| “ | Fool! Did you really believe that a common thief would be allowed to leave the crypt with the Dragon's Heart? Only a true servant of Kong Tien can wield its awesome power! Ahhhaahahahahaha... at last the power of the first Emperor is mine. | „ |
| ~ Kai Ti Chang to Indiana Jones upon retrieving the Heart of the Dragon at the Netherworld. |
Kai Ti Chang is the main antagonist of the 2003 action-adventure video game Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, the third original Indiana Jones video game.
He is a Chinese army marshall who is secretly the head of the Black Dragon Triad, the most powerful criminal syndicate of China. In 1935, Ti Chang teams up with the Nazis, led by Colonel Albrecht Von Beck, to find Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb to obtain the legendary Heart of the Dragon, a magical black pearl that can control all men's will, but when Indiana Jones gets involved in his plans, Marshall Kai comes up with a way to double-cross the Nazis to get the Heart for himself.
He was voiced by Keone Young, who also played Saico-Tek and Uehara Daizo in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Silas Sinister in Return to Halloweentown, Mr. Wu in Men in Black 3, Jei in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) and Rumi Mori in Batman: The Enemy Within.
History[]
Background[]
Kai Ti Chang was known in China as an official of the country's army, holding the rank of marshall. Unknown to several, however, Marshall Kai was secretly the head of the fearsome Black Dragon Triad, China's most powerful criminal syndicate. Having amassed great power over the local criminal underworld, Chang wished for more, leading him to become obsessed with finding the legendary Heart of the Dragon, a magical black pearl supposedly hidden inside the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang, that, according to legend, could give its user the control of all men's will.
In addition to his desire to find the Heart of the Dragon, Chang and his subordinates had their headquarters in the Peng Lai Island and worshipped the Chinese deity of Kong Tien, an evil demon who possessed souls. To appease her, Kai built an underground temple under the Black Dragon Fortress and often performed rituals for Kong Tien, feeding her with sacrifices. As the underground level where the temple is located is full with possessed Triad fighters, it's possible these were unfortunate members whom Kai sacrifice for Kong Tien.
To do so, Chang contacted and teamed up with Nazi colonel Albrecht Von Beck, sending him and his forces to retrieve the three fragments of the Mirror of Dreams, an artifact that could help to navigate Huang's tomb to find its crypt's entrance. He also allowed Von Beck to build a Nazi facility on Peng Lai in exchange of German weaponry. Somehow, the Chinese intelligence learned about Chang's allegiances and sent their agent Mei Ying to spy on him in hopes of stopping his threat, with Chang hiring Ying as his assistant.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb[]
In 1935, Kai Ti Chang's plans suffer a setback when the intrepid American archaeologist Indiana Jones claims the Kouru Watu idol from the British Ceylon before Albrecht Von Beck could claim it, with Jones even leaving Von Beck for dead. Rather than targeting the archaeologist, however, Chang sees a perfect opportunity to double-cross Von Beck, who had barely survived, and his Nazis to have the Heart of the Dragon all for himself, with Mei Ying learning about this either from Chang himself or her spying him.
Following Indy's return to Marshall College, Chang and Ying first appear when they come to present themselves and approach Jones, under the supposed behalf of the Chinese government, to find the Emperor's tomb so they can retrieve the Heart of the Dragon before it can fall on the Nazi Party's hands. Though unconvinced at first due to believing the Heart to be part of the Chinese folklore, Jones agrees after Mei breaks the Kouru Watu idol and reveals the fragment of the Mirror of Dreams hidden there, so Chang tells him to leave in the flight he has booked for him while he leaves with the first fragment, which the British government allowed him to keep.
After Indy finds the two other fragments in Prague and Istanbul despite coming across Von Beck and his Nazis, Mei Ying decides to tell Indy about Kai Ti Chang's true colors and his plans, so Indy and Mey agree to work together to prevent the Triad and the Nazis from obtaining the Heart of the Dragon, but Chang learns of this thanks to the Feng Twins, his bodyguards, witnessing this exchange and informing him back at Hong Kong. During a performance at the Golden Lotus Opera House, Chang has his men kidnap Mei and sends a waiter to give a champagne bottle to Indy as a "courtesy" now that Mei may be killed in the scenario. Indy goes to rescue his friend, who gets taken by Chang's men out of the opera house to the city's streets and despite Indy's and Wu Han's efforts to rescue Mei, Von Beck is able to take Mei to his U-boat, which sets course to Peng Len.
Once back at his island, Kai and Von Beck have an argument about the former hiring Jones after previously hiring the latter (unaware that they are being spied by Indy from an adjacent window), a decision Kai claims to have taken because Jones was able to make his search for clues far more quickly in two weeks than what Von Beck and his men have achieved in two years. He then intimidates Von Beck into demanding requests for him due to being on his property, Kai tells Von Beck that he will repay him by giving him the Heart of the Dragon for Adolf Hitler once he uses it first to take over China, hastily leaving while secretly not planning to keep his word. Kai then goes to the room where he has placed a bound and gagged Mei inside a cage, telling her that they could have ruled together but that she will pay for her treason by serving as a sacrifice to Kong Tien, so she can make the Mirror of Dreams whole again. Indy later finds his way into the underground temple where Kai and his acolytes try to sacrifice Mei's soul to Kong Tien. Kai gets the Mirror of Dreams whipped out of his wands, but the ritual partially succeeds, so Kai and a few of his men run away with the Mirror while Indy stays behind to face Kong Tien, who possesses Mei until Indy defeats her.
Leaving the Nazis behind to be killed by Jones at Peng Lai, Chang and his forces go to the Emperor's Tomb, which is found in the Shaanxi Province, China. As he looks for the Emperor's crypt, that is at the end of a fake Great Wall inside the Netherworld, Chang leaves most of his men behind to guard the structure in case Jones or Von Beck shows up again. As he keeps looking for the Heart of the Dragon, Indy and Mei face his minions, whether they are alive or undead, and Von Beck ends up losing his life while trying to kill Indy. Indy finally reaches Emperor Qin Shin Huang's tomb and obtains the Heart, but soon collapses tired due to its unwielding power, which Kai can resist due to his devotion to Kong Tien, summoning a terracote warrior army to dispatch Jones, who barely survives thanks to Mei's intervention.
Gathering more and more power as Indy and May defeat his terracota guards, Kai welcomes them out of the crypt, tying Mei up with demonic fire while summong a giant dragon to kill Indiana Jones once and for all. Dodging blow over blow, Indy manages to use the Pa Cheng to weaken Kai enough to allow Mei to tell Indy to target the Heart of the Dragon to ensure Kai loses his powers. Indy does so and manages to defeat Kai for good by knocking the Heart of the Dragon off his hands into the Netherworld's vast void. No longer in control of his beast nor of the spirits there, Kai is quickly grabbed by the souls of the first Emperor's victims as the dragon proceeds to lunge at him and presumably devour him as it charges with Kai into the depths of the Netherworld while the Emperor's Tomb starts collapsing. While Indy and Mei are barely able to escape with their lives and the latter swears to dismantle the Black Dragon Triad, it's likely that the dragon either wipes Kai Ti Chang's soul out of existence or sentences him to the bowels of the underworld for all eternity.
Trivia[]
- Kai Ti Chang is the third main antagonist of an Indiana Jones adventure to be of Asian descent, following Masashi Kyojo of the Indiana Jones: Thunder of the Orient comic book miniseries and Colonel Tzi of Max McCoy's novel Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs.
- Kai Ti Chang is easily one of the very few Indiana Jones villains who did get what they wanted to obtain through the artifact of their respective stories and wasn't killed because of that, as Kai succeeded in using the Heart of the Dragon to empower himself, ultimately being killed by the Heart's destruction at Indy's hands.
- Although many characters refer to Kai Ti Chang as "Marshall Kai", the correct pronunciation would be "Marshal Kai", as that's the way it's written the military rank. "Marshall" is the variant used for "Marshall College" or even Indiana Jones producer Frank Marshall, for example.
External Links[]
- Kai Ti Chang on the Indiana Jones Wiki
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 Villains
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