How Asian American Stories Have Found Prominence Again With Beef, The Brothers Sun And More

Minari, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Past Lives and Joy Ride, all these different genres of feature films have burst on the scene in the last couple of years, gaining awards and fans. On the small shows like American Born Chinese, Beef and The Brothers Sun have also captured the attention of viewers. It’s been a long but rewarding journey to see shows like this flourish, both for the talent on and off the screen. We examine how these shows have found prominence once again.

Positive momentum because of stars Michelle Yeoh, Steven Yeun, Ali Wong and more

This change has largely happened due to the years of hard work and perseverance of the actors, writers, directors and more who now get to enjoy the fruits of their labour. While the popularity of Korean television dramas and films like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite have grown to a global audience, Hollywood itself is opening and catering to its Asian American demographic.

Feature films opened the way for OTT as the Korean American drama Minari was nominated for Best Picture and Youn Yuh-jung won the Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars in 2021. This past year, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actor to win in the Best Actress category for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Since then she has starred in the web series American Born Chinese and The Brothers Sun.

Cultural stories of Asia have connected with audiences

Shows like The Brothers Sun aren’t just in English, they also feature dialogues in native languages like Taiwanese, Korean, Mandarin and more. The action comedy about a Taiwanese American family who are also lead a triad back in Taipei debuted in the fourth position on Netflix’s global ten list with 4.1 million views in its first week.

Beef, which starred Ali Wong Steven Yeun as feuding drivers, won three Golden Globes this past week, including Best Actor, Actress and Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television…