How Ying Li Dies In Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings
The untimely death of Shang-Chi’s mom, Ying Li, is an integral plot point in the MCU's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the way she dies is one of the most shocking moments in the movie. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings revolves around the eponymous superpowered martial artist returning to the home he fled and reconnecting with the family he left behind as malevolent forces conspire against them. What ties Shang-Chi to his father Wenwu and his sister Xialing is their mutual love of Li.
Released in 2021 just as movie theaters were reopening in a post-pandemic world, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings managed to gross $432 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), launching Simu Liu and Awkwafina to new levels of stardom. The success of Shang-Chi, both critically and commercially, gave Marvel enough faith in director Destin Daniel Cretton to hire him for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. What made Cretton’s direction of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings so effective was his ability to balance spectacular action sequences with heavier emotional beats like the flashback to Shang-Chi’s mom’s death.