Everyone had to eventually find out that Ah Sahm could speak English fluently. Young Jun was the first of Hop Wei to find out the secret in Warrior Season 1. The reaction was just so Young Jun, as well.
Caution: This post contains some minor spoilers for early Warrior Season 1
When Young Jun and Ah Sahm are on a job for Father Jun, they run into some problems. This leads to Ah Sahm having to give up his secret. He needs to make it known that he can speak fluent English.
Young Jun has an awesome reaction. He’s like a kid on Christmas morning as he realizes Ah Sahm can speak “Duck.” It’s a breath of fresh air from the usual reaction of anger and betrayal.
Ahead of Warrior going to Netflix, I saw down with Jason Tobin who plays Young Jun to find out who came up with that reaction. Why opt for glee and not anger?
Jason Tobin came up with the reaction in Warrior
It turns out that it was Tobin who came up with it. Well, he’s going to take credit for it. It all came down to his interpretation of the script.
"“The way I approached it was, because…he was my brother and I love this guy…we’re literally BFFs. So when he speaks English, my rational is more like ‘oh my God, I’ve just found out my brother has a superpower.’”"Jason Tobin
That is what the reaction looks like when you see it. It’s one part of Warrior that will always stand out. He’s like this child who has experienced something out of this world.
"“Young Jun doesn’t see it as a negative event. He just thinks…’you’ve got to tell me this story later. We’re in the middle of a crisis, but this is so freaking cool.’ And my brain’s really thinking like, ‘okay, right now I have my own personal translator.’”"Jason Tobin
You can see the whole interview with Tobin below. It is a short one as this was just the one question that has been on my mind since watching Warrior Season 1 back in 2019. Thank you to everyone involved for making it possible to get an answer.
Warrior is now available to stream on Netflix.