S01.E06 Country Boy

[arc]

Quote

Mama Sun travels to Taiwan and hears upsetting news. A celebrity's holiday home provides the perfect safe house for the brothers. Bruce bonds with Grace.

Eileen's taxi ride in Taiwan after ~17 years* of exile was really touching. Kudos to the show for having the confidence to let it play out without words.

* if Bruce left when he was five, and he's taking 300-level courses now, he's 21 and that means they've lived in the US for about 17 years.

The John Cho house is pretty good. Not hilarious, but some good chuckles. (I have a much lower bar for comedy if the show is a dramedy than if it's a legit comedy.)

Inviting Grace to the safe house is so dumb.

Aw, "have you eaten yet?" is a traditional Chinese greeting, roughly akin to American English's "how are you?" and I'm pleasantly surprised the subtitle team translated it more literally. (And of course in some contexts it's meant more literally too, and also can be more heartfelt or perfunctory too, depending.)

I was going to mention that the scene with Eileen and her mom is in Cantonese (interesting choice there), but then I was blown away by the photo album, because my family has spiral bound photo albums like that too. That may well be more a generational thing than an Asian thing. But either way, serious respect to the authenticity of every little bit of the show's set dressing and props.

This could probably go in a more general thread, but the very premise of the show -- that Triad leaders move in such anonymity that even rival heads don't know their identities -- makes no sense. But esp with the head of the Jade Dragons' nickname being "Big Sun", which is his real last name, it's not a great system of secrecy.

Wow, Charles' origin story. I figured it was a throwaway line to justify a nickname back in the first episode. And it's good this wasn't depicted as a triumphant moment but a traumatic one.

I stupidly spoiled things for myself earlier because I looked up some of the cast and it spoiled Grace's role as an eventual antagonist to Bruce, so I kept waiting for the shoe to drop and then it did.

Grace talks a good game about the triads turning corrupt, but the sheer murder frenzy of the Boxers suggest they're speed-running the same path. They couldn't possibly have ensured there'd be no innocent victims at the assault at the spa two episodes ago, but then in this episode they straight up murdered the two cops on stakeout.

The call from Charles to Alexis while she was sitting in on the electronic surveillance center was hilarious. Or rather, the call itself wasn't that funny, but the faces of everyone else in the room was top notch.

The driving range fight scene was phenomenal. Some of the most ambitious camera work I've ever seen in a fight scene. Not all of it worked, but I appreciate how hyper-mobile the camera was and they did some really innovative stuff.

Charles really needs a therapist.

I bet the consigliere guy prevented news of Eileen's sister from reaching Eileen. It coulda been Big Sun, but I just feel like that guy is super shady. But holy shit, I didn't expect that Big Sun wasn't actually in a coma. That's seriously impressive for him to not react to the needle, not even involuntary stuff like heart rate.

[Raja]

On 1/15/2024 at 4:01 AM, arc said:

I stupidly spoiled things for myself earlier because I looked up some of the cast and it spoiled Grace's role as an eventual antagonist to Bruce, so I kept waiting for the shoe to drop and then it did.

Grace talks a good game about the triads turning corrupt, but the sheer murder frenzy of the Boxers suggest they're speed-running the same path. They couldn't possibly have ensured there'd be no innocent victims at the assault at the spa two episodes ago, but then in this episode they straight up murdered the two cops on stakeout.

I wasn't looking ahead and wondering when the dry hand job was going to come. Bruce getting honey trapped after big brother did him the solid wingman move was the shock.

I guess Grace showing the child victims being tutored was suppose to put them into the antihero role. But even the Punisher doesn't dish out innocent collateral damage to this gleeful  extent