Film Review: ‘A Sun’
As wrenching and resonant a cinematic experience as can be found in any country this year, Taiwanese stunner “A Sun” tells the story of two sons, one a top student poised to attend the med school of his choice, the other a raging delinquent whose latest scuffle lands him in a juvenile detention center.
Winner of five Golden Horse awards including best film, “A Sun” works a bit like Trey Edward Shults’ recent “Waves” or 1981 Oscar winner “Ordinary People,” in that all three films concern younger siblings who grew up in the shadow of a golden child — “a sun” of sorts — in whom their parents invested nearly all their attention, only to be thrust in the position of being the family’s new hope after a tragic setback.
And then something irreversible happens that upsets the already fragile balance within the Chen clan. “Seize the day. Decide your path,” Mr. Chen is fond of saying, repeating the phrase not only to his sons — especially A-Hao, in whom he sees the brightest future — but also to the bewildered students at the driving school where he works. Of course, life is too complicated for “carpe diem” to cut it.
Ancient Greece’s greatest playwrights recognized the dramatic potential of family dynamics. And whereas contemporary movies so often complicate their plots, “A Sun” understands and explores a universal aspect of any multi-sibling family: Parents tend not to treat their children equally. Quite late in the film, Mr. Chen finally concedes his mistake: “I never acknowledged A-Ho,” he admits, stunning his wife with a story of parental love unparalleled in recent cinema.
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