THE CHINESE WAY (SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS)

The more China's financial and cultural clout grows, the more Hollywood is desperate to court it.

Such is the power of the Chinese movie market that US studios no longer ignore their audiences.

Given Hollywood's tendency to chase the money, studios have been tailoring their output to suit Chinese tastes.

Significant investment in Western films from China has certainly played a part, with action films like Jon Turteltaub's preposterous shark tale 'The Meg' featuring Chinese characters and storylines.

Films like Roland Emmerich's '2012' and Alfonso Cuaron's Academy Award winning astronaut drama 'Gravity' have also had specific nods to China in their narratives that portray the country in a favourable light. 

Disney and Marvel have not surprisingly sought to cash in.

Last year, Disney gave us a live action version of 'Mulan' from director Zealander Caro.

Prior to that, Marvel wove Chinese themes into its superhero tale 'Doctor Strange'.

Destin Daniel Cretton's 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' should have represented another gear shift - a Marvel superhero film dominated by a predominantly Asian cast and Chinese characters.

However negative comments from the Chinese-born Canadian lead actor Simu Liu to CBC about China in 2017 have come back to bite the film.

Angered by the interview in the middle of strained diplomatic relations with the US, China has yet to give Cretton's movie access to its box office.

In 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,' Simu Liu plays the eponymous superhero who, at the start of the film, is working in San Francisco as a parking valet under the Anglicised name Shaun alongside his best friend of Chinese origin, Awkwafina's Katy.

In a preamble, we learn Shang Chi's father, Tony Leung's Xu Wenwu has been around for 1,000 years - thanks to his discovery of ten mystical rings that guarantee immortality and also grant superpowers.

Xu Wenwu has used the powers and a team of ninjas known as the Ten Rings Organisation to change the course of history - toppling governments, conquering kingdoms and amassing considerable wealth.

In 1996, we see him go in search of a mystical kingdom in a forest that consumes those who do not travel through it fast enough.

There he encounters Fala Chen's Ying Li, who is a guardian of the kingdom of Ta Lo which is purported to house mythical creatures.

In this instance, the power of the rings is subdued by Ying Li's graceful fighting skills.

Xu Webwu is immediately smitten.

The couple fall in love and she gives birth to Shang Chi and his sister, Xu Xialang, living with Xu Webwu in his Ten Rings kingdom.

Xu Webwu harbours great dreams for his son and puts him through his paces, making him learn Martial Arts. But he is also a tough and demanding taskmaster.

When a gang turns up at the Ten Rings headquarters and murders Ying Li on discovering that Xu Webwu is not there, he berates his son.

The Ten Rings leader exacts his revenge on the gang but Shang Chi absconds to America, promising to return for his sister.

Happy living a slacker life as Shaun alongside his friend Katy, his cover is eventually blown as they ride on a bus together.

Having tracked him down, members of the Ten Rings organisation, including Florian Muntelau's Razor Fist confront him and a fight breaks out, putting the passengers' lives at risk.

Katy is stunned as Shaun demonstrates his silky Martial Arts skills which are streamed live on social media by one passenger.

When they emerge intact, Katy presses Shaun to reveal who he really is.

Katy and Shangi Chi head to Macau where he understands Meng'er Zhang's Xu Xialang is trapped in a fight club.

Determined to rescue her, he is roped into participating in a cage fight on the back of his antics on the bus which have gone viral on social media.

Dubbed "Bus Boy," his opponent turns out to be none other than Xu Xialang who whips his ass.

His sister is still harbouring a grudge for the way he abandoned her with their father.

Shang Chi and Katy are also shocked to learn the fight club is her's but soon they are ambushed by members of the Ten Rings Organisation.

Captured along with Katy, the siblings are reluctantly reunited with their father who is convinced their mother is not dead but trapped in the kingdom of Ta Lo.

They also stumble upon a Marvel blast from the past - with Ben Kingsley reprising his 'Iron Man 3' role as the Liverpudlian luvvie, Trevor Slattery.

Escaping from the compound with Trevor and a cute, faceless mythical creature known as a Hundun that he has befriended, they head to the forest in the hope of getting to Ta Ki before Xu Webwu and his ninjas.

Encountering their maternal aunt Michelle Yeoh's Ying Nan, they realise their father is being duped into believing Ying Li is alive and in trying to free her he is placing the world in grave danger.

'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' is pretty much what you expect from a Marvel movie.

There are big action sequences leaving a trail of destruction, fist fights a plenty, sarcastic one liners, impressive special effects and a potentially cataclysmic event.

Is Cretton's film as impressive as 'Black Panther'?

No but its cultural significance shouldn't be downplayed.

As Marvel films go, it is better than most - moving along at a rip-roaring pace.

Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous film was the impressive Death Row drama 'Just Mercy' with Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx, does a credible job as a Marvel director.

His cast also turn in solid performances.

Simu Liu is a dependably earnest superhero.

Tony Leung does what is required as a villain of sorts.

Florian Muntelau, Meng'er Zhang, Ben Kingsley and Michelle Yeoh dutifully go about their business.

Marvel stalwarts Benedict Wong, Mark Rufalo and Brie Larson as Wong the Sorcerer Supreme, Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers respectively also pop up.

However it is Awkwafina who steals the show as Shang Chi's sidekick Katy and that isn't a surprise because Cretton, Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham's script is pretty much set up to allow her to quip and charm her way through the film in her distinctive New York drawl.

With a box office intake of $432 million, 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,' success has already resulted in Cretton being engaged to work on a sequel.

Whether 'Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' ever opens in China - a market it hoped to triumph - will depend on Chinese- US relations.

However it will also hinge on whether Disney and Marvel hold their nerve in the face of Chinese anger over Simu Liu's comments. 

Hold firm and it will suggest the lure of the yuan can be resisted.

Buckle and it will show placating China to get access to its market is much more important to Hollywood.

('Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on September 3, 2021)