Dìdi SXSW Review

I still remember that summer when I had left middle school and was headed to be with the big kids for the next four years. My days that summer were mostly spent with friends as we explored the wooded area around my neighbor’s house, as well as the many new homes being built. Of all the things that summer was, it was not some learning experience, as for me that would come a little later. That age, though, for both boys and girls, has a pretty lasting effect, as you try to find your way from being a kid to being a teenager. That is why a good coming-of-age movie hits when it connects, and Sean Wang’s new film Dìdi will bring a lot of memories flooding back to your own time.

Chris (Izaac Wang) is a thirteen-year-old who is in his final weeks of summer, where he is about to begin high school. His days are spent with his friends, who call him Wang Wang, and hanging out on the computer, watching skate videos, and talking to his friends on A.I.M. throughout. Chris and his friends have also started to notice the opposite sex, and Chris has a slight crush on a girl named Madi (Mahaela Park), who he gets to know through her MySpace page. While he is having fun with his friends, Chris’s home life is not as fun. He often fights with his sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) and his mother (Joan Chen), while his grandmother comments on how bad both kids often are. Chris wants to be able to be himself, while his mother still treats him like her little boy, all of these conflicting desires make life a little rough in the Wang home. Add to the fact that Chris’s social circle starts to change as he tries to find who he is, and also rediscovering his love for his own family.

Sean Wang, who is coming off an Oscar nomination for his short Nai Nai & Wài P6, mines his own experiences growing up in this semi-autobiographical portrait of life in 2008. Wang uses his real grandmother to play Nai Nai, as well as shooting scenes in his old house in Northern California, which, while making the story extremely specific, Wang also makes it completely universal. Wang thoroughly  explores the film’s retro setting, thus painting what life was like as an early internet adolescent and reminding most of us how hard being thirteen was. There is some serious earnest dialogue about why young brains default to certain behaviors, which only adds to the feelings both you and the characters feel on the screen.

The title Dìdi comes from a Mandarin name that Chris’s own family called him growing up, which means “little brother.” The cast is fantastic, with standout performances coming from Izaac Wang and Joan Chen, as they make the family drama the most gripping part of the story. Dìdi doesn’t just make you remember that; it also makes you both cheer and groan as Chris wins in life sometimes, while also failing due to some bad decisions. I often felt like an armchair quarterback, wanting to yell at the screen for him not to do something, maybe recalling my own stupid decisions. This is what leads Dìdi to be such an earnest and moving take on what it was like growing up at a particular part of your life. There are a lot of flawed characters here, but that is what makes the best coming-of-age stories, and Dìdi has surely found its place in the same breath as some of the better ones.