On January 4, the series 'The Brothers Sun' premiered with a focus on the Asian audience. Can it be awarded the title of 'first truly good series' under the Netflix brand in 2024? Find out in our review.
«The Brothers Sun» is a series by Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk, who worked on the scripts for «9-1-1» and «American Horror Story». It's well known that Netflix tries to please everyone everywhere at once, so it flirts with different audiences by churning out many niche projects. Anyone can watch this one, but the main bet is on Asians (I dare say, Chinese). Last year's excellent Lee Sung-jin worked in a similar vein (in the sense that the show also targeted a specific segment of streaming subscribers, not that all Asians look alike), and it turned out quite successful, so why not repeat the same trick?
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What's the plot?
Somewhere among the lights of Taipei, in a luxurious apartment, a man watches a cooking show and finishes preparing his dessert, while outside the door a group of masked strangers prepares to attack him. The assassination attempt ends quite sadly for the planners, because their target is the legendary triad gangster of the Jade Dragons, Charles Sun (Justin Chien), nicknamed Log (in a country where this word is associated with the meme surname of the Bukin neighbors, it doesn't sound very threatening), capable of taking out an entire squad of fighters. Nevertheless, the mysterious attackers achieve their goal, because the pastry is burnt, and everyone who enters the apartment notices this. Among them is one of the triad bosses and, coincidentally, Charles's father — Big Sun (Johnny Kou), who was the real target of the assassination.
The old man is suddenly shot with a rifle, after which he falls into a deep coma. Now Log is forced to go to Los Angeles, where his mother Eileen (Michelle Yeoh) and younger brother Bruce (Sam Song Li) have been living a 'normal life' for a long time. Bruce is into improvisation, studying to be a doctor at university, and doesn't even suspect that his last name is closely tied to the criminal world of Taiwan. The reunited Sun family must now jointly overcome all the problems that have piled up, and also learn to find common ground and listen to each other. But first, they need to remove a large thug's corpse from the kitchen and get rid of it.
Brothers are needed not at feasts
The first season of the series «The Brothers Sun» consists of 8 episodes, in which the creators perfectly balanced the proportions of action, drama, and black comedy. Following a choreographically high-class fight, there may be a scene of family relationship clarification or a comical situation built on the fact that Bruce is completely unsuitable for the role of a triad gangster due to 'his kindness', as his mother says.
Netflix's new show resembles a mix of 'Beef' and any comedy action movie where the main partner characters are total opposites. It turned out, surprisingly, very good, so the project doesn't let you get bored: it either throws the viewer into the thick of events or shows calm scenes that reveal the characters, who here turned out quite colorful and interesting.
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Charles is a dangerous gangster, a formidable thug of the Jade Dragons, capable of beating an enemy with a chair leg or some other handy object. He was raised by his father in Taipei, so from an early age he is familiar with the world of crime, knows how this business works and what rules and codes the Chinese triads obey. Self-confident, strong, stubborn, and serious. And Log loves baking so much that he devotes all his free time to creating his own recipes and cooking delicious desserts that earn praise from anyone who tries them. Quite a funny contrast for such a character, don't you think?
Bruce is the most ordinary American of Chinese (or Taiwanese?) descent, dreaming of a cool car and a pretty girl. He is studying to be a doctor at university, but secretly from his mother, he spent the $5,000 given to him for tuition on improvisation courses because he dreams of performing on stage with a Sunday troupe and making people laugh. To get at least some money (since his mother buys groceries on sale), the guy works part-time as a taxi driver, driving drunk party girls who are about to vomit in the cabin of his modest car. At the same time, the younger Sun couldn't even imagine that his family had so much power, money, and skeletons in the closet (literally and figuratively), so he didn't fully believe in the reality of the chaos that had taken over his life.
Eileen is the matriarch of the Sun family, who left Taiwan a long time ago to protect 'at least one child'. She is an incredibly smart, calculating, and observant woman with unrealized ambitions from the past, who didn't give enough motherly love to her eldest son and deprived the younger one of the freedom to choose his life path, surrounding him with overprotection: she not only forbids Bruce from doing what is dear to his heart but also, under all the circumstances, constantly sends the guy to study, where he must take tests (as if nothing prevents him from preparing).
Besides the main trio of characters, there are also no less interesting secondary characters. For example, the one the Sun brothers call father, and others call Big Sun (because triad bosses cannot use real names, otherwise they would hardly be showered with pleasant gifts) — a typical family tyrant who is ready to sacrifice everything, even his wife and children, for his own interests in power and business. Or Bruce's friend, the Korean gamer TK (Joon Lee), who pushes drugs in a nightclub because he wants to feel like a cool guy, and therefore looks at what's happening through a romantic prism, even though he always gets the worst of it.
Although I haven't yet mentioned a couple of comical gangsters, fiercely loyal to the Sun family — Xin (Jenny Yang) and Blood Boots (Jon Xue Zhang); Charles's childhood friend with a hint of romantic interest — Alexis (Highdee Kuan), who aims to become a prosecutor in Los Angeles, and the deadly beautiful, charismatic, daring, hot-tempered, and quite cruel tattoo artist June (Alice Hewkin). By gathering such a hodgepodge of diverse characters, who would seemingly find it difficult to coexist organically on the same screen, the creators of 'The Brothers Sun' prepared a quite palatable dish, treating their recipe with all thoroughness and maximum attention to its ingredients (exactly as, in fact, the cooking process and the food itself are shown in the series).
Despite all the comedic nature and abundance of ultraviolence with complex choreography of action scenes, the project brings up quite serious topics for reflection. You can see that they are trying to talk to the viewer about relationships with relatives, unjustified parental expectations, problems with self-realization, the difficulties of choosing between career and family, as well as between duty and one's own interests, and much more. It's just that the model for the dialogue was not quite a standard family, which is a bit difficult for the average viewer to relate to (I mean belonging to the mafia, not that they are Asians).
And besides everything else, you can also enjoy the acting work here. Naturally, 'The Brothers Sun' mainly relies on the Oscar-winning star Michelle Yeoh, who undoubtedly shines, but the other little-known guys (in particular Justin Chien and Sam Song Li) don't lag far behind her and perform excellently. What can I say, even the series' soundtrack is impressive, because not every project can boast songs by Kendrick Lamar, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin (I wonder how much Netflix paid for their use?).
What's the verdict?
'The Brothers Sun' truly deserves the title of 'First good series from Netflix in 2024', because 'Fool Me Once' turned out to be a rather controversial project in terms of quality, albeit high-rated. Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk's show, in turn, beautifully balances between genres, simultaneously managing to raise socially acute topics (after all, family is talked about here even more often than in 'Fast & Furious'), but does not forget to entertain the viewer with intense fights or hilarious moments. The groundwork for a continuation is already there, and a second season is likely a matter of time, so we believe in renewal (like the actor who played Bruce) and that in the future the quality will be, at least, of the same high level.
P.S. In the series 'The Brothers Sun', there is a post-credits scene in episode 8, so don't rush to turn it off immediately.
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