Review by C.J. Bunce
With the streaming release of The Equalizer 3 (reviewed here) and the first season of the new series The Brothers Sun, Netflix has set the bar for movies and TV for 2024. The Brothers Sun is the spiritual successor of sorts to the groundbreaking series Warrior, as well as the action-fantasy Wu Assassins, especially with its nods to food love. Mislabeled as only a comedy series almost everywhere you look, The Brothers Sun is actually an action drama that continues a long conversation about the impact of gang violence on the Asian community. With Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh getting top billing, it’s a shoo-in for a second season, so you’ll want to get in on the show now. It’s a great time if you’re a fan of high-octane, no-holds-barred action.
After an assassination hit against the head of the Jade Dragons–an international Triad crime organization based in Taipei–the fallen leader’s mild-mannered but decisively brutal son returns to Los Angeles supposedly to protect his strong-willed mother and naive younger brother. Were the Jade Dragons targeted by a long-time enemy or a new menace? Or are they all stepping into a trap?
The series is in part about Michelle Yeoh’s low-key, would-be crime moll Eileen Sun, the strategically estranged wife of the Jade Dragon boss. But it’s as much if not more about her sons. San Song Li is Bruce, Eileen’s “good” son who looks (and often has the mannerisms) of a young Jackie Chan. Little did he know it, but Bruce has been hiding out in the open with his mom in L.A. for the past 15 years. That’s 15 years since elder brother Charles, played by Justin Chien, was 15 years old and earned his place as his father’s protector by killing a room of would-be killers with the leg of a broken chair. Li plays Bruce as awkward and affable, like Topher Grace in That ’70s Show, and Chien plays Charles as a modern-day version of Andrew Koji’s 19th century rising gang thug in Warrior. It helps establish Chien’s gritty older brother that he is a ringer for the handsome but stern-faced Toshiro Mifune, star of many Akira Kurosawa films. The chemistry between the long-separated brothers as they get to know each other is endearing and real.
In a word, the series is perfect, from its script and pristine dialogue to its comedy notes, its action sequences, its use of clever camera wipes and multiple transition graphics, its cast of actors that understands drama, comedy, and body movement, its martial arts stunts, its thrilling musical score from Nick Lee and Nathan Matthew David (The Mandalorian, Hypnotic, Community, Angie Tribeca), and a brilliant blend of pop music inserted in all the right places.
We’ve seen similar tropes and maybe even stereotypes in Asian TV and movies before, but the show twists them into its story in better ways–Like Awkwafina’s grandma’s group of friends in Nora from Queens, Eileen Sun has a group of aunties who play mahjong and share the insights into all the happenings around town–but she uses them as her own ultimate database of who’s doing what, when, and where–007 style. Like Wu Assassin’s up-and-coming chef Kai Jin, here martial arts master son Charles wants to perfect his next pastry recipe instead of kill people–as The Great British Baking Show plays in the background he meticulously measures ingredients. This character clearly was born to be a chef. But like The CW’s Kung Fu, the core of the show is centered around the relationships in a Taiwanese American family with the fight scenes secondary.
The story is layered with good subplots, including the strategizing of Charles’ childhood friend Alexis, played by Highdee Kuan, who is now an assistant district attorney leading the task force against the triads along with Rodney To’s Detective Mark Rizal. Alexis’s character is set up nicely for a second season major role. “Little Sun” Bruce is also keeping a big secret from his family–he’s secretly studying improv and has spent his tuition money on acting classes, a predicament that lands him smack in the middle of the gangland drama, as he tries to earn some extra cash selling drugs (badly). Along the way Bruce falls for fellow college student Grace (Madeline Hu), while Charles tries to perfect a recipe for his newfound joy, churros. Another fun episode has the family hiding out at real-life actor John Cho’s seaside mansion. Seeing the players resurrect the 1990s stereotypical karaoke night is great fun.
The Brothers Sun is the rare TV series that doesn’t have an extra hour of padding, or an irrelevant tangent sequence, or anything frivolous that could have been edited out. In fact anyone would welcome a few more hours of these characters interacting, like more of the great bodyguard pairing of Jon Xue Zhang’s memorable Blood Boots and Jenny Yang’s ruthless Xing, or a side adventure with Madison Hu’s vengeance-focused activist Grace, or some more dire pummeling for Bruce’s disaster of a friend, T.K. (Joon Lee), or the backstory of Alice Hewkins’ badass tattoo artist/assassin June, who means to destroy the Suns for the death of her sister.
For all audiences have seen of Michelle Yeoh’s martial arts work in TV and movies, her use of that side of her talent is spectacularly untapped in this story, perhaps wisely held back for a second season. The best stunt action scenes, as far as the women go, are reserved for Hewkins, Yang, and Hu, with contributions from the people behind John Wick. The martial arts action is actually reserved compared to Warrior and Wu Assassins and other genre entries, and that works fine for this story–it’s not about the toughest guy in the room. This round Ma Sun is mostly the quiet architect of her own future and strategist for the future of the Triads, and she has many elements in common with Mai Ling in Warrior. Her one fight scene is oddly not as decisive as her character is delivered, a frenetic, violent battle to the death without any martial arts action on her part.
Put this at the top of your genre TV list with the likes of Warrior, The Queen’s Gambit, Tulsa King, and The Offer. The Brothers Sun is the first big TV series of 2024, and will no doubt survive to be on our best of TV list at year’s end. It’s that good. Catch all eight episodes now streaming on Netflix.
