Cinema for Brunch DÍDI Review

Sean Wang’s assured debut “Dìdi” is an effective and heartwarming film about growing up in the age of peak-internet.

Synopsis

In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love his mum.

Review
At first glance (or first trailer), Sean Wang’s directorial debut “Dìdi” (Chinese for “Younger Brother”) may seem like an empty rehash of other contemporary coming-of-age films like “Mid90s” or “Eighth Grade”. But to much surprise, there is more than meets the eye with this touching and all-too-real debut. Covering an era of peak Myspace, Facebook and the dawn of YouTube (where the promise of “YOU” being the star was too much of a great thing for young kids to miss out on), 2008 is the year in which this film is set (an era particularly nostalgic for myself in particular). “Dìdi” follows 13-year-old Taiwanese American Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) during the last month of summer before high school begins. Living with his older tormenting sister Vivian (Shirley Chen), his doting mother Chungsing (Joan Chen) and her demanding mother-in-law Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua), Chris is impressionable and looking to learn new things – such as how to flirt, skate and…love your family.

Casting Izaac Wang in the role of Chris is just many of the shrewd decisions this film makes. The film’s tagline “for anyone who’s ever been a teenager” applies to this character’s creation – he’s all of us when we were teens. The curiosity, the vulgarity, the innocence, the troublemaking – it’s a representation of all us navigating the crucial early adulthood years, the only thing that may be different for older audiences is the presence of the internet (more on that later). Izaac brings such a great natural vulnerability and energy to the role of Chris – or “Wang Wang” as his friends Fahad (Raul Dial) and Soup (Aaron Chang) call him. As Chris discovers his identity as a young man and what it means to grow up (or at least try to), Wang’s performance doesn’t come off generic or fake. It feels as if we are on the cusp of manhood with him. In moments of vulnerability, such as a painfully awkward-turned-heartbreaking scene where he has a failed date with his crush Madi (Mahaela Park) – we feel the hurt and we feel the failure. When he discovers his passion for filmmaking (or being a “filmer”, as the skateboarders whom he shadows and records call it), we get just as excited as he does when we first learned of passions we had as teens. First love, passions, anger, heartbreak, frustration – Wang navigates all these complex levels of teenage emotion effortlessly and carries the film with no sweat. But he’s not the only great thing the film has going for it – Joan Chen does great understated work as Chungsing, a caring mother and wife who is just trying to understand who her son is. With a husband that is working overseas in Taiwan to support the family, a daughter that is heading off to college soon and an overbearing mother-in-law that criticizes her parenting at every turn, Chungsing sacrifices a lot of her dreams and aspirations for her family. Her chemistry with Wang is great and their scenes carry an authenticity of concerned-mother-and-disillusioned-son interactions. They may not be the perfect pair and they couldn’t be far away from each other in personality but there is love and support in that house and the climactic heart-to-heart moment between the two drills that home even more.

With the first shot being a homemade YouTube video of an exploding mailbox (a hilarious conclusion to a story told in full by Chris later in the film), Sean Wang makes it clear that this covers a specific point in time. A time where teenagers literally grew up on the internet. However, even with the insertion of 2000-ish cultural obsessions like YouTube, Facebook and Myspace, the story Sean Wang presents of growing up is relatable to everyone. In the Wang household, as Chris and Vivian torment each other and Chungsing and Nai Nai go to war over parenting methods, there is generational trauma within this house. While the father is not totally absent, the absence is still felt and the lingering pain is travels within this family. Whether someone comes from a two-parent or a one-parent household, everyone can relate to the feeling of the sins (or worries/anxieties) of the parents being passed down to the kids. Trauma aside, Sean Wang’s naturalistic writing and direction hits hard on Chris’ feelings of not being adequate enough as a teenager, a boy, or a human; not knowing how to maturely deal with heartbreak; not knowing how to deal or cope with teenage alienation. All of these feelings are real and are achingly felt through the film’s direction and performances. But for all of its real and heartbreakingly accurate moments of teenage pain, the film also makes you smile with nostalgia of your past teenage greatness and once that smile is on, it’s hard to wipe it off until the credits start rolling.

Closing Thoughts
“Dìdi” is a welcome surprise in the coming-of-age canon. As it may not be the greatest coming-of-age film I’ve ever seen, it provides a refreshing take on growing up, using a demographic not widely seen in mainstream cinema. Drawing a parallel to films like “Eighth Grade”, the film clearly has something strong to say about growing up on the internet but it also has something stronger to say about the human experience. I’m excited to see what comes next for director Sean Wang as “Dìdi” is a confident, relatable, assured debut, driven by a great natural lead performance from Izaac Wang.

The original version of this review was originally published by Elements of Madness on their site on September 14, 2024.

Trailer