It’s somehow emblematic of the state of cinema in 2020 that the best film of the year, winner of six Golden Horse Awards in its native Taiwan, should land on Netflix, the media company that has benefited most from the void left by studios during the pandemic — and more fitting still that when asked, the company’s PR team didn’t realize they had even acquired the film. The good news: Netflix’s involvement means millions of worldwide subscribers have a chance to experience this epic redemption saga, which opens with a shock (as a man’s severed hand lands in a steaming hot pot) and continues to surprise as characters we think we understand at first glance gradually reveal what they’re capable of. Writer-director-cinematographer Chung Mong-hong’s masterful family drama is “The Godfather” grand, focusing on the dynamic between a black-sheep son and the father whose disappointment and shame risks eclipsing the young man’s redemption. Novelistic in scope yet oh so nuanced in the performances that carry us across the years, “A Sun” transcends subtitles to address universal truths about the way approval and encouragement works in parent-child relationships. (Watch on Netflix.)
1. A Sun
