Charles Sun is one of the leading protagonists in Netflix’s crime drama series, The Brothers Sun. Justin Chien plays the character.
The eldest son and the fiercest soldier of the Jade Dragons Triad, Charles Sun is one of the anomalies of the Taiwanese criminal underworld.
Whereas other Triad heads and higher-ups uphold so much secrecy that most ordinary folks haven’t even heard their real names, Charles is known by all.
This is because he’s also feared by all, and few dare to go up against the legendary killer who can kill with as much ease as he can bake a cake.
The chairleg incident
When he was 14, Charles Sun was involved in an incident that went on to make him the stuff of legends and feared across criminal societies as the ruthless defender of Jade Dragons.
One day while eating out, a 14-year-old Charles hid himself from the attacker who attempted to assassinate his parents.
When his father, Big Sun, called on him to protect the family, Charles gathered up the courage.
He then proceeded to brutally kill the assassin with a broken leg of a chair. After that, he earned the nickname of “Chairleg.”
However, Mama Sun reveals to an adult Charles when he’s ordered to kill Bruce by his father, that the chairleg incident wasn’t an assassination attempt but a test.
This means that Big Sun was behind this orchestration of events, to test and create a killer out of Charles.
He always wanted a soldier of unwavering loyalty, and when Charles drew his first blood, he got exactly that.
A doomed romantic
Charles Sun and Alexis Kong used to be close buddies back in Taipei when they were children. She was also a family friend and would often spend their days in each other’s homes.
Alexis eventually goes to LA and when Charles arrives in the city to protect his mother and brother, the two reunite. There are immediate sparks as former friends find themselves attracted to each other.
The two flirt and go through some adorably awkward moments until the tension builds to the point where they have passionate sex.
The two open up to each other but Charles can’t overcome his distrust of police. When she insists on learning about what he’s involved in, he gets paranoid and angry, saying she is trying to coax information out of him.
He upsets her by saying she is a honeypot, but later apologizes and asks to hang out again.
By that point, though, it’s too late and to stop her colleagues from listening in on their conversation, she hangs up on Charles after telling him not to call her again.
Charles is heartbroken and so is Alexis, but by the time The Brothers Sun season 1 ends, the two are not reunited and Charles heads off to Taipei with longing and sadness.
A caged bird, a loyal soldier
After the chairleg incident, Charles Sun couldn’t sleep due to the trauma of it all. But Big Sun was happy and proud, telling him that it was the Emperor in him that got out when he murdered the assassin.
Big Sun succeeded in creating a most formidable soldier who was also the most loyal part of his army. However, Charles always felt like a prisoner. He did become a proficient killer but this life was not what he wanted for himself.
He always wanted to bake, and he’s pretty good at it too. After Big Sun is defeated, he gets back to baking for a while but soon decides to accompany his mother to Taipei, where she plans to take over Jade Dragons.
He wants to help her take over the operations as the new leader and make up for the years he lived apart from her.
