A Sun
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
"A Sun" tells a story of an unhappy family of four, the Chens: two parents and two brothers, in Taipei, Taiwan where the sun shines everywhere, often times scorchingly and oppressively. It's not uncommon to see people use umbrella on sunny days. In fact, the father, Wen, a driving school instructor is seen shielding himself with an umbrella in the beginning of the movie while giving a dress-down to his driving student who fails repeatedly because of his stubborn silly belief to drive a manual to get a better feeling of driving. The father is your stereotypical Chinese dad who fails miserably in expressing himself when it comes to his family or his beloved sons. He relies on a single pithy aphorism from work to reach and teach his sons. The mother, Qin, a working beautician for some questionable locales, like many households, is a loving figure, a peacemaker and the glue that holds the family together.
The two brothers are polar opposite of each other. The younger one Ho or A-Ho (sound Ar-Ho, you add A to shorten the name in conversation, Chen Jian-ho becomes A-Ho) is small in stature, a juvenile delinquent who makes all the wrong moves in life. In one of the final scenes where Ho is seen running on a highway, his jeans waist band can be seen altered with a big pleat to make it smaller than it already is just so it won't fall past his non existent butt. Ho hits a new low right from the get-go when he was put away for 3 years in a juvenile detention for being an accomplice in a machete attack where the victim, Oden's hand ended up in the soup of a hot pot. The perpetrator, Radish, who made the severed hand soup got an extra bonus three years prison term. Father Wen has no problem disowning Ho. Dragged by his wife to the sentencing and when asked by the judge what he has to say, instead of pleading leniency for Ho, he freely admits he couldn't and wouldn't be able to keep him straight and asks the court to discipline him accordingly. Between him and his wife, Wen flat out says lock Ho up until he dies. Whenever his driving students make small talks or being nosy enough to enquire Wen's marital and family status, he readily says he is married and has a son who's going to medical school next year. That son is of course the older one Chen Jain-hao or A-Hao. He's tall and has fine features and is an assiduous youngster who can't do no wrongs. That is, except he doesn't get accepted to his first choice medical school. His amiable presence is almost ethereal and proves to be ephemeral. The time Hao was caught in a reverie in class, and also the only time he tries to question authority is to ask the evening cram school teacher if he believes what he is teaching regarding a piece by Sima Guang on thrift and prosperity. The Chinese literature teacher tells him in all honesty he doesn't and tells him to get the fuck out of his classroom. It doesn't go well when he deviates from his usual obedient son persona. Though he does catch the attention of his pretty classmate Guo Xiao-zhen who apparently has a crush on him and flirts talks with him during dinner break after class. The feeling is mutual as Hao walks her to wait for her bus and tells her a twisted version of the very famous little Sima Guang story--not the one about frugality when Sima Guang became a prime minister. The girl is fascinated so much so that she doesn't board her arriving bus so as to hear A-Hao finish the story. Apparently they are made for each other or so it seems.
The film juxtaposes what happens between the two brothers. A-Ho being tiny and new in the big house has to fight and food bribe to live another day. The good news is he manages to make peace with his tormenters with simple multiplication skills. What's more, he gets married Wang Ming-yu, or affectionately called Xiao-yu and becomes the father of Dong-dong all while incarcerated. A-Hao on the other hand makes his first and final mistake when he jumps to his death from his home. His suicide is as shocking as it's abrupt. The only hint he left was the text he sent to his romantic interest Xiao-zhen. The text is a weird soliloquy triggered by their visit to the zoo on a hot sunny day. He laments he's always under the scorching sun with no shade to hide, even goes on to say the animals, his brother and Xiao-zhen can hide in the shade. Except him. In his world, the sun shines all around all the time with nowhere to hide. This circles back to the twisted story he told Xiao-zhen at the bus stop early on in their relationship. The young Sima Guang story told to all grade schoolers is one of Sima Guang's playmates falls into a large water vat and Sima finds a rock to break the vat to save his friend from drowning. The one Hao tells Xiao-zhen is such that the vat has no water and what's inside is not Sima's playmate but Sima himself hiding away inside the vat. I think it's Hao's round about way to say he yearns to hide from the all present sunshine but even he himself couldn't let that happen as he's the one who breaks the vat with a rock to out the Sima Guang in the dark. Hao one day woke up on the wrong side of the bed, made up his mind that the only way he can live in peace in the dark permanently and can't be outed by himself or anyone is to end his existence in this world.
The 3-year incarceration worked magic and reformed Ho. After his release, he tries to work his way back to fiscal and moral responsibly by holding down two jobs. But it's not all rainbows and unicorns. One cannot escape one's past especially one's past involves a Radish. Director Chung is a humanitarian. He's empathetic to his characters. Radish is as much a predator as he's a victim of society, circumstances, his own making and some combination thereof. Twice, director Chung lets Radish tell his story, once at the balcony to Ho's dad Wen and another time inside a Bentley with a-Ho. There is good chance that Ho is not as innocent as he claims or convinces himself to be. Radish was a buddy of Ho when Ho complains about Oden, Radish takes it seriously. Perhaps in his heart of heart, Radish does what a loyal friend does, to take care of the problem the only way he knows how. But when shit hit the ceiling, Ho claims he never intends let alone asks Radish to hack off Oden's hand or inflict any bodily harm. Radish asks Ho rhetorically if he ever asked him to just scare Oden. Ho wouldn't answer. Then Radish reminds Ho he is the one that steals the motor scooter and brings along a watermelon knife himself. The 3-year bonus incarceration apparently didn't reform Radish. Director Chung doesn't just let his characters come and go. Oden who got his hand hacked off in the opening scene is surprisingly sanguine, resilient and at peace later in the movie. In a chance encounter at the car wash where Ho works, Oden is summoned to snake the clogged up toilet. Oden tells Ho how he's been working in his dad's plumbing business and gotten more serious after he lost his hand. Oden is open and even shows what's left of his right arm, a smooth stump like a chicken neck without its head. In the end they sort of having a strong hand shake as Oden shows Ho how it feels to be handless by squeezing Ho's right hand tight till he's shaken. Ho is shaken to his core and tells Oden he is really truly sorry. Oden makes a sudden guffaw and says all right and gets going with his work. Oden is dealing and taking care of shit literally and figuratively every day with some success. This scene of Oden and Ho stands in stark contrast with the scene when Wen pleads with Radish to leave Ho alone. Radish holds a grudge against the Chens and rejects Wen's money and entreaty. Needless to say, Radish continues to pester, cajole and threaten Ho to be his runner to do his biddings.
Director Chung makes a fruit punch of a film with a deft hand. The film breezes through its 2h 36m running time exploring themes like family dynamic, the impenetrable human mind, loyalty and betrayal, suicide and murder, crime and redemption with a mix of poignancy and a wry sense of humor in balance. The film employs opposing motifs, like sun and rain, light and dark. The sun is warm and nurturing yet at times it is stifling, just like Wen to the brothers, and in some way Hau to Ho. Or on an even bigger scale a ruling government to its people. Director Chung avoids overt tear jerking. "If he dies he dies," that's how he treats his characters, protagonist and antagonist alike. Death comes quick and abrupt. It's living that's hard. Characters live with certain quiet dignity. Xiao-yu, Ho's girlfriend then wife lost her parents in a car crash at a young age, was raised by her aunt Yin who loses the window to date and have her own family as she is too busy taking care of Yu. Even character off-screen like Radish's grandma is portrayed as strong: she raised Radish and lost her flat when the government confiscated it when Radish was in jail. Oden lost his hand but he did not lose his will to live, even when he needs to deal with shit every day, literally. Director Chung never bothers to explain why Hau killed himself because something is better left unsaid. Chung's characters almost never ever explain or complain, they just quietly suffer without wallowing in self pity. Chung's "A Sun" is definitely a Taiwanese film.
9/10, 1 point deducted for photographing the bus stop scene too clean too pretty and too cheesy.
