A Sun () is a 2019 Taiwanese drama film directed and co-written by Chung Mong-hong. The film stars Chen Yi-wen, Samantha Ko, Wu Chien-ho, Greg Hsu, and Liu Kuan-ting. Its story centres on Chen Jian Ho (Wu), a troubled teenager who has been arrested, and Hao (Hsu), Ho's accomplished brother who commits suicide due to familial pressure. It explores Ho's re-entry into society and his father's efforts to acknowledge his son, something he had never done. Juvenile delinquency and suicide are the film's main themes, with visual motifs including light and dark. The film, which incorporates many conventions of Asian cinema, also explores socioeconomic inequality in Taiwan.
The film was conceived after a high-school friend told Chung about a crime he had committed as a teenager. This became the opening sequence, which prefaces the narrative. Chang Yao-sheng was enlisted to co-write the screenplay with Chung, a process which took over a year. Filming began in 2018, with a tight 38-day schedule for budgetary reasons. Chung asked the cast not to consult him about their acting and rehearse on their own, although he would often direct them during filming. He was also the film's cinematographer under the pseudonym of Nagao Nakashima. Lai Hsiu-hsiung edited the film to a runtime of 155 minutes, Chung's longest film by far, and Lin Sheng-xiang composed the score.
A Sun premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2019, before its theatrical release in Taiwan. The film under-performed financially, as did Chung's previous films. It was released on Netflix in 2020; poor marketing contributed to it not receiving much attention, before Peter Debruge of Variety called it the best film of 2020. The film received many positive reviews for its story, diversity of themes, audiovisual quality, and acting. It received a number of accolades, including 11 nominations at the 56th Golden Horse Awards; it received the Best Feature Film award and the Best Director award for Chung. The film was the Taiwanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, where it made the 15-film shortlist.
Plot
In 2013 Taipei, troubled teenager Chen Jian-ho and his friend, Radish, approach a young man named Oden at a restaurant; unbeknownst to Ho, Radish cuts off Oden's hand with a machete. Ho is sentenced to juvenile detention, and Radish receives a harsher sentence. Ho's father, Wen, disowns him, however his wife Qin still visits their son in prison. Wen focuses on Ho's shy older brother, Hao, who is attending a cram school in preparation for medical school. Wen is pestered for money at his job as a driving instructor by Oden's father; he refuses to pay, claiming no legal responsibility because his son did not injure Oden.
Fifteen-year-old Wang Ming-yu and her guardian, Yin, meet Qin; she is pregnant with Ho's child. Although Qin supports Yu throughout the pregnancy, Ho is not informed of it. Hao tells him, and Ho rages against the longtime secrecy. When Hao commits suicide by jumping from the apartment balcony, Hao's romantic interest Guo Xiao-zhen tells Qin that Hao felt overwhelmed by the constant attention and scrutiny on him, and had nowhere to be alone. Ho and Yu marry; Wen continues to ignore him when he is released a year and a half later, and Ho works at a car wash to support his family. Wen, tormented by visions of his dead son, goes out one night to buy cigarettes. He sees Ho at a convenience store at which his son had taken a night shift; they speak briefly about Hao, and seem to reconcile.
Ho is approached for money three years later by the recently-released Radish, but he refuses. Radish later tells him to fire a gun at a legislator's office, and he grudgingly does so. Wen offers him money to stay away from his son; Radish refuses, and visits Ho late at night at the car wash, coercing him to borrow a client's car and go for a drive. They stop on a highway, where Radish tells him to enter a forest and deliver a package; he is paid a large sum of money. Upon returning, Radish is missing, and he flees.
A group of thugs kidnap Ho sometime later and demand the money because Radish was found dead. After Ho complies, they beat him, give him another large sum of money, and drop him off. Atop Qixing Mountain, Wen tells Qin that he had been skipping work to tail Ho and Radish. Wen saw their late-night drive, then attacked Radish when Ho left to get the money, dragging Radish into the forest and killing him with a rock. As Qin reacts in horror, Wen explains that this was the best way he could think of to help his only remaining son.