by Michelle Yeoh has been a force in the film industry and Hollywood for many years. After her Oscar 2023 award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, the veteran actress’ latest project is a Netflix TV series with plenty of action.
“The Brothers Sun,” which premiered on Netflix on January 4, tells the story of a Taiwanese triad who has been shot by an assassin, who prompts his eldest son, Charles, to go to Los Angeles to protect his mother. by Yeoh, and a younger brother, who was Sam Li. While the series offers action and fight scenes in every episode, there is also no shortage of fashion and style.
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The dark comedy action series is the brainchild of Vera Chow, known for her work on “Big Fan,” “Marco Polo” and the last two seasons of “The Walking Dead.”
One of Chow’s goals in casting the show was to make sure it defied Asian stereotypes.
“When I first got the script, I thought about how every time I see a Yakuza-type movie where they’re all the same, this is the through line,” Chow said. “I had no business doing any research on Western interpretations of Asian gangster films. I grew up in Asia, so it gave me a different understanding of how to approach this. I specifically researched films from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Among Asian gangsters, there are differences in how they dress based on rank and nuances in how they dress based on which faction they belong to. Even the jewelry, where gangsters can tell you what faction they belong to or what religion they belong to.”
The character Charles, played by Justin Chien, one of the main male roles in the show, had a lot of distinctiveness in his wardrobe. As the son of a triad boss, he needed an elevated appearance that reflected a level of wealth and privilege. But because of Charles’ many action and fight scenes, flexibility was also required at the stunt level.
“I spent a lot of my career in stunt-heavy shows, which was good for me going into this project,” said Chow. “Looking at Charles as a character, he is in name and being an Asian person whose wealthy parents sent them to a prestigious private school abroad, and when you look at him immediately, you realize that he is from a family that his resources. to do that. Charles wears more understated colors, and I put him in many custom suits, and blazers that would have Asian embroidery. For some of his custom suits, I designed them with couch fabric. I took a bicultural approach to Charles’ clothes, showing how he came from Taiwan but now in Los Angeles.”
Chow, like many other costume designers, said she approaches crafting a wardrobe for a show like she’s a psychologist: the pieces of clothing reflect the character’s emotional state and mindset.
One of the ways this is shown is within the titles of the show’s characters, one of which is Charles, and the other is his brother Bruce, played by Sam Li. The longer the series got, the more Chow worked on blending their color palettes, with Charles’s clothes becoming more casual and Bruce’s clothes becoming more upscale as the characters’ traits affected their together. Chow said she chose to do this to show unity as the brothers come to work together.
Yeoh’s character, Mama Sun, also goes through an evolution throughout the series, both style-wise and in terms of character development.
“Mama Sun’s every look, from her nurse’s scrubs to her outfits when she was with her family in Taiwan, showed that being a mother is the most important thing to her,” said Chow. “She’s introduced in a nurse’s uniform, and the scrubs are meant to be ambiguous, suggesting that she could be some sort of working-class person. However, you can see that even in her casual clothes she looks like a typical San Gabriel Valley aunt in her cardigans and elastic waistband pants. Mama Sun wants to blend in, but she is always elegant about it. We’ve kept a baseline and as her looks get higher, the transition isn’t too dramatic.”
For the entire team, Chow focused heavily on as many Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander designers as possible. Some of the brands and labels she covered included Vivian Chan, Sundae School, Hungry Sloth, Yanyan Knits and Ren.
Symbolism emerged with subtle choices such as Mama Sun wearing an all-white ensemble before a casualty department store scene. White is traditionally a funeral color in Chinese culture, indicating what is to come. Jade jewelry was also an indicator of class and rank among the gangs and their various factions. Of all the expensive choices that went into the show, one of Chow’s greatest labors of love was the Chinese opera masks for some of the gangsters, as they were all made by hand.
“The Brothers Sun” stars Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien, Sam Li, Highdee Kuan, Alice Hewkin and Madison Hu. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
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