Over the past decade, it’s been gratifying to watch as the Bay Area independent movie scene gets national recognition with praise for such insightful, expressive films as Blindspotting and The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Back in 2013, the Sundance and Cannes Film Festival winner Fruitvale Station paved the way for those later releases with its gritty take on local life. More significantly, it was the first feature-length endeavor from screenwriter, director, and Oakland native Ryan Coogler, launching him into a Hollywood career that has included helming the blockbuster hits Black Panther and Creed. Now, Fremont-born Sean Wang — another East Bay filmmaker — is starting to garner justified acclaim for his own big-screen debut Dìdi.
Shot in economical fashion last summer in ethnically diverse Fremont, Dìdi takes an unflinching look at a nerdy, Taiwanese-American kid’s helter-skelter, pitfall-strewn tumble toward adolescence during the summer of 2008. The year was a digital media watershed, as MySpace was fading but still a chat-heavy Internet destination for some, Facebook was gathering steam as a social media hub, and a burgeoning YouTube had achieved traction as a platform for aspiring content creators to go public with their video experiments. Written and directed by Wang, Dìdi is clearly semiautobiographical, offering an unvarnished take on the travails of a would-be skateboarder and videographer — 13-year-old Chris Wang — a month before his first semester of high school, with all of the havoc that can entail.
Turmoil at home and in the ’hood
When the angst-ridden Chris isn’t bickering with his older sister, Vivian, he’s contemptuous of his Taiwanese mother Chungsing and tradition-minded grandmother Nai Nai, who have been raising him in the absence of his father — the family breadwinner working in Taiwan. Much to the boy’s chagrin, they all refer to him as Dìdi, which is a Mandarin term meaning “little brother.” Chris’s home life may be a battleground, but he has a summer agenda: He wants to be accepted by the cool skateboarders in the ’hood, shooting action videos of them in hopes of getting a flood of online “likes” for the clips he posts. If these new connections mean Chris has to leave behind his two best friends Fahad and Soup (who razz him whenever they’re not teaming up to pull off minor acts of vandalism), it’s a price he’s willing to pay. After all, they’ve nicknamed him Wang-Wang — and not necessarily in a flattering way. Chris also wants to convince Madi, the cute and popular girl he’s stalking on social media, to go out with him. None of these goals will be easy for Chris to achieve, and the way his efforts play out is painfully realistic.
The filmmaker enlisted his own grandmother Chang Li Hua to play Nai Nai, and her no-nonsense presence gives her scenes a sense that they might be excerpts from the real Wang family’s home video collection.
Izaac Wang, a naturalistic young actor with a few notable credits already (“Raya and the Last Dragon, Good Boys, Clifford the Big Red Dog), plays the lead role of Chris in uncomfortably authentic fashion — a hormonal bundle of pubescent turmoil. The kid’s skill is undeniable as he embodies Chris’s struggles — torn between cultures, torn between friends, and driven by his burgeoning sexual urges, as he must also deal with personal aspirations and familial expectations. Dìdi is also graced by the presence of the esteemed Joan Chen (The Last Emperor, TV’s Twin Peaks) who delivers a rich, complex characterization as Chris and Vivian’s mother. Chungsing is an aspiring, but frustrated painter striving to acclimate to American life, ride herd on her balky son, support her college-bound daughter, and deal with constant criticism from Nai Nai.
Truth and consequences
Further enhancing the verity of Dìdi, the filmmaker enlisted his own grandmother Chang Li Hua to play Nai Nai, and her no-nonsense presence gives her scenes a sense that they might be excerpts from the real Wang family’s home video collection. A similarly honest tone is provided by Shirley Chen (Quiz Lady) as big sister Vivian, particularly in her stinging banter with Chris. And the casual ease displayed on camera by the novice performers cast as Chris’s peers — specifically Raul Dial as Fahad, Aaron Chang as Soup, and Mahaela Park as Madi — adds to the candid feeling that pervades so much of Dìdi.
There are aspects of the immigrant experience that personalize and flavor Dìdi, but the longings that drive Chris and the missteps he takes in their service are universal to those of any gender who are entering their teen years. Will Dìdi prove to be as consequential for Sean Wang as Fruitvale Station was for Ryan Coogler, who earned considerable critical and box office success with his next projects? It may be presumptuous to say that Wang will follow the same trajectory as Coogler, but there’s no doubt that Dìdi is a beautifully made, emotionally satisfying coming-of-age movie with cultural savvy and a genuine Bay Area pedigree.
Dìdi opens in Bay Area theaters on Aug. 2.
Updated: Aug. 1, 2024, 3:48 p.m. PST to reflect correct photo captions.