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ased after Ta Lo, and dueled with his future wife, Ying Li. Cut to Li telling this story to her son, young Shang-Chi, as she gifts him a jade necklace.</p><p id="c645">Then we cut to present-day, grown-up Shang-Chi — and the backstory ends.</p><h1 id="af52">Dole out the rest in smaller nuggets</h1><p id="833c">Those scenes were the essential backstory. The screenwriters will save the other parts — the non-essential backstory — for later.</p><p id="00e6">From here, the flashbacks get shorter and far more intermittent, only called upon when absolutely needed. In contrast to the 10 minute opening block of backstory, these later flashbacks are only 1–3 minutes long, and expertly woven into the main storyline.</p><p id="c275">This is where the magic of this strategy starts. Once you’re able to break up the backstory, you can dole them out later in much smaller sips. This way, the audience can truly savor the individual scene’s emotional flavors, rather than get so stuffed upfront that they can’t enjoy the main meal of your story!</p><p id="8086">You can even <b>turn these non-essential flashbacks into a mystery</b>.</p><p id="ee6d">For example, we know Shang-Chi’s mother died, but we don’t see how or when that happened until much later in the story. By first showing the aftermath of an event (Wenwu’s desire to bring his deceased wife back to life), then withholding the flashback that explains how the event occurred until much later (Li fighting the gang), the screenwriters were able to add a layer of mystery to the story without much effort.</p><figure id="4df9"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*oWh0Gp-3GPsLDaoibkSTHw.jpeg"><figcaption>Courtesy of Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure><p id="2265">A great example of this is in Act 3, when Shang-Chi tells Katy, on the eve of Wenwu’s arrival at Ta Lo, that he knows what he must do. We flashback to the aftermath of his mother’s death. His father takes 7-year-old Shang-Chi to a gambling den to identify the man responsible, and kills him right in front of his son. He then asks the scared little boy if he’ll help his father avenge his mother’s murder.</p><p id="bee4">That was the day Wenwu took his son’s life away, and turned him into a killing machine. Coming out of that flashback, Shang-Chi admits that he <i>did</i> carry out his father’s kill order, at just 14 years old. It’s time to finally stop this man who’d destroyed his life, was responsible for killing his mother — and for the destruction he’s about to lay upon Ta Lo.</p><p id="6579">The screenwriters could’ve easily told the entire backstory of how his mother died all at once: starting with the gang of men who show up at the Xu family’s door, how Li says her final words to her young son, Shang-Chi hiding while watching out the window, how Wenwu comes home only to discover the boy crying over his mother’s dead body, and Wenwu taking the boy to the gambling den and asking him to help avenge his mother’s death.</p><
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p id="7f7d">Yet every single one of these scenes were shown separately, at different intervals, spread out throughout the movie. The writers knew that each flashback had the ability to elicit different emotions, depending on how much they contrasted or complemented the current storyline they were woven into.</p><h1 id="9724">Unlocking emotional value</h1><p id="e9af">Such strategic placing of flashbacks would also be key in helping the audience understand what a character was thinking or feeling, and their internal motivations that the characters themselves would never say out loud.</p><figure id="e9c3"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*QVAY3ltDtXVsdqdX7k8hPQ.jpeg"><figcaption>Courtesy of Marvel Studios</figcaption></figure><p id="087b">A great example of this, was after Shang-Chi and his father’s first battle in Ta Lo. Seemingly defeated, Shang-Chi falls into the lake. As he sinks deeper and deeper, we flashback to the final words his mother says to his younger self, right before she sends him away to face the gang (and her doom): “I’m so proud of you. Our family needs you.”</p><p id="eaeb">This is what wakes Shang-Chi up, and what gives him the strength to ride that dragon back up out of the water and into battle. If that flashback had been shown at any other moment, it would not have resonated nearly as much as it did in <i>that</i> scene, in <i>that</i> specific moment, when Shang-Chi clearly needed the biggest inspirational boost of his life.</p><p id="542c">That’s the emotional power flashbacks can give you, if you know how to string them out and use only when absolutely necessary to complement the main story!</p><p id="1297"><i>For more of my movie/TV storytelling tips, check out my 2nd in this series:</i></p><div id="12cb" class="link-block">
<a href="https://readmedium.com/shang-chi-story-analysis-2-best-vs-worst-scenes-masterclass-dd8b414059ba">
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<h2>Shang-Chi Analysis #2: Best vs. Worst Scenes Masterclass</h2>
<div><h3>How did the writers construct the best scene of the movie, and what fatal mistake led to the worst scene?</h3></div>
<div><p>medium.com</p></div>
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</div><p id="9f11"><b><i>Dancy Fu</i></b><i> is a writer and learning experience designer. She has been analyzing movies, TV shows, novels and screenplays for more than 16 years, collecting storytelling insights to improve her own writing and <a href="https://courses.philanthropyu.org/courses/course-v1:PhilanthropyU+Storytelling_000+1_1.37_20191118_20191229/about">online courses (on what else, storytelling</a>! :) Dancy has lived in 8 different cities, and currently calls Los Angeles home.</i></p></article></body>
