[EpochTimesSeptember92021](Epoch Times reporter Tong Yijia comprehensive report) Marvel’s first Chinese superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten” Rings, abbreviated as Shangqi), is the 32-year-old Chinese Canadian actor Liu Simu as the leading actor. The box office has recently been released in North America, Hong Kong and Taiwan. However, his earlier remarks about China were recently uncovered, and he was accused of “humiliating China” by the mainland online naval account “Dibaguanwei”. The incident may have made the film miss the Chinese market.
“Shang Qi” is Marvel’s first Chinese hero movie. Although the actor Liu Simu of the film is not well-known in China, the joining of Chinese superstars such as Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh has attracted the attention of many Chinese fans. The main line of the film’s plot is the complex father-son relationship between the protagonist “Shang Qi” played by Simu Liu and the father “Civil Martial” played by Tony Leung.
After the film was released in the United States and Canada, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the response was quite impressive. Not only did it win the box office champion with about US$90 million on the first weekend in North America, it also won the box office champion by selling for NT$39.57 million in 4 days in Taiwan, and after it was released in Hong Kong on September 2nd, the film was only 4 days away. It set a record for the highest box office in Hong Kong’s history with 4 days of opening in September, breaking through 18 million Hong Kong dollars.
With the film’s 92% freshness praise on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes, Liu Simu’s reputation rose to fame. But recently, the Chinese “Diba Guanwei” accused him of “humiliating China”, turning out his earlier remarks during the interview that “many people in China died of hunger”, raising doubts about whether the film can be shown in the mainland.
The incident originated from Canada’s 150th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in July this year. Liu Simu talked about what Canada means to him in a related interview: “When I was very young, my parents would tell me that they grew up under the rule of Communist China. The big story is that many people died of hunger and they lived in the third world. Then they would feel that Canada is a place where they can live freely and can create a better future for their children.”
After “Dibaguanwei” turned out this interview, it immediately aroused hot discussion among mainland netizens, and also triggered attacks by Xiaopin and Fifty cents, criticizing Liu Simu for immigrating to Canada from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province with his parents when he was 5 years old. Think of himself as a Canadian, shouting “Shang Qi” not to be shown in China”, thinking that the film role is “exclude Chinese” and “humiliate China”.
Earlier, when the film crew of “Shang Qi” announced that Tony Leung played the role of “Manchuria”, it caused a frantic bombardment by Chinese netizens, saying that the role of “Manchuria” was related to the “yellow peril”. At that time, the Chinese Communist Party’s official media “China Youth Daily” criticized the film for “blackening Chinese people.” In early April, Marvel quietly changed the name of “Man of Manchu” played by Tony Leung to “Civil and Martial Arts”, leading to speculation that this might be a self-censorship in order to avoid the “humiliating China” controversy. In addition, Liu Simu’s looks like Xi Jinping’s comparison map has become a hot topic on the mainland Internet earlier.
It is not yet certain where “Shang Qi” will be in the Chinese market in the future, but the topic of the film has been fermented on the Chinese Internet. Many fans questioned the remarks about “blocking”: “Now we have to deal with everything, this can’t, that can’t, we can block everything, what exactly should we look at?”
Editor in charge: Yang Ming
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