Didi

This was a pleasant surprise. "Dídi" is a wonderful little indie film that more than delivers on the potential of its coming of age premise, and breaks new ground for the genre by finding unique ways to develop its characters.

The film offers an honest and touching look inside the life of a young Taiwanese-American teen as he navigates the awkward turbulences and heartbreaks of adolescence. As the film progresses, Chris, the young central character, ventures to discover himself and find his place in the world. We watch as he grows up and is forced to learn many of life's universal lessons, all while charting his own unique course through youth.

It's a familiar premise, but Sean Wang does something new and special with it, straying from the formula and imbuing the whole thing with subtle touches of realism, many of which I've never seen captured quite the same way in film before (HBO's Euphoria has a few moments which are comparable, but they're far more sensationalized than anything here). I really appreciated these novelties, as well as the film's frequently experimental approach/style, as they helped make things feel consistently fresh and new. Also, the fact that the timeline of Chris' childhood happens to line up almost exactly with my own made the whole thing especially enjoyable. They captured growing up in the 2000s perfectly.

I could definitely see this becoming a breakout hit, and to be honest, it may be the best film I've seen at a Sundance premiere (admittedly a limited selection, but I am from Utah, so I try to make it to the festival every few years). In any event, I'm looking forward to watching this again once it gets a wide release to see how it holds up on second viewing.

The movie "Dìdi" is a coming-of-age story about Chris Wang, a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy grappling with his identity and the challenge of fitting in while growing up in California in 2008. Writer and director Sean Wang captures on screen the cultural shock experienced by all children of immigrants during their adolescent years.

As someone who has been labeled a "banana" (yellow on the outside but white on the inside), I see a lot of familiarities that Didi faces when entering home and being bombarded with her family's Asian culture and when leaving home and trying to integrate with American culture. The movie feels much more authentic thanks to Izaac Wang's outstanding performance as Didi. He perfectly embodies the struggles of a young man caught between two cultures, striving to find his place and satisfy both.

Rating: 8.7 Overall, a very good coming-of-age drama that accurately portrays the struggles of an Asian American adolescent trying to find himself, carried out by authentic, yet humorous writing and a powerful performance from Joan Chen.

Very Good Direction (The direction on a macroscale is very good as they set the area and time-period very well (2000s, Bay Area); the direction on a microscale is great as you see how the characters' emotions and relationships change in the interpersonal scenes, and this might be one of the most accurate portrayals of Asian American adolescence I have seen; the direction of actors is very good as it feels like everyone's performance is elevated; the storytelling is very good as it tells a coming-of-age story through both the Asian-American lens and the lens from someone who grew up in the 2000s), Good to Very Good Acting (Good to Very Good from Izaac Wang (Shows a wide range of emotions as you can see how he changes his personality to fit in, all while being incredibly anxious/feeling lost), Very Good to Great from Joan Chen (Delivers a very powerful performance as the matriarch in the family as she tries her best to hold the family together while also trying to pursue her own passions; her final monologue is truly Oscar worthy as it comes second to Ellen Burstyn's Red Dress monologue in how emotional and well executed it is), Good from the rest of the cast (Really emulates the time-period and adolescence)), Good to Very Good Story (The concept is simple and self-explanatory as it is an Asian-American, coming-of-age story set in 2000s Fremont; the plot structure is pretty simple (short and to the point); flow between sequences is very good; the character writing is great as you really get a grasp of what each character in the family is going through (especially the protagonist and the mother)), Great Screenplay (The dialogue is great as it mimics the time-period/location/age of the characters; the Cantonese dialogue is used very well as it helps show the identity of the family and show this dichotomy of being an Asian American in that time-period; the emotional dialogue is very powerful as it invokes a lot of strong emotions in both the cast and the audience; the humor is very true to the time and well written; the symbolism is very powerful as it realistically shows Asian-American Identity and adolescence; the foreshadowing is pretty standard for a coming-of-age story), Pretty Good to Good Score (Helps with establishing the tone, especially in the more depressing scenes), Good Cinematography (Enjoyed the how they interweaved 2000s camcorder shots in with the standard shots, and I felt the more large scale shots did a good job at showing the emotions of the characters (especially the protagonist)), Very Good Editing (Feels very polished and interjects the message/social-media scenes very well), , Pretty Bad Visual Effects (Feels pretty tacky and out of place), Good Production Design (Did a good job in emulating 2000s Fremont, CA), Pacing is pretty fast as it tries to go through a decent amount in its short runtime (but there really could not have been any more runtime that could've been added), Climax is executed very well as it is the epiphany/lowest for the protagonist and displays an incredible monologue from the mother (showing her identity in relation to her family and personal ambitions), Tone feels like a coming-of-age movie set in 2000s Bay Area (and executes this very well), Saw the Texas Premiere at SXSW.

The slogan of this movie is "For anyone who's ever been a teenager," but I have to disagree. A more fitting slogan would be "For any Asian who's ever been a teenager in a Western country." It's classified as a "comedy-drama," but again, I disagree. The marketing makes it seem like they're trying to present Didi as a different kind of movie-maybe to attract a broader audience? Understandable, but ultimately not important. That said, there's no real "comedy" in this film; it's a drama through and through, approached with a calm and measured tone.

Visually, I really enjoyed the film. The aspect ratio and the shallow depth of field make nearly every scene stunningly appealing. The color grading is good, though I think it leans a bit too heavily on yellow tones. I also appreciated the realism of the footage captured by the small domestic camera featured in the film-it shakes naturally in every scene, just as you'd expect. Another detail I loved was Chris's room, especially his desk and computer. The production team did an excellent job of recreating those old-school GUIs, making them both authentic and visually engaging.

Now, onto the heart of this review. I deeply relate to Didi (aka the creator of this movie?) because I was just like him-growing up in nearly the same era. Watching this film stirred up long-forgotten emotions and sensations. The movie captures, with sharp realism, the struggles of adolescence as an Asian teenager in a Western country: the constant embarrassment, the internalized racism, the endless comparisons with other kids, the complexities of foreign family dynamics, the friendships, and the lies.

I don't think this movie will hit you as hard if you haven't lived through these experiences yourself. Throughout the film, I kept thinking, "This movie doesn't need a happy ending. The existence of the movie itself is the happy ending."

Watch it if you want to relive (or live) the traumatic yet formative days of being a non-white teenager during the early years of social media.

I saw last year's nominated documentary short "Nai Nai and Wai Po" without realizing that "Didi" was the fictionalized autobiography of that film's creator, Sean Wang. It didn't hit home to me until I saw the character of the grandma in "Didi," who was featured in the short film and is Sean Wang's actual grandmother. So that's all very cool.

"Didi" is very funny, and hits a lot of the targets about navigating adolescence and all its terrors that most of us who've lived through it would expect it to. I saw it with my 15 and 13 year old sons, and was a bit disappointed that it didn't seem to resonate more with them than it did. But I liked it.

It's mostly about a kid who thinks he always has to be something that others want him to be before he's had a chance to figure out what he wants to be himself. It also touches on what it's like to be "othered" by your racial identity (in this case Asian) without being preachy about it or making its audience feel like it's getting homework.

Not a groundbreaking film, but a nice alternative if you're looking for something beyond the typical summer movie fare.

Grade: A-