Shang-Chi: One Action Sequence Took 4 Weeks to Film

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings is now and theaters, but even before general audiences could witness the adventure, one of the elements that critics were celebrating about the film was its inventive fight choreography, with star Florian Munteanu recently pointing out that one scene was so complex that it took four weeks to film. The scene in question is the impressive battle that unfolds on a bus, which fans caught glimpses of in the film’s trailers, with Marvel Studios clearly knowing just how exhilarating the scene would be when audiences would finally get to witness it in full. Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

“It was so crazy. The tough part was we had summer in Australia, it was like 90 degrees outside. In the bus itself, it was like a sauna,” Munteanu shared with ComicBook.com. “So many people inside the bus and yourself, when you are on the bus, there’s not a lot of space. It’s a super small and tight space and was so tough to fight in there. And, especially for a guy like me, a tall, big guy, it was so hard to move in there. I was hitting poles and walls all the time, going to the physios, the doctors almost every other day. But, at the end of the day, it was all worth it. I think we created something really special.”

For more than a decade, audiences have seen the Marvel Cinematic Universe explore all manner of combat, with Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton also pointing out one of his goals when it came to the action.

“The stamp was not my stamp alone. This was the result of a really incredible team that we put together,” the filmmaker recalled. “Our stunt team was led by Brad Allan who came from the camp of the great Jackie Chan and was not only trained there to do great martial arts, but really trained to do storytelling and to do physical storytelling with setups and payoffs and physical gags and jokes and humor. And he also put together an incredible team of choreographers from mainland China and Hong Kong, some of which brought this other really beautiful choreography, that you could describe some of these fights scenes as elegant and emotional. And we have a fight scene where two people fall in love by the end of it … and these are all fight scenes that are described in ways that I never thought I could describe a fight scene, and I feel so proud to have them all and be a part of this movie.”

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

What did you think of the film’s fight scenes? Let us know in the comments below!