A Sun

In Taipei the younger son of a family, Ah-ho, is sent to juvenile detention for his part in a friend's act of revenge. The father, A-wen, works at a driving school and tells people he has one son, meaning the elder, Ah-hao, and never counting the other. Ah-hao is the flawless one, studying for the medical exam. Then the unexpected happens and the family is left with the son who was supposed to survive. The film is not interested in the crime but in the weight carried by the child expected to be perfect. The father gives one son no sun at all and leaves the other standing in it, which is where the title comes from: having no shade. Chung Mong-hong directed, co-wrote and shot it himself, credited under another name for the photography. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019 and took six prizes at the Golden Horse Awards that year, including best film, best director and best actor for Chen Yi-wen. It was distributed through Netflix and became Taiwan's submission for the 2021 Oscars. Who it is for: anyone looking for Taiwanese family drama and slow, hard storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone watching the clock. It runs close to two and a half hours, the first half is heavy going, and the mother's story stays in the shadow of the father's.