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A Marvel Fanboy

China Box Office Thread | Oppenheimer-August 30

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I think all of these social media comments need to be taken with a pinch of salt. As the first Chinese superhero in the MCU it was always going to attract praise and criticism. When you add in nationalistic views from some people, it just creates a different angle to other casting arguments /discussions. 

 

In a way it's good that it's creating a lot of buzz in China or at least people are talking about it. The worry is that I haven't seen much talk of it outside China since the announcement. I want Shang Qi to be a world wide success, so hopefully Marvel also focus on attracting the audience outside China too.

23 minutes ago, ymblcza said:

Besides that background of Mandarin & Fu Manchu, many people also think that the mediocre looks (including small eyes, etc) of both actor Liu Simu and actress Awkwafina is a stereotype and racism on Chinese.

That's the most pointless criticism I've read. Whoever said that is not even worth listening to. 

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1 hour ago, Nero said:

They did this for DS. The ancient one also posed many problem but Disney handled it with care, now everyone is happy. Same will happen with Shang Chi. Justvision you are not a very positive guy?

I am a realist, or at best cautious optimist. It is a fact that Disney can't bypass CCP's censorship authority to get Shang-Chi released in China. And Disney will make sure that Shang-Chi would not be seen as intrusive, preachy or racist.

 

Also my take is Tony Leung's character Manchuria would have major subversion. I can envisage him to be like Severus Snape in HP.

 

And the most important issue in my view is that they should not portray Shang-Chi, a Western country born Chinese to be a superior, condescending, preachy character over those native Chinese characters.

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9 minutes ago, RaidensSword said:

I want Shang Qi to be a world wide success, so hopefully Marvel also focus on attracting the audience outside China too.

 

I think it’ll do well outside of China. It will have a similar draw as Black Panther did (although to a lesser extent) and maybe on par with Captain Marvel. Personally, I believe it will be the highest grossing Phase 4 film both domestically and worldwide (assuming the Chinese people love it and don't reject it).

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18 minutes ago, RaidensSword said:

That's the most pointless criticism I've read. Whoever said that is not even worth listening to. 

Some asked why Disney didn't choose an ugly actor for Captain America, or Iron Man?Many Chinese, if not most, are "racist" on people's, especially women's looking...:sparta:I mean, they're not acutally racist, but do care much more on people's appearance and stature.

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1 minute ago, ymblcza said:

Some asked why Disney didn't choose an ugly actor for Captain America, or Iron Man?Many Chinese, if not most, are racist on people's looking...:sparta:

 

Which is ironic because a decent amount of the talk over here is about how attractive he is lol

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46 minutes ago, ymblcza said:

Besides that background of Mandarin & Fu Manchu, many people also think that the mediocre looks (including small eyes, etc) of both actor Liu Simu and actress Awkwafina is a stereotype and racism on Chinese.

Plus some are upset about Awkwafina’s heritage as she has Korean blood and is not Chinese. They are saying that Marvel and Disney executives cannot even tell a Korean from a Chinese and think all Asians are the same.

 

 

most comments/posts are negative... asking for boycott. Tony Leung has it worst imo as he is the only guy that the people in China knows, plus he is playing the actual controversial character - Mandarin. His Wife - Carina Lau, arguable as famous as him, posted a weibo to support his casting yesterday and top comments are from people who nicely urge her to convince her Husband to not take the role.

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2 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

Plus some is upset about Awkwafina’s heritage as she has Korean blood and is not Chinese. They are saying that Marvel and Disney executives cannot even tell a Korean from a Chinese and think all Asians are the same.

 

 

most comments/posts are negative... asking for boycott. Tony Leung has it worst imo as he is the only guy people in a China knows. His Wife - Carina Lau, arguable as famous as him, posted a weibo to support his casting yesterday and TOP comments are from people who nicely urge her to convince her Husband to not take the role.

... these are idiotic complains to say the least, other than maybe the villains, i hope marvel doesnt listen to them,

plus most of these people will stop talking when the trailer will come, marvel should do what they think is best, and not listen to whata every marvel fan is saying, you cant plz all the people, but you can make sure to make the best movie possible

 

 

 

about the eyes, etc lol thats the most IDIOTIC  complain i have ever heard, other than brie larson smile

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There are so many things to unpack from this conversation. But it's an important discussion to have.

23 minutes ago, justvision said:

I am a realist, or at best cautious optimist. It is a fact that Disney can't bypass CCP's censorship authority to get Shang-Chi released in China. And Disney will make sure that Shang-Chi would not be seen as intrusive, preachy or racist.

 

Also my take is Tony Leung's character Manchuria would have major subversion. I can envisage him to be like Severus Snape in HP.

 

And the most important issue in my view is that they should not portray Shang-Chi, a Western country born Chinese to be a superior, condescending, preachy character over those native Chinese characters.

I agree about the portrayal but I don't see how he can be a preachy character. All the marvel origin movies follow a simple formula, it's just going to be him using his powers for the first time and defeating a bad guy. 

 

Then overall tone needs to avoid any political messages but I'm sure Disney are going to be so soft with it, I can't even see them touching the colonialism type subject like Black Panther did. 

17 minutes ago, VenomXXR said:

 

I think it’ll do well outside of China. It will have a similar draw as Black Panther did (although to a lesser extent) and maybe on par with Captain Marvel. Personally, I believe it will be the highest grossing Phase 4 film both domestically and worldwide (assuming the Chinese people love it and don't reject it).

I think it's less than Black Panther outside China, but an increase on it inside China so it will even out. I think around Black Panther ww total would still be a big success for a basically unknown hero for most audiences im 2019.

11 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

Plus some are upset about Awkwafina’s heritage as she has Korean blood and is not Chinese. They are saying that Marvel and Disney executives cannot even tell a Korean from a Chinese and think all Asians are the same.

 

 

most comments/posts are negative... asking for boycott. Tony Leung has it worst imo as he is the only guy that the people in China knows, plus he is playing the actual controversial character - Mandarin. His Wife - Carina Lau, arguable as famous as him, posted a weibo to support his casting yesterday and top comments are from people who nicely urge her to convince her Husband to not take the role.

Well this goes back to the original discussion about the main character's heritage. At soms point Disney need to a draw a line about how far they are willing to go to satisfy this kind of criticism. Are we really going to have actors only being able to play characters who share the same blood in every movie? Luckily I still think this criticism comes from a vocal minority, especially when it comes to supporting characters. 

16 minutes ago, ymblcza said:

Some asked why Disney didn't choose an ugly actor for Captain America, or Iron Man?Many Chinese, if not most, are "racist" on people's, especially women's looking...:sparta:I mean, they're not acutally racist, but do care much more on people's appearance and stature.

It's really a lose lose situation. If they cast someone with bigger eyes or more "western" looking, then they would get criticised for that too. That's why it's just a silly discussion road down to even go down .

 

Let's just see how well all the actors play their parts, that's the most important thing in my eyes! 

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12 minutes ago, john2000 said:

... these are idiotic complains to say the least, other than maybe the villains, i hope marvel doesnt listen to them,

plus most of these people will stop talking when the trailer will come, marvel should do what they think is best, and not listen to whata every marvel fan is saying, you cant plz all the people, but you can make sure to make the best movie possible

 

 

 

about the eyes, etc lol thats the most IDIOTIC  complain i have ever heard, other than brie larson smile

To be honest, I would rather Marvel take a step back and listen to the audiences for once.

 

it is easy to say idiotic when you are not one of them. I am a Chinese, even though I don’t live in China... while I do not necessary agree with the netizens, I can see where their displeasure comes from.

 

Some feel that Marvel thinks they can do whatever they want because of a strong brand and just cast whoever they want, (main character apparently did the screen test on Sunday and got the role on a Tuesday, as Marvel was rushing to make the announcement on Sat night) with no audience repercussions and many Chinese just feel upset and want to voice their opinion.

 

It’s Marvel’s first Asian superhero film so there are of course huge expectations from the Chinese... and their casting really shows they do not understand Chinese’s taste or don’t really pay attention to what audiences think...

 

Shang Chi itself is not very well known, and with so many negative voices... it’s not off a good start. Maybe don’t introduce Mandarin in the first film, just make it an origin story and win over audiences first with strong WoM and introduce Mandarin in the 2nd film.

 

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6 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

To be honest, I would rather Marvel take a step back and listen to the audiences for once.

 

it is easy to say idiotic when you are not one of them. I am a Chinese, even though I don’t live in China... while I do not necessary agree with the netizens, I can see where their displeasure comes from.

 

Some feel that Marvel thinks they can do whatever they want because of a strong brand and just cast whoever they want, (main character apparently did the screen test on Sunday and got the role on a Tuesday, as Marvel was rushing to make the announcement on Sat night) with no audience repercussions and many Chinese just feel upset and want to voice their opinion.

 

It’s Marvel’s first Asian superhero film so there are of course huge expectations from the Chinese... and their casting really shows they do not understand Chinese’s taste or don’t really pay attention to what audiences think...

 

Shang Chi itself is not very well known, and with so many negative voices... it’s not off a good start. Maybe don’t introduce Mandarin in the first film, just make it an origin story and win over audiences first with strong WoM and introduce Mandarin in the 2nd film.

 

no marvel can do whataever they want as long as the product is good, how the appearance of an actor or even his eyes should be considered a taste or even a serious complaint ? as for mandarin they will probably modernize him enough to the point that ht will be good, and really rushing ? marvel is many thing but they are not rushing, the script is almost done, so the only needed an actor, and many time marvel proved the audience wrong with the casting , and excuse me but the audience is the whole world not only china, the movie is a way to represent chinese in the mcu yes, but the complains other than mandaring motivation or fu manchu are laughable, i mean i dont like him bc he isnt as handsome as i wanted, or bc i dont like his eyes wtf ??

 

 ps how the appearance of the actor makes a movie good ? thats not logic, they did the same with captain marvel, you didnt like the movie bc it was bad, thats fine but you didnt like it bc she isnt hot enough for you ? what? plus for gods shake we dont know shit about shang shi, so how can you complain already with  info

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Shang-Chi’s origin is pretty tied up with his main antagonist father, I don’t really see how you could avoid that for the first movie.    

 

This is exactly the backlash I predicted when that article about positive reactions to the kolll tweet came out. I hope that lowered expectations can perhaps lead to a countermovement if the trailer/movie itself are good, rather than creating a negative spiral that sticks to the movie regardless of its quality. Even if it only does $80M in China or something, Marvel will be fine (though my club won’t be).

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2 minutes ago, Thanos Legion said:

Shang-Chi’s origin is pretty tied up with his main antagonist father, I don’t really see how you could avoid that for the first movie.    

 

This is exactly the backlash I predicted when that article about positive reactions to the kolll tweet came out. I hope that lowered expectations can perhaps lead to a countermovement if the trailer/movie itself are good, rather than creating a negative spiral that sticks to the movie regardless of its quality. Even if it only does $80M in China or something, Marvel will be fine (though my club won’t be).

you cant, but you can modernize it enough and change it enough to the point that chinese audience wint have problem,but other than that,the rest of the complains seem stupid to me

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11 minutes ago, john2000 said:

no marvel can do whataever they want as long as the product is good, how the appearance of an actor or even his eyes should be considered a taste or even a serious complaint ? as for mandarin they will probably modernize him enough to the point that ht will be good, and really rushing ? marvel is many thing but they are not rushing, the script is almost done, so the only needed an actor, and many time marvel proved the audience wrong with the casting , and excuse me but the audience is the whole world not only china, the movie is a way to represent chinese in the mcu yes, but the complains other than mandaring motivation or fu manchu are laughable, i mean i dont like him bc he isnt as handsome as i wanted, or bc i dont like his eyes wtf ??

 

 ps how the appearance of the actor makes a movie good ? thats not logic, they did the same with captain marvel, you didnt like the movie bc it was bad, thats fine but you didnt like it bc she isnt hot enough for you ? what? plus for gods shake we dont know shit about shang shi, so how can you complain already with  info

Relax. Are you a marvel fan? Haha. 

 

Use Google translate and go to weibo and argue with those posts which already have tens of thousands of likes.

 

some members like Gavin, firedeep, myself can read Chinese characters so we are just relaying some information we see there and post here for people’s information.. Don’t have to take their (Chinese Netizens’) points and put it on me. I see their rationale because some are marvel fans and express disappointment (not anger).

 

please, I am trying to help here and relaying/translating things I have seen - be less microscopic and don’t need to keep defending the brand... Don’t shoot the messenger.

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4 minutes ago, TigerPaw said:

Relax. Are you a marvel fan? Haha. 

 

Use Google translate and go to weibo and argue with those posts which already have tens of thousands of likes.

 

some members like Gavin, firedeep, myself can read Chinese characters so we are just relaying some information we see here for people’s information.. Don’t have to take their point and put it on me.

 

please, I am trying to help here and relaying/translating things I have seen - be less microscopic and don’t need to keep defending the brand... Don’t shoot the messenger.

oh no  i didnt pick up on you specifically, i am soryr if it came with the wrong way , i was speaking in general :(

 

ps i dont defend, as you saw i didnt say anything for mandarin etc, my grip was the complaints like actos likeness etc,

 

again i was speaking in general :)

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At the end of the day, we want Shang Chi to be well received in China and for the Chinese people to love it.

 

However....

 

The MCU is way bigger than just China, so caving to online criticism over trivial issues isn’t going to happen. This isn’t a Chinese Nationalist film. It’s never going to get everything right, just like Mulan won’t. It’ll be what it’ll be.

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7 minutes ago, Gavin Feng said:

If Shang-Chi don't beat Black Panther worldwide, I think the whole world is racist, and Hollywood should all be banned in China.:Gaga:

Shang-Chi coming to save Endgame from A2 :ph34r:

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3 minutes ago, VenomXXR said:

At the end of the day, we want Shang Chi to be well received in China and for the Chinese people to love it.

 

However....

 

The MCU is way bigger than just China, so caving to online criticism over trivial issues isn’t going to happen. This isn’t a Chinese Nationalist film. It’s never going to get everything right, just like Mulan won’t. It’ll be what it’ll be.

yeah plus we dont evn know what the plot will be and what they have change, at the end of the day we have zero info about the movie

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2 hours ago, Nero said:

They did this for DS. The ancient one also posed many problem but Disney handled it with care, now everyone is happy. Same will happen with Shang Chi. Justvision you are not a very positive guy?

Except for the very much valid whitewashing controversy?

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