Why I Love Tai Lung - The Weight of Expectations (Kung Fu Panda)

this video is brought to you by squarespace for websites online stores and a whole lot more squarespace brings you everything you need to craft your online community re-watching kung fu panda again really made me appreciate how well written while choreographed and how amazing this movie and the trilogy as a whole is the voice acting the direction the soundtrack on all levels kung fu panda is a masterful film and one that has been dear to my heart since 2008 however i want to focus on my favorite character of the film tai long whether it be as a foil to tigress a direct counterpart to poe or as shifu's fallen student tai lung was a great villain and i want to talk about why i love his character of course i can't mention tai lung without first mentioning his prison escape which is probably the coolest prison break i've seen how the blue cold colors interact with the warm reds and the overall choreography of this scene is amazing the decisions that tae lung makes is a perfect introduction to demonstrate his power his ferocity but also his cleverness and it helps to further ground the martial arts in the film while exaggerated of course he's not some superhero he makes smart quick decisions and he is a really talented martial artist one that worked incredibly hard to be this powerful later when he fights the furious 5 the fight is a stunning realization that he is indeed shifu's greatest student this battle highlights the separation between him and tigress the trust that shifu had in him and the trust that he doesn't have with tigers about 40 minutes into the film we get the backstory on tai lung narrated by tigers the baby cub who appeared on the steps of the jade palace was taken in by shifu who raised him and mentored him showing love and care like a father and one key line out of tigris narration was that shifu told tai lung that he was destined for greatness tai long poured everything into his training and as he grew older he wanted the dragon scroll as compensation but oogway denied him it in his anger the snow leopard destroyed a village and returned to the jade palace seeking out the stroll by force tai long's story sees how detrimental and how heavy the weight of expectations can be especially when placed on by a parental figure while shifu never outright told him that it was his destiny to harness the scroll's knowledge from tai lung's perspective the dragon scroll was the be all end all of greatness if he couldn't have that then he couldn't be great he couldn't fulfill his destiny instead of inner belief the scroll became validation for tai long to prove to not only himself but to shifu that he was worth the hard work that his mentor that his father had put into him not only that the dragon scroll was the fruit of his labor tai lung states how much hard work was put into it the years he dedicated the bones he broke for the scroll that he was denied this story of shifu and tai long becomes even more interesting when they fight at the end and more importantly when tae lung says that all of his hard work his motivation was for shifu to be proud of him and in his rage tai lung demands that he says it again we are brought back to the theme of the mentor or the parent she fulfilled tai lung with this idea that the snow leopard was destined for greatness and once again the dragon scroll represents that greatness in physical form it was the weight of shifu's expectations his pride that brought tai lung to this very point without that physical representation of greatness he was a failure and failure drove him to rage after tai lung demands that shifu tells him that he's proud of him shifu does and his mentor also apologizes and the look on tai lung's face is shocking throughout the film he's been arrogant and tenacious but this was a foreign emotion for the snow leopard all he's ever wanted was for shifu to utter those words even with all of the love shown to him by shifu those words were never spoken it wasn't the scroll that he was after it was shifu's approval and you can physically see the way those words held when the snow leopard's rage fades in these eight seconds we see the real tai lung the scent and the humanity that he has left the real tight lung is still in there because in that moment he's that cub again facing his mentor facing his father the way he so subtly walks into the light emphasizes that shifu is pleading for his son back but tai long brushes it off and returns to anger it's too late at that point the damage was already done he was already too far gone he now has to walk the path that he chose and remember the rage he built in prison for 20 years the isolation that shifu and oogway forced upon him the expectation for greatness wasn't shifu's anymore but now instead his own now to prove to himself and to prove to ugwe and to shifu that he was worthy of the power contained in that scroll to prove to them that they have truly denied him his destiny he doesn't want to scroll anymore for validation he knows that he is strong enough to be the dragon warrior and to beat the dragon warrior now he wants the scroll's limitless power to be strong enough to defeat ugwe and shihu that scene right there is why i love tai lung he carried an incredibly human desire to be appreciated and to be valued he felt that he was owed the dragon scroll as compensation for all the work he put in from his perspective it's only right she who filled him up with air with the dreams he says shifu made him arrogant and when he wasn't given the scroll the validation it angered him beyond measure and not only was he denied the scroll ugwe said that he saw darkness in him which i think hurts more than simple rejection especially considering the fact that shifu never defended the goodness inside of him it's at this point when it becomes shifu's story of failure shifu built up tai lung self-image with nurturing love and belief and of course these are amazing positive qualities but where shifu failed in his parenting and in his mentoring was not instilling the snow leopard with humility modesty the ability to face rejection and to keep working the scroll was never owed to tai long but without humility he felt that way shifu failed by not telling the snow leopard that by existing he was already great and believing in himself is what would have made him even greater failure changed shifu it changed the way he teaches and his approach to life no one was ever going to be tai long it's interesting because in the opening scene of the furious five shifu tells tigress that she needs more ferocity monkey more speed crane more height and viper greater subtlety all qualities that ty lung possesses that he's demonstrated he truly is shifu's greatest student that failure tai long stripped him of his smile and his love it made him crave control or the illusion of it as uggway says until paul arrived when i think of the theme of destiny in this film and apply it to tai lung it's sad tai lung's destiny was never truly his own but one forced upon him and one that he believed was his own oogway said that one often meets his destiny on the path he takes to avoid it we never learn what tai lung's destiny is but maybe in the pursuit of the dragon scroll in the pursuit of shifu's approval which he didn't know he already had tai lung was trying to force his way into what he thought his destiny was but on that narrow path with the illusion of control blinding him he ended up avoiding his own destiny i want to give a big thank you to squarespace for sponsoring this video if you don't already know squarespace is a super useful online tool that can help you craft your online community your brand whatever you need online squarespace pretty much has it from your own website if you are a blogger for artists and filmmakers you can use squarespace for your portfolio you can run an online business or an online store squarespace has it all i just started using squarespace myself and honestly i 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Channel: Sage's Rain

Views: 3,178,367

Keywords: film, movie, dreamworks, tai lung, kung fu panda, shifu, oogway, furious five, tigress, love

Id: OIlFLrUZQtQ

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/GreedyBastard999]

Onion 🧅 cutting ninjas. 😭😢