Netflix’s The Brothers Sun: Review (Spoilers)

As we had mentioned back in December, the Netflix series The Brothers Sun premiered January 4th. I just finished binge watching the series, and I don’t think I can say enough great things about it!  The series is about:

“When the head of a powerful Taiwanese triad is shot by a mysterious assassin, his eldest son, Charles (Justin Chien) heads to Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen (Michelle Yeoh), and his naive younger brother, Bruce (Sam Song Li) — who’s been completely sheltered from the truth of his family until now. But as Taipei’s deadliest societies and a new rising faction go head-to-head for dominance — Charles and Bruce must figure out what brotherhood and family truly means before someone takes them out.”

Some minor spoilers ahead.

First of all, it goes without saying that anything with Michelle Yeoh is probably going to be great. But in this action comedy drama, Michelle (spoiler alert) doesn’t do any action fight scenes. Despite that, let me tell you, the action fight scenes are great!

Second, being a Taiwanese American, I love the fact that this story is about a Taiwanese / Taiwanese American family and the series takes mostly in Los Angeles (specifically the “626” San Gabriel Valley) as well as partly in Taiwan. Although I was born and raised in Western Massachusetts and have barely spent anytime in Los Angeles (even while living in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20+ years), I love the representation in Taiwan and LA. Additionally, in TV or film, when Asian gangster triads are portrayed, they are usually from Hong Kong or Shanghai or Japanese yakuza mafia types – but never from Taiwan – so it was great to see Taiwanese / Taiwanese Americans being represented in the house, LOL.

Not only is the action great, but the story of the dysfunctional crime family is terrific – especially the emotionally stunted but handsome deadly assassin eldest son Charles (Justin Chien), the innocently naive boy-man Bruce (Sam Song Li), and the inter-play with their mother Eileen (Michelle Yeoh). Actress Highdee Kuan, who portrays Alexis Kong, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles and Charles’ childhood friend from Taipei, is quite the looker.

We expect Academy Award winning actress Michelle Yeoh to be terrific, but I have to say, the acting by Justin Chien and Sam Song Li is just fantastic. Justin Chien is terrific in all of the many fight scenes. Sam Song Li does an equally terrific job portraying his antithesis – younger brother Bruce.

I highly recommend this very entertaining Netflix series!