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The clash between father and son.
Trailers
- The Mandarin wielding his Ten Rings (revised in the film as enchanted rings worn on the forearm) as a flail, a projectile weapon and as a piledriver. And later on Shang-Chi gets them from him.
- The existence of Chinese mythical beasts like dragons, dijiang and shishi lions. They fill out the Marvel Cinematic Universe's wildlife alongside Jotun beasts, giant ants, armored rhinos, winged horses, giant wolves and Norse chariot goats.
- The return of Emil Blonsky was an unexpected treat. Seeing him toss around Wong, a realty-warping sorcerer, shows that he's lost none of his strength (at least comparatively, he did last fight the Hulk).
- Part of the bus fight was released online, as seen here
. Shang Chi, the martial arts warrior, brings it.
Film
- The opening battle with the Ten Rings in the past has a subtle one in addition to the obvious One-Man Army nature of Wenwu—he whirls the rings around to shield himself while on horseback and the horse is totally cool about it, which means he trained that horse incredibly well.
- The bus fight involving Shang-Chi, Razor Fist, and the minions of the Ten Rings is something to behold, with Simu Liu evoking the energy and acrobatics of Jackie Chan in his battle.
- The background music for the fight is almost as good as the choreography itself, an instrumental version of DJ Snake's Run It.
- Katy's quick thinking also has to be given some credit. When she realizes that the fight knocked out the bus driver, she alerts Shang-Chi and covers for him when he has to fight the Ten Rings and drive the bus at the same time. Then she coordinates with him to try and keep the passengers safe, using the faulty brakes to the best of her advantage.
- Wenwu's fight with Ying Li is visually stunning, drawing on the heritage of wuxia cinema. It's especially impressive that the fight choreography tells a story on its own, with the characters' playful exchanges of blows and the glances they share communicating that this isn't just a typical fight where one character seeks to defeat the other, but that it is in fact a moment of flirtation where Wenwu meets his equal—and all of this with little to no dialogue.
- Wenwu also wasn't humiliated by the defeat; he was intrigued. After Ying Li tossed him on his ass, he came back with some food, apologized to her for his insolence, and talked. That one gesture convinced Ying Li that his humility was sincere.
- In a lot of Shonen anime, the hero will talk about reaching his rival or a wayward friend by "communicating through their fists". This is what two people falling in love through their fists looks like.
- The fight between Abomination and Wong first seems to be a Curb-Stomp Battle in the former's favour, up until Wong gets fed up. He quickly turns the fight around when he summons two portals to make Blonsky KO himself with his own punch. He even gives him some pointers afterwards!Wong: That hurt, Emil! You want me to show you how it feels?!(The Abomination roars in response, just before the aforementioned knockout happens.)
- Shang-Chi, and later Xialing, fighting off a horde of Ten Rings Mooks on the bamboo scaffolding outside of Xialing’s fight club, making clever use of the environment to defeat most of their foes.
- Immediately after this, Shang-Chi’s one-on-one fight with Death Dealer, a beautifully choreographed, two minute battle of expertly thrown punches, flying kicks, and knife swipes. It ends with Shang-Chi the victor, though his significantly older mentor showed him he could still match his pupil beat for beat.
- The Iron Gang allowed Ying Li to shoo her children. She took most of them down, with her bare fists.
- Though it's tinged with tragedy, the fact that the Iron Gang needed so many of their men to kill her (they were there to kill Wenwu, who was absent) despite her being depowered is a testament to her sheer martial arts skills.
- Wenwu having once again taken on the rings after the death of Ying Li, has young Shang-Chi point out some of the men responsible in gambling den and completely wrecks everything in front of him in pure, raw, effortless rage. Culminating in him killing one of the men point blank before striding away with his son as if nothing happened at all.
- When Shang-Chi and Katy are able to get into Ta Lo, we are treated to an absolutely stunning montage of the fields of Ta Lo, and all of its fauna. The CGI is incredibly good, to the point people could legitimately confuse it for something like a Pokemon Go commercial (and given the appearance of a nine tailed white fox they wouldn't be that far off). While on that point, the inclusion of many Eastern mythological creatures shows just how much research into Eastern, Chinese, Korean and Japanese mythology the writers did, bringing the likes of the Vermillion Firebird, Qirin, Liondogs and Nine-Tailed Fox, as well as the rarely seen but accurate hundun, which Slattery ends up adopting as a pet. The last Ta Lo native is the Azure Dragon, Ta Lo's Great Protector, and it too is animated beautifully.
- When he was last seen in All Hail the King, Trevor was scheduled to be executed for impersonating the Mandarin; here, he's shown to be a personal performer at Wenwu's compound. The fact he managed to avoid this fate with his acting skills and earn favor with the Ten Rings serves as a nice reminder that, comedic as he may be, he's still a Shakespearean thespian.
- In contrast to the Awesome, but Impractical melee weapons and bows used by the Ten Rings and Ta-Lo, the Iron Gang members try to use guns against Wenwu. If they had brought NERF guns instead of real firearms they probably would have had similar results with the Ten Rings blocking their bullets and Wenwu effortlessly slaughtering them all.
- Katy firing an arrow on instinct at the Dweller's throat, and in doing so, keeping the Dweller from consuming the Great Protector's soul. And all this with no more than a few days' practice.
- Rather than just being the Ten Rings’ Dumb Muscle, Razor Fist shows some smarts as he gets rid of his standard razor hand to outfit it with the dragonscale edged blades of the villagers to face the demons.
- Razor Fist also deserves some credit for surviving the movie, including fighting the demons with a melee weapon.
- Shang-Chi's final duel with Wenwu is also exceptional, with him grasping the fighting style of Ta Lo (which appears to be influenced by tai chi, in contrast with Wenwu's more aggressive style) and using that to redirect Wenwu's rings. But Shang-Chi's victory is marked not by him violently defeating his father, but throwing the rings aside, signaling that he's overcome the preoccupation with violence and revenge that his father taught him.
- Wenwu's Heroic Sacrifice. In a matter of seconds, he comprehends that Shang-Chi was right and that the creature behind the gate was not a captive Ying Li. He uses his last moments to shield his son's body, and succumb to the Dweller-in-Darkness with dignity
- The reveal of the Dweller-in-Darkness, the MCU's first delve into the more demonic aspects of the Marvel catalogue, and it shows. The Dweller looks straight out of a DnD lorebook, and its spawn being unkillable outside of dragonscales ups the stakes in what was previously just two armies fighting each other to 'world ending threat'. The sheer size of the beast means that Shang-Chi can't even properly damage it, even with the Ten Rings, forcing him to force the rings inside of it and detonate a massive energy surge to kill it, instantly reducing it to chunky salsa and calamari!.
- Wong officially invites Shang-Chi and Katy to join the Avengers. He says their lives are going to be different so they should get some rest. Shang-Chi and Katy have a better idea...invite Wong for karaoke!
- The first stinger, in which Shang-Chi discusses the potential origins of the ten rings with Wong, Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner. After spending more than two years wondering if the Avengers still existed, viewers are given the first indication that not only does the team still exist in some capacity following Avengers: Endgame, but they are actively preparing to deal with any potential threats that come their way.
- The second stinger showing that Xialing is now in charge of the Ten Rings. The Ten Rings did not die out in this film with Wenwu, they will go on. The only question is their affiliation; are they a force of good (to work alongside Ta Lo to protect the dimensions) or are they a force of evil (continuing their mission of conquering all aspects of society)?
- For as much as he's a Plucky Comic Relief character, Trevor is absolutely essential to undoing Wenwu's plans, as he's the one that helps Shang-Chi and the others to Ta Lo via interpreting Morris (the native hundun who knows the way through the forest maze). If not for him, who knows what Wenwu could have wrought. Not bad for someone who was thought to be dead years ago.
- Another one for Trevor: he does such a skillful job of playing dead during the battle that he even fools Morris for a few moments, until he sticks his head up and tells Morris to do it too. The really awesome part here is how clever the tactic is: Trevor has nothing resembling combat training, and is dead weight at best. This is actually his best tactic for staying alive. It also means that the Dweller won't get a power-up from his soul because none of the soul-stealers would see him as anything other than dead at first glance, and even more importantly, it means that none of the actual fighters waste time, resources, or even a life, defending him.
