At first sight, Dìdi has this appearance of a kind of film that we have watched previously: the type of delightful, adolescent, coming-of-age narrative so often associated with Sundance (where Dìdi won both the Audience and Dramatic Jury awards in 2024). Furthermore, there is the developing sub-genre of period pieces about growing up Asian American in the late 20th and early 21st century which have tropes and themes already set by shows like Fresh off the Boat and Pen15 plus movies like Minari: stories centered around names, feeling ashamed of your parents, and trying to outdo others.
Like its title character however Dìdi reveals itself as being deeper than expected. Sean Wang puts new wrinkles into what are seemingly typical exploits for his protégé Chris (Izaac Wang), a Taiwanese-American child growing up in Fremont, California in his first feature-length film. This movie does not only exemplify all those complicated feelings that come with being an adolescent but also tries to mimic them. It can be very funny except where it is plain stupid as long as it gets enough specific things right so that it’s not just “any” or “all” teens.
Wang doesn’t waste time; he drops us straight into action as we watch some boys blow up a neighbor’s mailbox before running away screaming directly at us. The kid named Chris filming it is known by his mom as Didi and by friends Wang-Wang. He has lived much of his life on the Millennial/Gen Z border like lots of other kids these days: For instance isn’t there something quite nostalgic about seeing that AddictingGames.com tab up on a Windows XP tower desktop? Importantly Wang mostly gets that era of internet-speak down pat too with all its misspellings, hip-hop slang appropriations—in part from casual homophobia on Chris’s side or even among his friends who are all originally Asian.
However, like most main characters in coming-of-age narratives Chris has a simple life goal of wanting to talk to girls, finding his mom annoying and fighting with his sister. At the beginning of Didi, for instance, it can be too gross, too Sundance-winning about a semi-wacky grandma with some lazily written jokes. Didi is an amalgamation of Lady Bird (also set in Northern California), Eighth Grade (which also centers the lead’s online activities) and Fresh off The Boat (which is also about a Taiwanese American family) which makes it rather tempting to want to hold such things up against each other or against countless others of its ilk although often entertaining. But Wang subtly shifts course slightly as soon as Chris starts hanging out with some skateboarders and shoots videos for them by chance.
Friendships crash. That girl is not what she seems. The siblings reached a brief settlement as mother and grandmother were involved in a fierce fight. Chris seems so indecisive; the movie effectively finds its footing every time it tries to know who he really is and what his friends should look like, all of which are wrong paths. The most moving part of the film occurs when Chris discovers that his mom, Chungsing (Joan Chen), has also had her fair share of disappointments, feeling like she’s failed at everything with her life nowhere near where she wants it to be and tired of being nagged by her own mom (Chang Li Hua) all the time. It may not be as revelatory as the similar plotline from Lady Bird, but Chen brings a quiet strength to Chungsing, playing not as a stereotypically disappointed Asian parent but rather trying her absolute best all the time and barely coming out even. This kind of tonal shift would read as chaotic if Wang hadn’t had such a firm grip on the camera; all across East Bay landscape (even while crossing over highways), striking compositions are found by him in Dìdi’s infrequent flights into fantasy (one of them has talking fish).
Dìdi also demonstrates this sureness in its period setting, now 20 years ago or so. MySpace and Facebook take up much space here alongside AIM and –fittingly-YouTube while simultaneously avoiding any hint at darker cultural aspects related to the Silicon Valley giants during this time frame between mid-to-late ‘00s when people first went online in droves. Dìdi is more about how children grew up during this age than A Film about The Internet,’ though these technologies could help them find themselves or reinforce existing social hierarchies(e.g., changing your Top 8 on MySpace). Sometimes it descends into slight confusion but then again that is what we all go through when trying to figure out who we are.
Verdict
Like the main character, Dìdi is a jumble of conflicting bits and pieces and hormonal disorders. A crowd-pleaser that never shies away from complicating what you think you know about Chris and his story and at the same time embracing screwing up in general. It’s also the lighter side of Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, where once she gets out of her head, there’s a way forward so apparent that it becomes inevitable. All these influences combined together cannot be considered as simply its sum total but has led to something more than them.
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