Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Charles Sun loves watching cooking shows and baking sweet things, but he is a notorious Taiwanese gangster known for brutally killing his opponents. So when his father, Big Sun, a top triad boss is fatally shot, Charles rushes off to Los Angeles to protect his mother Eileen and younger brother Bruce, who have been living fairly regular lives.
Created by Brad Falchuk, Amy Wang, and Byron Wu, the 2024 action-comedy series “The Brothers Sun” spans eight episodes. Justin Chien is daddy’s boy Charles Sun, who has a constant target on his back and thinks an old triad rival wants his family dead, but it seems like a dastardly new organization might be trying to kill them all. Michelle Yeoh is Eileen AKA ‘Mama’ Sun, who works as a nurse, while Bruce (Sam Song Li) is studying to be a doctor and has no clue about his family secrets. Eileen wants Charles to keep Bruce away from their violent world, but he wants the younger brother to buck up and get to know the family business. So, “The Brothers Sun” is a pretty fun show about two estranged brothers bonding while they fight off a sinister pack of blood-thirsty goons who are constantly chasing them around the city.
After watching Michelle Yeoh play non-action-involved roles like that of a celestial deity in fantasy series “American Born Chinese” and a phony medium in “A Haunting in Venice”, I was honestly hoping to see her bust some (a lot of actually) Kung-fu moves in this series. But it’s Justin Chien who gets to execute the bulk of the action scenes in “The Brothers Sun”, as the older Sun brother, who has a legendary tale of violence attached to him. The first two episodes does a fun job of establishing the Sun family personalities, Charles is the serious fighter drowning under his elder son duties; Bruce is the goofball, who is secretly doing expensive improv classes instead of focusing on college; Yeoh’s Eileen is the tiger mum, who’d do anything to protect her babies, but also has her own ambitions.
While the fight sequences aren’t as fun as I was hoping them to be, the groovy background music, and fun interactions between the characters (even if they some-what cliched) makes “The Brothers Sun” an entertaining watch. Sam Song Li will probably have audiences divided, because his character Bruce is supposed to be an idealistic happy-go-lucky medical student, who squirms at the sight of severed body parts and is constantly making questionable decisions. Bruce is supposed to sort of cute and slightly moronic, and Sam Song Li is either cheering cute or stupidly annoying throughout the series. Between the clashing personalities of the brothers Sun, Michelle Yeoh’s foresighted Eileen brings a calculated grace to the show.
A sub-plot about an officer called Alexis (Highdee Kuan) investigating violent incidents related to Charles’ presence in LA, adds some interesting twists and complications in the tale. Madison Hu was awkwardly cute as Grace, a classmate who Bruce develops a crush on. Jenny Yang and Jon Xue Zhang play triad gangsters Xing and Blood Boots, a killer duo who reminded me of Hazel and Cha Cha from Netflix series Umbrella Academy.
“The Brothers Sun” wasn’t the kind of series that sent me into a binge-watching spiral, but I streamed its eight episodes over a week, and it serves as an entertaining way to wrap up my day. There’s plenty of action, blood, brotherly bickering, violent fighting, triad rivalries, and family politics to keep you invested in this action-comedy. The climactic episode was ironically titled “Protect the Family,” with the irony playing out in the form of infighting and betrayals, but the ending gives a deserving player the victory they vie for.
Rating: 7 on 10. Stream “The Brothers Sun” on Netflix.
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