movies: shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings

I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is my new favourite Marvel movie. And possibly the best Marvel movie.

Which may well be because it's unlike any of the Marvel movies before it. Even with a non-zero number of cameos by previous Marvel characters.

I have been watching a lot of Asian cinema the last two years. Korean movies, Chinese movies, Japanese movies. And a lot of them martial arts movies, with a large dose of historical fiction thrown in.

And this movie has fingerprints from a number of those marital arts movies all over it. In the best possible way.

First up, the story.

Marvel movies have proved in the past that they're just better when the villain is more of an antagonist than a scenery chewing bad guy or a bit of a damp squid. Black Panther knew that. And in a lot of ways, Thanos had a point about over population in Infinity War. And now we have Xu Wenwu, played wonderfully by Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, a man driven by a desire for power and grief, but still a man who cares for his family, even if he shows it in a really screwed up way, and believes he's doing the right thing.

It feels like a much smaller and more intimate story, the story of one man and his relationship with his children, even if the stakes are mostly set at the usual "fate of the world" stakes. Yes, it's full of the usual clichés.. "finding your power", "doing the right thing", but there are also so many small story moments that feel fresh and are wonderfully done.

I feel like a lot of that possibly rests at the feet of the writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton. I mean, yes, there were other writers, but this feels like a voice that goes all the way through the movie.

And they aren't even all that huge as far as moments go. Shang-Chi has a female friend and there is no romance plotline, and she isn't secretly pining away for him without him knowing. There's a moment where Not The Main Character is crucial to the end of the movie, while Shang-Chi isn't having a hero moment. The moment you've been waiting for the whole movie happens almost without words or a lot of fanfare. The female characters have agency, names and talk about things other than the male characters. A low bar, but one many movies fail to clear.

Speaking of the women in this movie. I was pleasantly surprised by Awkwafina in this movie. Yes, the last thing I saw her in way Raya, and super didn't love her character in that, but she was good in the, admittedly, mostly forgettable Oceans 8. Her character could easily have become annoying or used as the comedy relief character, but, no... she's a fully fleshed out character with an arc and doesn't just become the damsel in distress at the end of the movie. Or worse yet, become a shoe-horned in romance plot as mentioned before. I also very much look forward to seeing what they do with her in later movies.

And as an actress without any movie experience, Meng'er Zhang is very good as Sheng's sister. Likewise, it will be interesting to see what they do with her character in later movies, because she will absolutely show up in later movies.

A quick shout out to Fala Chen in her small role as Shang's mother. Her first scene in the movie, which is also part of the opening of the movie, is possibly one of the BEST martial arts/romance scenes in... any movie.

But... Michelle Yeoh... Michelle Yeoh makes ANY movie she's in better. She may only really be in the movie about as much as Fala Chen, but she's great.

I will also say that the henchman, Razor Fist, played by Florian Munteanu, has something about him... I mean, yes, he's very handsome and he has biceps that are ridiculous... and a super cool villain defining feature. I can't put my finger on why (and no, I don't think it's about being thirsty for the bad guy), but he has that kind of screen charisma that just had me drawn to him. The character is fun enough, his first scene is probably the best, but I enjoyed him a lot.

Which brings us to the titular Shang-Chi... Simu Liu. I wasn't sure about him when I saw the poster, but... damn (also, I kind of thing the photo of him on the poster doesn't do him ANY justice). He also has that screen charisma and a sweetness and warmth that makes him feel perfect for the character (admittedly a character I know nothing about beyond what I've seen in this movie).

But he can do comedy, he can definitely do action and martial arts, and he can do drama and emotion. He also looks great both shirtless and in the Shang-Chi final costume.

On that note, all of the costumes, especially in the latter half of the movie, are amazing. Actually, the entire last... third of the movie in general is great.

As a whole, the movie wasn't really what I was expecting, although honestly I wasn't really sure what I was expecting. But it surprised me. And I enjoyed it a hell of a lot.

yani's rating: 5 dijiang out of 5

photo saturday: fairy girl

"Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change." - J M Barrie

I've been obsessed with the idea of the new fairy DnD race since it showed up in an early form. Not least of all because it means I could make a DnD version of Tinkerbell... who is absolutely my girl. Even if the DnD version is not all quite so small as Barrie's faries. But the idea of a barbarian is also pretty much perfection, because when she's happy, she's all joy, but when she's angry, she's all anger.

So meet Tippy-Toe, a Unseelie Fey from the Gloaming Court and Wild Magic Barbarian... all 2'9" of her (not counting the height of the wings). Her name is the original name of Tink before Barrie made the very wise decision to change it, and like her namesake, she's a Tinker... or some other kind of artisan anyway.

Why she's in the Material Plane I haven't worked out yet... it could just be as easy as "she was sent on a mission, but now that she's here, she can't remember what it is"... and she can't go home until she remembers. Which doesn't completely work with the artisan background, but, you know, we're just sketching with pencil right now... the pen comes later. And how much I want to be wedded to the Tinkerbell formula.

Moving on.

After stopping in to Coles to buy some of the items I couldn't get or forgot to get last Saturday, I made Tuna Noodle Casserole... perhaps not perfect, I really should have used the second can of soup, but perfectly functional and a full week's worth.

Thursday's DnD game was better than expected. Which is totally on me. One of the Thursday crew who doesn't normally DM stepped up to do this adventure, and he did an excellent job. He's DMed for me before... and I should have known he'd do well... but I underestimated him.

I also may have spat the dummy a little about people talking at the table while other people are interacting with the DM. I mean, we all do it, but this particular person has a history of it, and I just couldn't deal with it Thursday night. So, yes, small dummy spit. But on the up side, the person in question does listen and take things on board. Which is good.

After a weekend dealing with a still leaking roof, animal noises on the roof, a temporarily patched hole in my ceiling and no word from my land agent, I sent a couple of carefully worded messages to the land agent. And got an answer on Monday. It was the answer I was expecting... "they're waiting on a quote" or something similar. Which is the same problem as happened at the old apartment... and I'm not willing for it to take quite as long as that did.

However, at the game on Thursday night, I got a message at what must have been 9pm from a tradie company saying they had had a cancellation the following day, and could they come and repair the hole in the ceiling on Friday some time between 11am and 1pm.

Yes, yes you fucking well can. Thank you.

So, I moved some things around before 11am and waited. And waited. Noon came. 1pm came. 2pm came. I sent a message back to the only number I had asking for an ETA. And of course the tradie showed up by about 2:30 and then had to go and get some supplies. And five minutes after he went off to do that they messaged me to say he should be there soon. Always the way.

And it's always the way that they have been sending me the young, hot tradies. Yes, also variable amounts of dopey. But eye candy none the less.

Which was good, because he got back just after 3pm and didn't leave until 5pm. Of course, if he'd shown up at 11am, he would have been gone by 1pm... but at least I no longer have a hole in my ceiling. They do need to come back next week and sand and paint over the repair, but then we're good.

All they need to do now is send the roofers to actually fix the hole. And the pest people to deal with the possums or whatever the hell else is running around on the roof on the regular.

Friday's DnD game was great. A little shopping for things we can't afford with a shopkeeper who was wonderfully dry and sarcastic. Then we met some characters we instantly hated... and were supposed to hate, which is great. And we have a concrete plan going forwards, which is great.

Today was almost like old times. Almost.

We did the supermarket thing. I'm going with a fairly simple soup... probably chicken.

After that, we went to the movies. Because Ma has had a voucher for a cinema we never go to since The Before Times. And because it was a cinema we don't go to we got slightly lost on the way there, but we had plenty of time and it was a nice enough drive.

We went to the Hoyts version of Gold Class... Lux. Which means the tickets are twice as expensive, but you can get hot food brought in. So that was nice. Very good spring rolls and wedges actually.

More on the movie later.

It was a good time though.

Current mood:

photo saturday: psionic weirdo

Sorcerer is my favourite arcane class in DnD... I think I've said this. Or inferred heavily.

I do enjoy that the subclasses are so different from each other and leads to very different characters... if you lean into it anyway.

The Aberrant Mind Sorcerer is... a weird one.

An alien influence has wrapped its tendrils around your mind, giving you psionic power. You can now touch other minds with that power and alter the world around you by using it to control the magical energy of the multiverse.

I've played with a few ideas... but ended up coming at this one visually. What does that weird ass alien influence look like on the outside. Or how does it end up manifesting.

Enter Elidyr the White. Functionary to the Arcane Brotherhood of Silverymoon. And potentially a big old weirdo. I mean, he feels like he'd be a weirdo. Being all psionic and telepathic and shit. And I was planning on giving him the Warlock feat and allowing him to Disguise Self at will... so, also weirdness inherent there.

I also love a full white outfit. I know it makes no sense for adventuring... but, just the visual of that outfit with the hair and the skin and then all the weird magic colours. And I love a monochromatic or a single colour outfit generally. Here for all of it.

Moving on.

I went back to the Halfling Tomato Soup this week... and put maybe too much pepper in it. Plus I think I've gotten to that "no more soup" stage, even though I've done other things the last couple of weeks. This just reinforces it.

I am now one step closer to being a Super Villain... Hero... whatever... super powers... or better wifi or whatever the delusion is. One vaccination down, one to go. And it all went smoothly... the most worry I had was whether I would find a park near the venue. Turned out, yes, easy. Then it was all... Fill this out. Stand in this line. Stand in that line. Go see that lovely nurse. Sit here for 15 minutes. Book your next appointment there. See ya. In and out in like half an hour.

And other than a sore arm, no drama.

Weirdly though, having mentioned the wifi delusion... my wifi did play up on Wednesday night... and I couldn't be dealing with that, so I just went to bed early. But it makes you think. Or, you know, you understand the difference between coincidence and causation and not to believe random bullshit you read on the internet without fact checking that shit... or more specifically, having a whole brain and using it to think critically about things.

Thursday night's DnD game was... fine. I mean it was the second half of an okay adventure. And we kicked all the ass and took all the names. Well. Mostly my character took the names... he's not really an ass kicker. Sassy bitch, yes. Ass kicker, no.

Friday night's game was something different.

Because this week was Fluffy's birthday (Happy Birthday Fluffy), I offered to run a little one shot I'd seen, where everyone plays as wizard's familiars... A Familiar's Quandry. And it was fun. The first time I'd ever run for all of the Friday group at the same time. Individually, yes. But not as a group. It's weird the perspective that you get as a DM that you don't necessarily think of when you're just another player along side someone... even after two years and three different characters.

Plus it was a fun game because while they're all underpowered creatures, there was a mechanic in game that kept them coming back if they died, so that always leads to people taking chances they might otherwise not have. 

Fluffy went through three different animal forms... a crab, a chameleon and finally a quipper (the DnD equivalent of a piranha)... Mrs started as a kitty, then went to toad (which she didn't like), and ended up as a cute little bat... whereas Mr started as a spider, ended as a spider. A spider who was a little bit Phantom of the Opera and ended the adventure playing said song on a little tiny clockwork pipe organ. Not a sentence I thought I'd have been saying when we started the adventure, but it was one of those perfect moments, where a player mentions something at the start of a game as something of a joke, someone else plusses that early in the game and then there's that moment as a table at the end of the game where you know bringing back that moment is absolute perfection.

And when those moments come around, you grab them with both hands and hang on.

Today, unfortunately, I did that thing that Toby Ziegler, by way of Aaron Sorkin, warned us all about...

You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing? Then go outside, turn around three times and spit. What the hell's the matter with you?

But more on that in a second.

We started with the supermarket. Just doing supermarket things. And I absolutely forgot one important item from the recipe I want to make tomorrow, but I maintain I was thrown off by the fact they didn't have one of the other ingredients. But, we'll improvise. Or else, I will go and check Coles tomorrow.

Then we came back here, before deciding to head to IKEA for candles and a new little table for Ma.

I got all of the tealight candles. Ma got a little metal side table, which I offered to put together for her. But as we got in the car I also tempted the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing when I said that I've never had problems putting together an IKEA item.

Got home, happened to coincide with an episode of Grand Designs, started putting the table together. Basically it was just screwing two pieces of metal together sixteen times. And on the first screw hole I tried, the screw hole was too small for the fucking screw. Like, legitimately, manufacturing issue, too small. I got all the other screws in just fine, those two holes, no bueno.

So back to IKEA we go... to see the very pretty Returns Boy... and got a refund and picked up a new table, then I basically put the table together at the Returns Boy's counter so we were sure that the stupid thing would go together. Which it did. Obviously.

I mean, I would have much preferred to not take a second trip to IKEA, but, sometimes these things happen.

Current mood:

photo saturday: steadfast and kickass

So... a little bit of story time for this week's DnD Character Colouring book...

I have a thing about toy soldiers. It's perhaps less of a thing right now than it was a while back, possibly because I overdosed a little. But I still have a thing.

And in one of the more recent books there's a race ("origin", whatever) called Reborn... "individuals who have died yet, somehow, still live". I've also been musing on the Clockwork Soul sorcerer... it's a flavourful subclass... but sometimes subclasses like that are hard to get an interesting take on, because they can seem a little one note...as in, it's hard to come up with alternative concepts unless you ignore some of the flavour text.

Then I thought about the Steadfast Tin Soldier. And about what might happen if somehow, at the end of that story, if the little tin heart that is all that remains of the soldier, was put into another body.

And so TS Dante, Reborn toy soldier, was born.

The outfit came out a little more matador and a little less military jacket, but I don't hate it. And yes, I know he has two functional legs... but either a prosthetic leg or a result of the reborn process would cover that.

That did lead me to playing around with the concept of the ballerina... and what better class for a ballerina than ass kicking elven monk, Liltar. The shoes also aren't perfect, but I improvised a pair of high heels into toe shoes, so it works well enough for what basically amounts to an NPC.

Moving along...

I made tuna mornay this week... and managed to adjust the spices to that it was super tasty but didn't rip the back of your head off. The spices did seem to fade a little as the week went on, but it was tasty either way.

I also got slightly obsessed in making a much smaller brother to the wooden staff I've had for... oh, coming up on 20 years at this point I guess. I noticed a nice looking piece of eucalyptus branch in the little patch of garden by the apartment's carpark... and broke out the cheap ass sandpaper I picked up for a former project and went from rough branch to smooth "wand" over a couple of nights. What it's final form will be and where it will end up living, I'm not sure, I'm enjoying it as it is right now... it's a little bit of a "fidget spinner in stick form" right now. Especially a couple of spots that have been sanded super smooth.

Otherwise, we were back to regular DnD sessions this week.

Thursday's game was... okay. After the last two sessions having Fluffy guest DM which meant that we had 7 players, we have a guest player for these current two games.... and, honestly, 7 players is kind of too much. Honestly, there's times when 6 players are too much. But on the up side, at least these are decently put together adventures.

Friday's game was one of those talky ones. Which we kind of needed, given the high stakes-ness of the previous couple of games. But we did a lot of surmising and assuming and predicting and wondering. And came back to somewhere that we had a fuckton of outstanding quest markers without really realising it. We didn't get quite through them all, but we made a dent.

It's also so strange to me that I can turn onto my character's emotions so quickly and then turn them off again when the moment has passed. For the longest time I never really understood seeing actors say that they can just get to an emotional place with no real prep... turns out, I kinda have the same ability, or at least some small portion thereof.

Next week, because it's Fluffy's birthday, we're taking a break from cold, death and destruction and doing what I hope will be a cute and fun little one-shot, which I'm running. But more on that next week.

Today was about the usual.

We did the supermarket thing, came back, faffed about a bit and then did a little trip to Cheap and Chips for general wandering and random things. Nothing super exciting or noteworthy.

So that's about that...

Current mood:

photo saturday: fey weirdos

Let's get a little monstrous... well, technically, a little fey for today's DnD Character Colouring Book... which is also weird because while the player race is fey, the monster manual entry is a monstrosity.

Have I mentioned that I like my fey whimsy a little dark at times. Think the tooth fairies from the second Hellboy movie... or the little insect fairies from Pan's Labyrinth. Basically, to paraphrase Tyra Banks, fey but make it creepy.

So as much as I absolutely want to make a Tinkerbell knockoff when the fairy race finally comes out, I also like the idea of a character who looks like they should be rainbows and candy, but is actually kinda blood and metal. And what better expression of that than a Wild Magic Barbarian. A tiny bundle of rage with wings.

There's also something to be said for making a character who is brightly coloured, and then dressing them in natural and neutral colours. And giving them a giant stone weapon.

Then we go the other way, from the small to the tall... with Ndidi, an African name that means patience, a centaur monk. I mean, an African zebra centaur isn't really an original or unique idea, and the fact that I gave him the Cruella hair before I saw the movie last week.

The idea of a centaur monk is intriguing to me... just because you have two extra limbs with which to hit... but at the same time, you can be somewhat defeated by... a ladder. Plus, how do you navigate a world made for people with a two leg body when you have a horse body.

Moving on.

This week wasn't soup... it was... well, it was something that is a spiritual successor to something I had as a kid... and a dish that doesn't really have a name beyond "savoury mince"... vegetables and mince and tomato and whatnot. So, I invented a dish that ended up quite tasty and paired it throughout the week with toast, rice, potato and pasta.

On the flip side, this week was all over the place.

Because of reasons, Friday night's DnD was actually on Tuesday... which meant bread was made on Tuesday and in general Tuesday felt weird and not like Tuesday at all.

Then Thursday was entirely too hot for September. Which might have led to part of my general annoyance with... things in general. Add into the fact that in the first combat I got temporarily turned to stone and then in the second combat I got stuck under the effects of a spell that threw off my ability to do a lot of things. Which led to me feeling useless, which is always annoying. And then we never got to completely vanquish the big bads due to a combination of DM shenanigans brought about by the fact that it was fairly late, and while, if it hadn't been so late, we would actually have finished the combat off more satisfactorily. I don't necessarily think cutting it off there was the completely wrong idea, but the baddie getting away never feels narratively fulfilling.

So, another Thursday, another instance of me being slightly frustrated.

Friday was Chiro Day... so, a trip into the city, some poking and prodding and then home again. But then because there was no anything on Friday night, the rest of the day and evening just felt like... nothing.

Honestly, this week was weird... and I think maybe my brain got cooked on Thursday.

Today was... going to the supermarket. Yeah, that was it.

Current mood: