The Brothers Sun is an action comedy-drama series created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu. Joined by Mikkel Bondesen and Kevin Tancharoen as the executive producers, the series has eight episodes with a runtime of about 48-60 minutes.
The cast includes Michelle Yeoh as Eileen Sun, Justin Chien as Charles Sun, Sam Song Li as Bruce Sun, Highdee Kuan as Alexis, Joon Lee as TK, Jon Xue Zhang as Blood Boots, Jenny Yang as Xing, Madison Hu as Grace, Johnny Kou (Shih-Hsun Kou) as Big Sun, Rodney To as Mark, Alice Hewkin as May and Maite Garcia as Edner.
The story follows after the leader of a prominent Taiwanese criminal organization is assassinated by an unknown killer, his eldest son, renowned assassin Charles Sun, travels to Los Angeles to safeguard his mother, Eileen, and his innocent younger brother, Bruce, who has been kept in the dark about their family’s true nature until now.
The city of Taipei experiences a dangerous conflict between the most violent factions, while Charles, Bruce and their mother find themselves at risk of losing their lives in LA. To ensure their safety and survival, they must first come to terms with the wounds caused by their separation, and then gain a deeper understanding of the true meaning of both brotherhood and family. Failure to do so could result in the family’s demise at the hands of one of their many enemies.
The Brothers Sun Review
The show opens up in Taipei where Charles is seen baking something while watching The Great British Bake Off. His sweet self-care time is interrupted by three masked armed men pointing their knives at him. What they don’t realise is that his nickname is Charles ‘Chairleg’ Sun, which he got after killing a man at 14 with a chair – and can do the same with his rolling pin as well. However, when his crime lord father gets shot while visiting him, he is tasked with ‘protecting his family’ aka his estranged mother & brother from getting harmed.
Meanwhile, in LA, Eileen Sun works as a nurse and her son, Bruce, is a pre-med student – who rather join an improv class. Oblivious to the dangerous underground life that Charles knows best, Bruce seems too soft to realise what’s at stake for them. More trouble and masked men follow him to LA, as Charles tries his best to save everyone while getting to know his estranged part of the family.
While the show is packed with blood-spilling action and people falling to their deaths left & right, the humour comes from little eccentric details in the scenes. The contrast in characters makes it lighthearted when it could become a gore thriller. For example, Charles’s character is a ruthless assassin, who can kill anyone with a drop of a pin. At the same time, he is also passionate about food and especially baking, watching reality TV & dramas.
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The creators have cleverly tried to integrate typical Asian family/cultural traits through dialogue and mannerisms, instead of putting them out there like educational material. One of the most obvious cliches would be Eileen wanting her Bruce to become a doctor when all he can think about is acting. Yet he obeys her wishes against his own, as a filial son. Charles’s arrival and introduction to his family background is the typical setup where Bruce would finally divert away from his present life & find a new personality as a crime lord’s son.
But that’s where the show proves itself to be a bit different. Instead of getting blinded by the newfound riches, Bruce doesn’t falter from his true personality & forges his own path devoid of any influence. The development arcs of all the characters are somewhat unexpected and fairly realistic. Talking about characters, it’s needless to say that Michelle Yeoh does a fabulous job of portraying a matriarch with endless secrets hidden behind her calm demeanour.
Along with her, Justin Chien steals the spotlight with his effortless action sequences and portrays a dilemmatic personality – unsure of their path in life. Often times when portraying a strong macho character, the actor fails to show equal intensity in vulnerable moments. However, Chien swifts through both like his jaw-breaking punches.
While the performances are stellar, on a personal note, the story seems to fall flat in places. They often repeat the same things over & over that it becomes annoying – like Bruce’s passion for improv (as if he doesn’t have a personality apart from this one thing). One would expect secrets to unfold gradually as the story develops but they keep on hinting at these secrets but never reveal them properly or until the end. Especially Alexis’ character & background could have been explained a bit. Otherwise, overall it’s a good show but one shouldn’t expect every part of it to be the best.
Rating: 3.5/5
The Brothers Sun is available to stream on Netflix.
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