Bruce Sun, one of the lead protagonists in Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, is the younger son of the Sun family. Sam Song Li plays the character.
Bruce Sun is the affable and goofy younger son of Eileen Sun, a woman who’s been leading a second life with him in LA, in a modest home with a modest job, far from the riches and resources that their other life can afford them at the drop of a hat.
Bruce has been living his life knowing nothing of the past or present status of his extended family.
The improv aspirant
Bruce Sun is a college student studying to be a doctor but he is often the first to complete his test and skedaddle out of the exam room.
It’s not that he’s nailed it academically, but that he’s not exactly enthused about excelling in this discipline. He’s more than satisfied with the B’s on his sheet.
The reason behind this is his undying love for improv. He wants to be an improv actor so much that he even spends his semester fees over it, and struggles to recuperate the funds by himself.
He can’t turn to his mother since she has always wanted and pushed him to become a doctor.
In an Asian household, it’s understandable how Bruce would have difficulty being open to his mom about his passion.
Blissfully ignorant
Bruce Sun has lived a life of bliss, compared to the one that awaits him before his older brother Charles arrives at his home in LA.
He’s grown up with his mother who has worked incredibly hard as a single parent to raise him in Los Angeles, even doing odd jobs to support themselves financially.
All this time, he’s been blissfully ignorant of what his family is all about back in Taipei, Taiwan.
He knows nothing about them being the biggest criminal society in Taiwan, nor about his mother’s past and older brother’s reputation as a cold-blooded killer.
When Charles arrives in LA to protect Bruce and their mother from a new faceless collective that’s hunting the Triads, Bruce gets to see a whole new world that’s always been there, but hidden from him.
The underdog
When Charles meets Bruce, he sees his younger brother as a naive and weak young man.
Charles grew up completely differently from Bruce and has some resentment over the fact that he got to live a life filled with bloodshed and violence and not one that’s something similar to that of Bruce.
Charles is seen by everyone, even his mother, as a softy who can’t rise to the occasion amidst all the violence, and someone who wouldn’t fare well or even survive in such a harsh and unforgiving world.
However, Bruce Sun proves time and again just how brave, resourceful, and unconventionally intelligent he can be during times of great distress.
He manages to rescue his mother from the Boxers using a crowd of aunties. He doesn’t break and stalls for time even as June Song tortures him and his friend.
Bruce also does enough at the meeting of the Triads to save his family.
By the end of The Brothers Sun season 1, Eileen Sun is confident that her dear son can finally look after himself while his brother is proud of him for being so brave thus far.
