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Sun (54)
Project: Comedy film (Western Road Trip)
Known as: Sun
Real name: Unrevealed
Group affiliation: Trip’s protectors (usually Sun isn’t affiliated with anyone – people are affiliated with him).
Physical description: Sun is Chinese American. I sometimes refer to characters as good-looking, but Sun is head-turning, movie-star good looking. He eternally looks like someone in their late 20ies, and his body is chiseled (despite the fact he doesn’t deliberately exercise). He has a 10,000-megawatt smile, that is mischievous, appealing, and dangerous at the same time. He has a tattoo of a monkey wearing a crown on his chest.
Personality: Sun is irrepressible, impulsive, and arrogant. He is also brave and curious, and all of these attributes make him one of the poorest rule-followers ever. He is a storm against the status quo. He feels he is better and knows better than everyone else and that the rules are only there to try to keep his lesser in control of him.
Yet he is quite likable. Part of the reason people like him is that he’ll say and do things they often wished they could. Another part is that he is usually joyous and finds wonder and fun in many situations. He’s the sort to smile through a bar fight (perhaps he smiles most in a bar fight).
He has never really taken on being responsible for someone else before. It will be strongly suggested (or even stated) that he is protecting and mentoring Trip because someone suggested that he might not be good at that (Sun is big on showing everyone that he is the best at whatever he does). Naïve and unworldly as Trip is, he will challenge Sun’s worldview and give Sun new perspective (e.g., that Sun is just as controlled by society by being motivated by breaking the rules as if he were following the rules; and that Sun has put off deciding what is important to him).
History: Much of Sun’s history will not be revealed to keep an air of mystery about him. His exact connection to Trip’s family is unclear. Trip calls him “uncle,” but whether Sun is actually a sibling to one of Trip’s parents is unknown (e.g., he may just have been a friend, or someone who once helped them). Both of Trip’s parents react to Sun like he is a grenade with the pin pulled and would not send their precious son on a road trip with him. It is Trip’s act of independence that he has selected his uncle for such a journey – which may also be part of what draws Sun into it (Sun is very pro-rebellion; and while he has genuine affection for Trip’s parents, they are people who would tell Sun how to live his life, which rankles).
There will be no recitation of Sun’s history in the movie, only references to the nearly mythical things he has achieved. As I haven’t fully worked out the plot, here are a few of the beats I’d want Sun to hit in the course of the film:
- Sun will saunter out of prison like he owns the place. If I can make it plausible, he will tear up some official piece of paper he is given (after maybe slapping it on his forehead like something annoying).
- There will definitely be a classic bar fight and it will have the classic element of Sun picking up a pool que and kicking everyone’s butt. And I mean EVERYONE’S butt – people will be calling friends from home to come and try to fight Sun. After soundly trouncing a cartoonish number of foes, Sun will return his pool que lovingly, go to the register and buy the bar a round of drinks, pick up a toothpick and put it behind his ear before walking out of the bar.
- Sun will show he is exceptional at about everything: fighting, driving, singing, you name it.
- At some point Sun will mention not liking horses due to a job shoveling horse manure he once had (his employers had promised him it was the first step to a management position; when it became clear it was not, Sun let all the horses go).
- One of his friends will tell a story about how they worked for a caterer who was providing food for a fancy party. The caterer was rude to Sun, so Sun ate all the food for the party himself (it will be unclear on how literal these stories about Sun’s past are).
- Sun will refer to himself as handsome and will assure Trip that he (Sun) knows more and can teach more than a bunch of university professors anyway.
- Trip’s moralizing to Sun will give Sun headaches. Sun will claim he never had a headache in his life until he started listening to Trip. Sun will even start doing what Trip asks sometimes just to avoid the lectures and headaches (the source of the headaches will be that Sun will start to suspect Trip is right about some things).
- Sun will punch a grandmotherly-looking woman in the face, to Trip’s horror. It will turn out that it is an ex-con in disguise Sun recognizes (and who intends something nefarious for Trip).
- Later in the film, when Sun has learned some selflessness from Trip, he will save people from a burning building only to have it collapse on him. Everyone is convinced he is dead but he finds a fire-proof nook to hide in with an air source.
- He will overcome many of the obstacles put in the path of their journey, which seems to be cursed.
Role in the narrative: Sun is nearly a co-protagonist. Technically a secondary character to Trip, Sun is the type to steal the show. Sun is a character who is incredibly gifted but gets in his own way. His “enlightenment” will come when he realizes that living his life around rebelliousness alone controls him, and he will end the film a better man (monkey).
Abilities: Sun is naturally good at about anything he tries. He could have been a professional athlete, performer, or any number of other things but a lack of discipline and his rebellious streak forestalled all of that. On the surface he might not seem book-smart but he has read quite a bit in prison and is very smart.
Inspirations: Sun Wukong.
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