Hello, I'm Adrian, and today we're taking an in depth look
at Shang-Chi's fighting style in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
In The Legend of Ten Rings Shang-Chi confronts the past he thought he left behind
as he's drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings Organization.
The goal of these videos is to figure out just how many fighting styles our
combatant is familiar with by analyzing the specific moves featured in their footage
and pairing them with the martial art or fighting style which most aptly represents
those moves. There is a huge amount of crossover in martial arts techniques,
and a technique that is present in one fighting style may also be present in another, such as
the roundhouse kick being present in multiple martial arts. But in order to not give combatants
multiple fighting styles for the sake of variety, I have instead opted to list the most apt fighting
style that best represents that particular character, technique, or set of techniques.
I highly recommend watching Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten rings as this video
will analyze footage from said film. I will try and keep plot and story details to a minimum,
but there are details that need to be revealed for this analysis,
so do take this as your spoiler warning. Fighting Styles that Shang-Chi
may know in any other form of media, such as comics or animated films,
do not count. Without further ado, let's take a look at how many fighting styles Shang-Chi knows!
The character of Shang-Chi is known as the Master of Kung Fu,
so this gives us an excellent reference point to begin exploring the martial arts background
of this character. Kung Fu is a Chinese Martial art, but to be specific, it's
actually an umbrella style martial art, meaning that it splits into several different branches.
So part of this video will be dedicated to locking down which styles within Kung Fu Shang-Chi knows.
First up we have Wing chun Kung Fu, or Ving Tsun Kung Fu, its a style that requires quick arm
movements and strong legs to defeat opponents. Performance of techniques in a relaxed manner
is fundamental to Wing Chun. And how do we know that this is one of the styles used in the film?
Simu Liu, the actor who plays Shang-Chi, confirmed as much in a behind the scenes
interview. Furthermore you can see elements of this stile in several moments throughout the film.
You are typically taught to punch by extending your arm forward and then twisting your wrist,
thus giving it torque and power. In Wing Chun you punch by directly extending your arm
and NOT twisting your wrist. In other words it's like handing a small bag to someone.
An excellent moment of this is seen when Shang-Chi throws his first punch in the bus fight.
Note how he doesn't twist his wrist at all? That's because he punched with Wing Chun technique.
And why no twist? Because now you are able to launch successive punches much faster.
The masterful Donnie Yen demonstrates this in Ip Man, and it can also be appreciated in
the same bus scene. Note how delivers several strikes to the chest before delivering one to
his neck. That sort of rapid fire punching is very indicative of Wing Chun Kung Fu.
And not only that, the moment just prior to this we are able to see the concept of
trapping in action. Notice how he curls his fingers around the blocked hit and
holds it as he counterattacks? That act of momentarily immobilizing an opponent s limbs
to give you a brief opportunity to strike while he cannot - is
called trapping. Since Wing Chun is based around being a self defense martial art,
a grand majority of it's techniques are counter attacks and rely on this concept of trapping.
Shang-Chi looks to have experience with several weapons that are part of Wing Chun,
but one of the most predominantly featured weapons he uses in the film, is the bo. It is a
staff weapon that has incredible reach and can be wielded to block and attack. Shang-Chi elects to
use a bus pole lke a bo during this fight, and it becomes his main weapon to initially fight
his father at the end of the film. He uses it extraordinarily well displaying great technique,
until his Father activates cheat codes with the ten rings of course.
If wielding the bo is something you would like to learn how to do,
I highly recommend Alternative Exercise's Bo Staff for Beginners. It's an extremely in
depth class on all the basics of using the bo. What makes the lessons so effective is
that he takes movements you may already know how to do, like how to swing a baseball bat,
and teaches you how to modify your technique to adapt it to the bo. You'll eventually learn
how to do more advanced techniques as you progress through the class, and he walks you
through each one with small details like hand and leg placement. I found myself having plenty
of fun reviewing my technique with the bo and enjoyed the structure of the different lessons.
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The second martial art that was confirmed by Simu Liu himself is Tai Chi. Tai Chi, or Taiji Quan,
is a unique martial art. It's characterized by slow movements and is practiced for both
health benefits as well as defense training. It's primary philosophy is that instead of
meeting brute force with brute force, as that leaves both sides injured, meeting brute force
with softness allows the incoming force to exhaust itself so it can be redirected.
In terms of Shang-Chi using Taiji Quan, it's actually the martial art that was
predominantly used to defeat his father in one on one combat, and it makes perfect sense.
Wenwu was all about obtaining absolute power,
and using it during combat. He was brute force personified.
So when met with the softness of Tai Chi, his brute force would be consistently redirected.
This was first done by his eventual wife Ying Li, and it was later done by his son as well.
Furthermore, when Ying Nan is training Shang-Chi,
she even symbolically switched him over to Tai Chi by opening his hands. Whereas
a closed fist represents that brute force, the open hand represents the softness from Tai Chi.
Furthermore, note the leg movement before commencing? Or the hand movements? Or even
how Shang-Chi contains the power of the ten rings by appearing to hold a sphere
in between his hands? These concepts are all intrinsic to Tai Chi, and if you look
at Tai Chi training you will inevitably see the very same kind of movements pop up.
At the other end of the Kung Fu spectrum we got Bajiquan,
also known as the eight extreme fists. This style is much more aggressive and forceful
than Tai Chi or Wing Chun. It's mostly based around short range motions that are executed
extremely quickly and involve opening the opponents arms to attack with the elbow,
knee, and shoulder. So whenever you see Shang-Chi go from counterattacking to a
full on aggressive offense, you're seeing an excellent demonstration of Bajiquan
Note the uniform that he is wearing during this flashback montage. This is extremely similar to
the one in Shaolin Kung Fu. Shaolin Kung Fu is one of the oldest styles within Kung Fu.It's
comprised of Chan and Quan. Chan being the religious and philosophical side
and Quan being the martial side. Forms make an appearance in this art and there are several
styles within the umbrella that is Shaolin Kung Fu. Besides including hand to hand techniques,
it also has several fantastic kicks that a young Shang-Chi demonstrates in this very sequence.
In the film we've also got Wushu Kung Fu. And to be clear, Wushu as a term actually means
Chinese Martial Arts. The specific Wushu we are talking about is the one which is seen in sports
competitions. Wushu has an emphasis in large, graceful, and quick movements during demos.
In Shang-Chi's case you can see that sort of movement when he is performing his aerial moves,
as well as when we briefly see him train with the rope dart, a popular weapon within wushu.
Shang-Chi ocassionally turns to great throwing techniques,
such as this one right here. And while it is tempting to group this with Judo,
considering he is the master of Kung Fu, it is much more likely this is from Shuai Chiao Kung
Fu. There are several techniques that cross over between these two styles, such as Judo's
tomo nage, also seen in Shuai Chiao. It's based on principles of traditional Chinese wrestling,
but with an emphasis on combat training and speed, making it perfect for Shang-Chi
The ten rings wielded by Wenwu, and eventually Shang-Chi,
are capable of delivering insanely powerful projectile energy attacks.
The real world equivalent of these ten rings, can actually be found in the southern Chinese
Kung Fu style of Hung Gar. It is a strong style that uses rooted stances, like the horse stance.
They use these iron rings to strengthen their arms. These heavy rings are constructed of
metal and are worn on forearms when practicing forms. Unlike the magical rings, these rings are
much looser. So In order to train with them, students wear the rings and when they strike,
the rings slide down the arms smashing on to the back of the hands, reminding students to hold a
tight fist. The rings also conditions the users forearms hardening them to withstand blocking.
But sometimes Shang-Chi delivers dazzling and precise kicks, going well beyond the realm of
traditional Chinese styles and into the Korean martial art of Taekwondo. This split kick,
as well as this side kick followed by a jump spin back kick, are excellent demonstrations of that.
But wait, you say, why would a Korean martial art show up in a film featuring Chinese martial arts?
For that, we need to turn to the stunt coordinators of the film,
the late great Brad Allan, and Andy Cheng. Brad Allen had a legendary career in Hollywood stunts,
having worked in several films and been part of Jackie Chan's elite stunt team for several of his
movies. The film of Shang-Chi is even dedicated to him. Andy Cheng is also extremely experienced and
has worked on several of Jackie Chan's films, this is why you get moments like the jacket in the bus,
it's a reference to that kind of classic Jackie Chan choreography
But returning to the point, why would Taekwondo show up? That's because of their martial arts
background. Brad Allan had a background in Taekwondo training. And Andy Cheng's been training
in taekwondo since he was 14. He even won 3 gold medals at the Hong Kong invitationals before
retiring to start his career in the film industry. So when you have that kind of background, there
is no way you're not going to incorporate your foundation martial art into the choreography. Like
writing, it's best to choreograph what you know, and Andy Cheng knows Taekwondo extremely well.
When you have an actor like Simu Liu, who by his own admission said he had very limited martial
arts experience prior to taking on the role, you can train the actor with whatever styles
you would like to see. So the stunt coordinators did an excellent job by training him not only in
Taekwondo, but with several of the Chinese fighting styles explored in this video.
Shang-Chi is also extremely adept at parkour as he frequently uses it to
maneuver himself around the battlefield. Although it is not a martial art per se,
he has successfully incorporated parkour into his fighting style
In conclusion, how many fighting styles does Shang-Chi know
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? They are: