‘The Brothers Sun’ Co-Creator on Subverting Asian Male Stereotypes and Why Michelle Yeoh Has Limited Fight Scenes
variety.comMichaela Zee SPOILER ALERT:This story contains mild spoilers for “The Brothers Sun,” available to watch on Netflix now.
On May 22, 1992, three men brutally stabbed Japanese filmmaker Juzo Itami outside his Tokyo home, just days after the release of his satire “Minbo no Onna,” or “Mob Woman.” The director of “Tampopo” and “A Taxing Woman” suffered slash wounds across the face, neck and shoulder, but ultimately survived.
Police suspected the attack may have been the yakuza’s retaliation for Itami’s “Mob Woman,” which portrays Japanese gangsters as crude bullies who are outsmarted by lawyer Mahiru Inoue (played by Itami’s wife Nobuko Miyamoto).
This assault inspired writer-producer Byron Wu to develop “The Brothers Sun,” the crime family dramedy starring Michelle Yeoh as matriarch Eileen “Mama” Sun, which premiered on Netflix early this year. “I just thought it was so funny that these gangsters were so insecure about their jobs that they beat up a comedy director,” Wu tells Variety. “That led to me to think about Asian masculinity and Asian American masculinity, and then my own relationship with that.” Created by Wu and Brad Falchuk, “The Brothers Sun” follows Charles Sun (Justin Chien), a Taiwanese gangster who must travel to Los Angeles to protect his mother and younger brother, Bruce (Sam Song Li), after his father — the head of a Taipei triad — is shot by a mysterious assassin.
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