Before graduating, Byron Wu stuck to writing standard sitcoms, thinking that was the path to work in Hollywood. But at the American Film Institute Conservatory, Wu, a fan of shows like “Get Shorty,” “Killing Eve” and genre-bending Asian films like Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories of Murder,” was encouraged to take more risks. . He began writing “The Brothers Sun,” a show that abruptly goes from action to family drama to comedy and back again. Co-created with Brad Falchuk, the series is now on Netflix.
“I wanted to see if I could do it,” Wu says, adding that he was lucky enough to find a partner and mentor in Brad Falchuk, who co-created (with Ryan Murphy) “Glee,” “Pose” and “Horror Story.” “American.” “Brad understood what he was trying to do right away, which was a huge relief.”
Falchuk says changes in tone often make executives “freak out and say, pick one,” but he loved Wu’s mix. And Falchuk’s presence also helped sell the series and land a major star.
“The first thing I was drawn to was Brad’s name because I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time,” says Michelle Yeoh, who plays the family matriarch on the show. “And I was especially pleased that he had chosen to champion a story about Asian immigrant families and a very exciting and dynamic story.”
The Oscar winner says she was also drawn to the role of a mother who is a far cry from the ones she played in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” “I’ve never done a story like this, and an episodic show gave me a chance to develop a character,” says Yeoh.
“The Brothers Sun” premieres in Taipei with Charles Sun (Justin Chien) meticulously baking a dessert while “Great British Baking Show” airs on television. Three assassins interrupt but he summarily dispatches them, angry only that they burned his creation during the massacre. When his father, head of Taiwan’s top gang, is shot and nearly killed, Charles is sent to Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen (Yeoh), who moved to the United States with his brother, Bruce, 15 years earlier. to escape. the violence.
Charles Sun (Justin Chien) in “The Brothers Sun” after an attack in his apartment while trying to bake a dessert.
(Michael Desmond/Netflix)
Eileen is perfectly capable of protecting herself, but Bruce (Sam Song Li), who aims to please his mother by studying to be a doctor but secretly aspires to have a career in improv, is sucked into Charles’ orbit without the skills to handle him. . the whirlwind of guns, knives and martial arts that he follows.
Action fans get what Yeoh calls “a lot of unapologetic violence”: stabbings, shootouts and martial arts fight scenes galore. There’s even a decapitated head that Charles and Bruce take with them in search of information.
Falchuk says, “Action fans need to feel like they’re really watching something, but for other viewers, we didn’t want things like an arm bent back and breaking or a bone sticking out, where they’d be totally grossed out. “The show is supposed to be fun.”
Eileen learns more than Charles simply by interrogating her gossipy mah-jongg companions, whose conversations easily veer from irritable bowel syndrome to major drug dealers. Of course, Yeoh eventually shows off his fighting skills, but in the early episodes, the stylistic contrast of him with Charles, who he likes to kick first, stab later, and then ask questions, is essential to the family drama. . Eileen constantly nags Charles but takes care of Bruce, not knowing until later that she has spent his school tuition on improv classes.
Much of the comedy stems from Bruce being a fish out of water in the gangster world: in one scene he tries to explain the difference between correlation and causation to save himself from being tortured, or at least from getting a penis tattooed on his face. .
“It’s a balancing act,” Wu says.
Tone changes occur moment to moment. Falchuk points to the scene in which Eileen comes home to find Charles, whom she hasn’t seen in 15 years, but also a fresh corpse, courtesy of another attack on Charles in the dining room. “We didn’t want him to be too cloying,” he says.
“It’s a difficult meeting, but she says, ‘I’m going to cook for you,’” Falchuk explains. But they undermined that emotional moment when she says, “Bring the good knife.” “The audience knows that the good knife was simply used to stab someone, so she actually tells Charles to clean it so she can cook.” (She later helps dismember the body for disposal).
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1. Bruce Sun (Sam Song Li), left, discovers that his mother is part of the Taiwanese underworld who brings his brother, Charles, to the United States after their father is attacked. (MICHAEL DESMOND/NETFLIX) 2. Michelle Yeoh plays Eileen, who lives a quiet life hiding in the United States. (COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
Yeoh had many opinions about his character and his story from the beginning. “Stars at Michelle’s level know what it takes and can have a lot of great notes focused on making this character special,” Falchuk says.
Yeoh praised the collaborative approach of Wu, Falchuk and Kevin Tancharoen, who directed five of the eight episodes. “I would question them, goad them and challenge them,” he says. “I didn’t want Eileen to be a stereotypical gangster mom and I knew the family dynamic had to be real even with all the body parts flying,” Yeoh says.
She created a journal for her character and, with the three creators, built a detailed backstory for Eileen and her husband so that Yeoh could understand the sacrifices Eileen made. “You may not see it in the show, but you get hints of it and it was very important to me,” he says.
One of Yeoh’s suggestions was for Eileen to immediately criticize her son’s beard upon seeing him again. “She said, ‘That’s something my mom would have said,’” Falchuk recalls. “We said, ‘Say the line but don’t tell Justin we’re adding it.’ So he wasn’t expecting it and his reaction at that moment was real.”
Song Li, who like Bruce was raised in the San Gabriel Valley by a single mother who wasn’t enthusiastic about his showbiz aspirations, says creators were constantly “throwing obstacles.” In a scene where Bruce is held hostage, he thought Tancharoen was doing a wide shot, but “Kevin told one of the henchmen to stick the fake Glock in my balls. And he filmed my reaction close-up.”
That search for authenticity went far beyond those moments of planned spontaneity. “If our food stylist, on-set performer, or someone on the crew felt something wasn’t quite right, they were encouraged to speak up to keep things authentic,” Wu says, adding that he’s especially proud to collaborate not only with the cast, but also with the rest of the cast. but the director’s chair, the department heads and the writers’ room with Asians and Asian Americans. “That has been the most rewarding part. “We are here and we are very capable and everyone has to show themselves in this program.”
Justin Chien’s martial arts background is on full display in “The Brothers Sun.”
(Michael Desmond/Netflix)
Chien brought his martial arts background (he practices Muay Thai and jujitsu) to Charles, but adds that while he spoke some Mandarin, he worked to improve his language skills for the show. “I think in English, so I worked very hard on my Mandarin,” he says, adding that he continues to polish it ahead of a second season.
The final ingredient was an emphasis on food, which goes beyond Charles’ passion for baking (in Los Angeles he becomes obsessed with churros) to include numerous scenes of cooking and sharing meals.
“In the writers’ room, we all felt like we needed the food scenes because it’s important to us; that’s how our families come together,” Wu says. “No authentic Asian American show could feel complete without that.”
