Didi, 2024.
Directed by Sean Wang.
Starring Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen, Chang Li Hua, Macaela Parker, Raul Dial, Aaron Chang, Chiron Cillia Denk, Sunil Mukherjee Maurillo, Montay Boseman, Alysha Syed, Alaysia Simmons, Tarnvir Kamboj, Shiu Fang Wang, Jayden Chiang, Joziah Lagonoy, Joshua Hankerson, Georgie August, Kade Hunter, Jerri Bowen, David Leal, Mackenzie Peters, Da Marcus Da’Man Shigon Gray, Cameron Foxly, Emma Foxly, Sean Wang, and Sheng Wang.
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 your mom.
Oscar-nominated director Sean Wang smartly uses the opening credits of his pre-high school coming-of-age tale to immerse viewers (or reacquaint them) with 2008-era Internet, which includes everything from the early days of Facebook and YouTube to AIM and the dying days of MySpace. Immediately, the attention to detail and recreation is striking, further lending authenticity to the life of 13-year-old Chris (nicknamed Wang Wang by his friends and played by Izaac Wang), who is struggling to find his identity, a group where he belongs and what it means to develop romantic feelings for someone. In many ways, the Internet is both a blessing and a curse for that, with the filmmaker finding genuine tension and emotion in those moments of watching interactions on a screen and through chat boxes.
A reckless, stubborn child first seen blowing up a white woman’s mailbox (with what is something that needs to be seen to be believed, revealed later on), there is something instantly identifiable within Chris. He is the type of teenage boy who effortlessly makes the tribulations and blunders along the character’s journey of self-discovery feel relatable despite the Taiwanese American angle.
His interests range from filming his friends Fahad (Raul Dial) and Soup (given that nickname because it’s all his parents cook for dinner, and played by Aaron Chang) performing idiotic stunts such as urinating into a river or honing his camera skills by filming some older kids skateboarding (many of whom are white, and whom he interestingly refers to himself as Chris, as if a part of him is uncertain or possibly even ashamed to go by a Taiwanese name around them.) The latter also gives the film one of its many personal layers, as if Sean Wang is reaching into his own upbringing.
Naturally, the rising popularity of the Internet also informs his enthusiasm for these hobbies, hoping they also make him popular. Speaking of that, for all his rambunctious behavior, Chris is also somewhat introverted and shy, almost constantly unsure whether he is liked or who he wants to be around. All of this is blown up considerably when he begins acting on his crush, Madi (Mahaela Park), well-meaning but also not being himself to win her heart. It’s also messier than that since she senses that he is not like the other boys, and he truthfully isn’t. However, that doesn’t stop his confused mind from browsing her social media and pretending chick flicks like A Walk to Remember is also one of his favorite movies, while also getting caught red-handed lying about having seen Star Wars. The film taps into the anxiety of a first crush in all-too-real cringe ways, full of believable missteps to learn from.
There is also a family drama dynamic to Didi (which is a Mandarin nickname Chris’ mother uses), constantly squabbling with his older college-bound sister Vivian (Shirley Chen), verbally tearing into one another with insults and derogatory language that, again, will take people back to being a teenager. Chris also increasingly becomes distant from his mom Chungsing (Joan Chen), with his stubbornness and frequent latching out seemingly coming from, in addition to everything going on, a place of hurt that his father, who he believes is helping out financially but doesn’t seem to be the truth, is still in Taiwan and not living with them and matriarch grandmother (Chang Li Hua.) Nai Nai is also condescending and overbearing to Chungsing, creating so much friction and fighting within the family that it might be what eventually unites Chris and Vivian.
Didi is most emotionally effective when the film takes a freewheeling approach, observing Chris as he interacts with different friend groups, somewhat embarrasses himself around Maddie, and navigates the early days of social media. When it comes to Facebook and MySpace in particular, there is also an unease noticing all the wrongheaded impressions they can make on children at a time when people don’t really know any better, accentuating that inner voice telling them that something is wrong with them and they are always messing up (something that is occasionally true in Chris’ case, less so Madi’s.) The in-person and on-screen dialogue is also naturalistic, often coming from its time while also not afraid to indulge in the non-PC ways teenagers spoke around that time.
Sometime around the beginning of the third act, Didi starts to feel more driven by a character arc, piling on some more drama between all the family members that is less interesting than paying attention to and studying authentic behavior. There is also a clichéd drug trip and some other bits that feel like part of the familiar Sundance coming-of-age blueprint. Nonetheless, it is still tender, hilarious, and amusingly vulgar as it movingly charts Chris unearthing what he really enjoys and who he actually wants to become. There is a moment where he realizes that, while filming the skateboarding tricks, he lost focus and started shooting a blurry ground, making for a brilliant metaphor describing the rampant messiness of teenage life in the early social media days.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
