SHIELD but hey,is it canon or not? We really don’t know at this point.Now the main attraction is a fight between Abomination and Wong. It’s unclear as towhy these two are hitting each other but we know from Infinity War that Wong is a bitlight on cash for Tuna Melts so maybe after winning this he can finally afford somethingfrom the Deli.Now what’s most interesting about this is that it’s revealed they’re just sparringand that they actually have somewhat of a friendship.After the fight they head through a portal and though we don’t know where this is itlooks like they head back to The Raft.Before this movie released, we heard in Agents of SHIELD that Blomsky/Abomination was ina cryo cell in Alaska so he could have been moved to The Raft.We never see him being recruited by Val but I definitely think he was reintroduced sothat they could tease towards a big Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers Future.So far, Val has recruited a Wish.com Captain America and Yelena Belova and now we havesomeone who’s basically an alternate version of the Hulk. Abomination supposedly goingto appear in the She Hulk series which is where we will learn more about him and tome it is evident we are getting a new team to replace the Avengers.As well as this, Blomsky in his Abomination form looks far more comic book accurate andhe has the fin like ears that pull from the pages of Marvel.Shang ends up fighting and behind him we can see the flag for Madripoor which many peoplethought might actually be Captain America’s shield. It’s beyond me as to why they didn’tput this in Madripoor especially as we had it featured in Falcon and the Winter Soldierand most of Macau in the movie was done digitally so I think they could’ve easily had thisscene there and then potentially tied in Xu Xialing with The Powerbroker.In the comics one of his sisters did try and create an organisation to rival to their fatherso it’s evident that these fights were made to find suitable people to take on the TenRings. This could explain why Blomsky and Wong are involved and could be working undercoverto infiltrate the group as a stepping stone to the ten rings.It’s not long before their father’s forces attack, leading Katy to hilariously sing HotelCalifornia as her distraction technique. On the surface is a simple song about stayingat a Beverly Hills Hotel but it goes a lot deeper than that. Don Henly the lyricist andvocalist has said how it is a song about moving from innocence to experience. This is prettyapt as the character go from wide eyed valets to becoming adept at their skills after experiencinga side of the world they didn’t know about.There’s also the lyric you can chekc out any time you like but you can never leavewhich also sort of mirrors how Shang left the Ten Rings but he was unable to truly leaveit as his father kept a close eye on him.The fight on the bamboo scaffolding is stunning and the use of bamboo instead of metal pipingis a popular alternative in the east and was used to build The Great Wall of china.This actually reminds me a lot of one of the fight scenes in Rush Hour 2 in which JackieChan also traverses some when battling against the forces of Ricky Tan.At this point we see Wenwu’s forces use the same weapons that are on the Ten Ringsflags. Also a nice touch is how the weapons flow with the same energy colour as Wenwu’sten rings, possibly explaining how they have such advanced tech as he may have used themto power what we see.We catch just how powerful Shang Chi is as he fights his former trainer, the Death Dealerwho we spoke about earlier in the video. He almost kills the villain before his fatherintervenes and the group are captured but it shows how far he’s come.The compound is a James Bond villain esque location, hidden away in the mountains andyou might catch the ten rings logo on the helicopter pad as it lands.At the base, Wenwu discusses the Mandarin as he talks about the power of reputationand names. As mentioned previously, Trevor used the name to cover for Killian but insome ways Killian using the name also helped to cover for Wenwu as people attributed stuffto Aldrich even if he carried it out.Wenwu also name drops two things that he has been known as namely Warrior King and MasterKhan. The former is simple as he would have been at the front as we saw leading the chargeand would have no doubt been known as a king.The latter, Master Khan is an Iron Fist villain who traded in occult items from China. Itsort of puts in place the idea that Wenwu was actually different villains from otherMarvel eastern titles and it would be great if we learned that he’d been behind a lotof things as we get more character introduced into the MCU.After the worst possible family reunion dinner, the intrepid bunch head downstairs and findTrevor Slattery reciting Macbeth. Now, if you haven’t seen it, the Marvel All HailThe King one shot bridges the gap between Iron Man 3 and Shang Chi. After first showingup as a bonus feature on the Thor The Dark World blu ray, it is now on Disney Plus andit shows Trevor Slattery being sent to Seagate Penitentiary after the events of Iron Man3. You may recognise this from the Luke Cage show and we learn that Justin Hammer is alsoalongside him in jail. I pray he returns for Armor Wars as we need those amazing dancemoves back in the MCU.Trevor is kidnapped by an agent of the ten rings played by Scoot McNairy and here inthe movie we learn he was about to be executed but they loved his rendition of Macbeth. Herecites a passage where Macbeth has killed a man named Duncan and the guilt gets to him.Macbeth is fitting as it is a cautionary tale of power corrupting and also the fall of akingdom which are two things that happen with Wenwu.Also with the die hard thespian and Liverpool fan is Morris. He is what is known as a Dijiangin Chinese mythology and he’s fond of singing and dancing. Due to having no head these creaturesconstantly run around in a state of confusion so it’s quite fitting that they’re withTrevor.As they all escape to try to get to Ta Low we see Razorfist’s keyring and also anotherone named Da Butcher. This could be a nod to a Marvel comics villain named Butcher ormaybe razorfist swapped that blade out for a butchers knife.The crew escape and we hear a hilarious discussion about how Trevor wanted to be an actor afterseeing Planet of the Apes and couldn’t understand that the apes weren’t real…They bust throughthe maze to Ta Lo and come into contact with mysterious mythical creatures after headinginto a water portal which looks very very similar to a Sling Ring. We see a nine-tailedfox, horse-like beasts with dragon faces known as Lonma, and Fu Dogs which look like giantLions.Here we learn a lot about the movie’s villain which funnily enough is not Wenwu and it’sactually the Dweller in Darkness. The villain first appeared in Thor #229 and is one ofthe Fear Lords who as you guessed it, gain power from the fear of other people. One ofthe other fearlord was the evil Nightmare who I hope appears in the MCU if we don’tget ma boy Mephisto. We learn that it was imprisoned by the Great Protector and it hasSoul Eaters who resemble Kkallakku the creator of the Fear Eaters. He is also a fellow FearLord and the introduction of all this I hope is a set up for more scary and creepy villainsin the MCU.We learn how Shang’s mother was killed and by a gang looking for Wenwu. It was the IronGang who in the comics were affiliated with Fu Manchu.This leads Wenwu onto creating a mission for his son which is to kill the last Iron Gangmember. This is similar to the comics where Shang Chi is given a mission to kill someoneand like what we see he ends up running away.I really liked how the scales from the protector are used to create weapons which are the onlything able to kill the Soul Eaters. It’s also used to make Shang and his sisters costumeswhich are very much like the comics, with his sisters being similar to Esme’s fromthe source material.The fight between son and father was superb and it felt a lot different to other MCU battles.The rings are used and Shang takes half of them and manages to change the colour symbolisinghe has taken on his mothers Great Protector power. His father seems at peace that hisson has grown as a person and sacrifices himself.The way that the souls are taken out also looks very much like how evil Doctor Strangetook the souls in What If. The day is saved and we have Katy and Shang mention to theirfriend about their journey of self discovery.Before they can relax though Wong returns seeking out Shang Chi and Katy which setsup the post credit scene. Now here we get an appearance by Captain Marvel and also BruceBanner who’s back to his human form. None of them know where the rings came from andit doesn’t match Chitauri or Kree technology hinting at it being tied to an alien lifeform that we don’t know about yet.You can also see that Bruce’s arm hasn’t healed which makes sense considering how brokenThanos was after snapping and then destroying the stones.It seems he may struggle once moreto summon the green beast from within and it is possible that he used something fromEndgame to reverse his transformation.In Avengers Endgame we watched as they created a way to push time through Scott so they mayhave done this with Bruce though his arm would’ve been healed. I do like the two sides of theHulk being something that the character battles over and hopefully we get new iterations ofthe character such as Joe Fix it and Devil Hulk down the line.It’s mentioned how something has awoken from a signal which could be the Makluansand it could also be Galactus, an Eternal or even a lost Fantastic Four which wouldmake sense if we have already had a multiversal secret war. It is incredibly tough to gaugeconsidering Shang Chi has essentially been given an original story here and there’sso many directions that they could take things.It could be Fin Fang Foom who was notably absent from this movie and I think he wouldmake a great villain for a sequel.In the other post credit, we see Shang’s sister take over the Ten Rings which has beenher aim from the off after being sidelined by her father and having to train in secretand matches the comics.Behind her we can see that the Ten Rings flag has changed once more and this shows thatthe organisation is now under completely new leadership.The idea of her sitting on the throne watching her fighters train of course calls back toearlier in the movie when Wenwu was in a similar position watching them do the same thing.If we play the clips side by side we can see hows shes taking over his empire in severalways and it’s such a cool scene to end on.And with that we also end our video and I’d of course love to hear your thoughts on itin the comments section below.We’re running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of the Zack Snyder’sDC Trilogy on the 30th Of November. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winningis like the video, make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a comment belowwith your thoughts on the episode. We pick the comments at random at the end of the monthand the winners of the last one are on screen right now so message me @heavySpoilers ifthat’s you.If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfectscene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worthchecking out if you wanna know more.With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’llsee you next time. Take care, Peace -
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