The role that allowed Michelle Yeoh to channel her inner Buster Keaton: “I can’t believe they thought of that”
One of the nicest things to have happened in the world of film in recent years has been the return of Michelle Yeoh. The Malaysian star established herself as a leading light in Hong Kong action cinema in the 1980s before taking on more globally known roles in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After fading from mainstream view for about a decade, Yeoh burst back through with Everything Everywhere All at Once, which landed her a historic ‘Best Actress’ Oscar win. Since then, she’s been a hot property once again, and it’s fantastic to see.
One of the things Yeoh has done since she entered the multiverse is The Brothers Sun. A Netflix show, it’s a comedy-drama about a Taiwanese man who discovers that his family are the most feared gangsters in Taipei. Yeoh plays ‘Mama’ Sun, the matriarch of the crime family, whilst Justin Chien and Sam Song Li play her two sons.
As well as a mixture of underworld crime and family tension, The Brothers Sun also features quite a bit of action, something Yeoh is well-versed in. “With the action genre you get to do crazy things that you won’t do in life normally,” she told Collider. “Who runs around being chased by seven brutes, and then you get to fight them off, and [knock them] out the window. So I find that very challenging. Physically and mentally very challenging.”
The screen icon, whose recent roles also include Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Wicked, said she was drawn to this project because of how well comedy was integrated into its action sequences. “It’s almost like a Buster Keaton, Jackie Chan thing that we love and we’ve seen, but not in this context before,” she revealed. “And then kicking it up a few notches where we literally have heads and body parts flying around”. Yeoh praised the actors playing her sons – including Song, whose main role was to not participate in the action – and the stunt team who put everything together. “Some of them you go, ‘Oh my god, I can’t even believe they thought of that.’”
This isn’t the first time the Hong Kong martial arts style has been compared to the golden age of silent film. The story goes that, after critics compared his performance to that of Keaton’s following the release of 1983’s Project A, Jackie Chan sought out the American’s work for the first time. He discovered that they were incredibly similar and has idolised Keaton ever since.
When asked what she found most challenging whilst making the show, Yeoh simply replied, “Keeping a straight face, maybe?” She said she really enjoyed working with creators Bryon Wu and Brad Falchuk, the latter of whom also co-created Glee, American Horror Story, and Scream Queens. “It can be very, very dark, and what appealed to me was such a dark kind of story could be told in such a way where, at the end of the day, it’s family, it’s love,” Yeoh eulogised. “It’s about sacrifice, and very importantly about forgiveness and coming back together again. That was the real basis of this series. And that really, really appealed to me.”
Despite promising feedback from critics and fans, The Brothers Sun was cancelled by Netflix after just one season. It joins a long list of promising shows that the streamer has pulled the plug on way before its time. With a strong premise, a great cast, and some intricately-planned stunts, The Brothers Sun could have been great, but, unfortunately, it will go down as yet another casualty of the big red N.
