The Brothers Sun actor on working with John Wick team for fight scenes
The new Netflix series is jam-packed full of tense fight sequences.
New Netflix series The Brothers Sun has landed on the streaming platform, and provides drama, action and comedy in plentiful supply.
The eight-part show has Justin Chien and Michelle Yeoh at its helm as Charles and Eileen 'Mama' Sun, two fierce protectors of their family's name and honour after the attempted murder of the Sun patriarch back in Taipei.
When Charles makes his way to Los Angeles to protect his mother and younger brother Bruce (Sam Song Li), he is followed by enemies who are making their way dangerously close to his family.
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Of course, that means some epic fight sequences with Chien's Charles regularly at the centre, displaying some stellar martial arts skills.
And it turns out that those co-ordinated fight scenes have a surprising John Wick connection for fans of the Keanu Reeves-led action film franchise.
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When asked whether the role as the legendary killer was one of his most challenging jobs so far, Chien exclusively revealed to RadioTimes.com: "Oh, 100 per cent. I mean, this is my first TV role, it’s the first time I’ve done stunts to this extent on camera."
He continued: "I was really lucky to have an excellent team that all worked on John Wick. We ended up getting an amazing co-ordinator, Justin Yu, and fight co-ordinators, Michael Lehr and Eric Brown. Michael Lehr was my stunt double, as well."
Along with Creed III's Kyle Potter, the wall-to-wall stunts and fight sequences were all led by the team, with some of them having prepared and trained Reeves for the first John Wick film.
They took inspiration from some of their favourite martial arts masters of the last three decades, as speaking to Netflix, Lehr revealed: "There’s some Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee and a little Tony Jaa in there, and we're fusing that with a lot of martial arts, tricking, gymnastics, prop work. It’s pretty much just a massive cornucopia of action."
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Talking to RadioTimes.com about the preparation for the role, Chien said: "My training process really began before the show. I started training Muay Thai when I was 17, doing jiujitsu pretty intensely for the past four years, recently got my blue belt.
"For this show specifically, it was three months of stunt training, which I loved - it was a dream come true to be able to do that. I was living the dream, I’ve always loved martial arts and I’ve always wanted to perform stunts and fights on camera."
Created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu, the new series follows Charles as he heads to LA to protect his family, but he is met by a younger brother who has never had any knowledge of his wild criminal family.
According to the synopsis: "Taipei’s deadliest societies and a new rising faction go head to head for dominance — Charles, Bruce and their mother must heal the wounds caused by their separation and figure out what brotherhood and family truly mean before one of their countless enemies kills them all."
The Brothers Sun is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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