A Sun

Troublesome teenager Chen Jian Ho is arrested after he and his friend Radish assault a young man named Oden at a market, during which Radish chops off Oden’s hand with a machete. During the trial, Ho claims he only intended to scare Oden and didn’t know Radish planned to actually use the machete. Ho is sentenced to juvenile detention, while Radish is given a harsher prison sentence. Ho’s father Wen, refuses to acknowledge Ho’s existence after this, though his wife Qin continues to visit their son in custody. Wen instead focuses attention and affection on Ho’s shy older brother Hao, who is studying at a cram school for medical school. Wen is continually pestered at his driving instructor job by Oden’s father for money, but Wen refuses to pay, claiming no responsibility for his son’s actions.

A girl named Yu and her aunt approach the Chen family, as she has become pregnant with Ho’s child. Although Qin supports Yu throughout her pregnancy, she does not inform her son about the child during her weekly visits. Hao and Yu later visit Ho in jail, but Yu is not allowed to enter; Hao tells his brother about the pregnancy, and Ho reacts angrily that the truth was hidden from him for so long.

Wen is awoken in the middle of a night by a neighbor after Hao’s body is found on the ground floor of the apartment complex; he had committed suicide by jumping from the balcony. Zhen, a classmate and romantic interest of Hao's, visits the grieving family and informs Qin that Hao had sent her a text the day prior, explaining that he felt he had nowhere to hide from all the attention on him.

Ho and Yu marry, and when Ho is released after a year and a half in detention, he moves back home, where his father continues to ignore him. Ho takes a job at a car wash to support his family. One night Wen, tormented by visions of his deceased son, leaves in the middle of the night to buy cigarettes. He encounters Ho at the convenience store, unaware that he’d taken a second job there; they speak briefly about Hao and appear to reconcile.

Three years later, while Ho works late at the car wash, he is approached by Radish, who has just been released from prison. Radish asks Ho for money, but Ho claims not to have any. Radish later picks him up after a shift to drive downtown, where he instructs Ho to enter an alleyway and fire a gun at a legislator’s office; Ho reluctantly does so. Wen becomes concerned with Radish’s presence in town and confronts him, offering to pay him to stay away from his son; Radish dismisses him.

Radish again visits Ho late at night at the car wash, coercing him into borrowing a client’s car and going for a late-night drive. They stop near a remote empty property, where Radish instructs Ho to get out and approach a group of men inside to deliver a mysterious package; he is given a large sum of money in exchange. However, when Ho returns in the pouring rain, Radish is nowhere to be seen; Ho quickly returns the car before going home.

Some time later, a group of thugs kidnaps Ho and demand the money, explaining that Radish was found dead in a ditch near the park. After Ho gives them the money, they beat him and drop him off on a busy overpass, leaving him with a substantial “delivery fee” for his trouble. Meanwhile, Wen and Qin go for a hike, where Wen explains that he has been skipping work to tail Ho and Radish. He witnessed them borrow the car and drive to the park; once Ho left to get the money, Wen ran down Radish with his car, dragging his body off the road before driving away. He explains that this was the best way he could think of to help his only remaining son.

Some time later, Ho and his mother bond over a stack of old notebooks that Wen had gifted to Hao at medical school, each titled with Wen's motto “Seize the Day, Decide Your Path.” They then share a tandem bike ride through a park.

• Chen Yi-wen as Wen
• Samantha Ko as Qin
• Wu Chien-ho as A-Ho (or "Ho")
• Greg Hsu as A-Hao (or "Hao")
• Liu Kuan-ting as Radish
• Apple Wu as Xiao-Yu (or "Yu")
• Wen Chen-ling as Xiao-Zhen (or "Zhen")
• Ivy Yin as Miss Yin

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 9 reviews. The film was positively reviewed by Peter Debruge in Variety,[9] as well as Deborah Young in The Hollywood Reporter,[10] David Ehrlich of IndieWire[11] and Anthony Kao in Cinema Escapist.[12] The reviewers praised Chung's restraint as well as the writing and acting of the ensemble of characters.

The film received significant attention from American critics after Peter Debruge of Variety named it the best film of 2020.[13] Prior to this, few critics were even aware of the film's existence or its Netflix release earlier that year.[14]

The film won the top award in the 2019 Golden Horse Awards.[15]

• List of submissions to the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
• List of Taiwanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film

• A Sun at IMDb 
• A Sun at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Sun at AllMovie