Such instances are exceedingly rare, but some films are so polarizing that it becomes important to revisit them after a chasm of time has elapsed for a more objective view. This was the case when I saw Wang Sean’s heart-wrenching coming of age ‘Dìdi’ for the first time at its premiere at Sundance — it won the Audience Award at the festival – and I could not believe it would be his first film after the Oscar-nominated animated short, In nai nai & wài pó, that the Wizard of Oz would occupy another world of coming-of-age fantasies.
Some films that I recalled, among them “Eighth Grade” and “Skate Kitchen”, “Mid90s”, “Minari”, “Minding the Gap” et al, though probably had been shot right in that right spirit, only not so successfully. But this time around, “Dìdi,” which was his first feature film, is better and even more powerful than what I expected on the first experience.
There is a loveable overachiever who is later approximated or seen in many of these films including Wang’s narrative: Chris Wang (Isaac Wang)—Dìdi is the endearing epithet of him more so from his mom while everyone else mocks him as Wang Wang, who is about to go to higher secondary school, soon to face all of those excruciating transformations associated with factoring from childhood to adolescent.
He feels alienated in the predominantly white neighborhood of Fremont, California where he lives. It’s perhaps the reason why he rolls with other non-white people Farad (Raul Diad) or Jimmy/Soup (Aaron Chang). But even they are being incorporated into the kind of toxic, white broness that begins to assume a hold on teenage youth. Their steady separation from him, only continues to isolate Chris.
Chris, as it turns out, has not had much luck finding, or being the recipient of, love, or affection. His attention turns to Madi (Mahaela Park), a girl he becomes friends with at a party and even chats on AOL with. However, Chris’s, who is still quite young, friends tease him to at least pop his cherry, but the very confused and awkward Chris is too shy to take such a bold move.
Just as his early sentiment is underdeveloped, a great deal is revealed even with such bashful proclamations. “You’re quite cute for an Asian boy,” says Madi, who probably has some issues with herself, in a backhanded way. In the social communication of the world there exists “Dìdi” and Chris walks around claiming he is only a half. Asian only explains that girl who smothers Chris who calls herself his mums too Asian.
Or boys who chant Chris’ name add the word Asian at the back of it for no apparent reason. absolutes are static. Chris however is raptured by the chances of being a loud hypermasculine Snyder like the cool guys from co School of Design. But this is not who Chris is. And here he tries to be, he is just horrible, nasty and plain evil.
He does not take the blame himself but puts it to several other individuals. His older sister, Vivian, (Shirley Chen), who is one such critic until she gets to know his unbearable isolation. His over-attached mother, Chungsing (Joan Chen), an artist depressed from the overbearing mother-in-law and children while her absent businessman husband hustles in Taiwan. Besides, his classmates think he is just odd. Delving further from this image, Chris longs for recognition from a group of older skaters and tries in vain to win over his would-be friends at school.
Directorial decisions include more personal choices, like the use of AOL Instant Messenger with the presence of a bot at the end of it, who types his inner monologue and fears that Chris would never manage to voice out. It is one of the daughters ‘ Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua), the comical old lady who represents the society’s definition of a successful woman, is one of those loose ends which is more or less addressed by the second half of the film.
Cinematographer Sam A. Davis seems to glitter when it comes to depicting the year 2008-somewhere between making a handheld camera look stylish and capturing pictures that appear crisp enough to be lit by a side Californian sun. There are times, though, that he goes over the top with the shadows, even when Chris and Vivian saying goodbye to one another is in sight, that even this touching scene ends up losing its effect.
“Dìdi” is interesting primarily because it mercilessly destroys the genre pace. Absurd anyting from a flapping fish in a bowl and talking dead fish to a furry creature who revives himself and strange fantasies with Chris being stalked by miniature golfing dolls.
This film is termed fresh due to those deviations. Those awesome swings also rather link the picture to its later nouveau style in which every being from the dawn of earlyFacebook to the dusk of lateMyspace and a certain kind of skew whiff videos which, at the zenith of Youtube eranodesbegan to infest were reproductions.
And a couple of throwaway lines to ‘The Notebook’ and ‘A Walk To Remember’ i.e. some flip phones or that period, which in all reasonable sense ought to be centred on Chacr (branded cynicism), even though there are slivers of misplaced optimism tampered by that very change, is twisted with an unexpected undertone of nostalgia.
“Didi” also finds further vigor whenever it is Chen on the focus. When she takes the role of Chris’ mother for example, the actress is able to elicit a slight degree of pain and anger but stops short of trying too hard.
Now, the importance of a powerful actress’s skill must have made you rush through smoldering arguments like the one she has with Chris in Footloose since you have come across it a million times before and it doesn’t come close to feeling fresh or worse, unoriginal. Courtesy of Turner Chen, I am never as close.
I still feel I have much effort in achieving the level of emotional depth that she possesses so effortlessly. She has performed strong scenes with Wang, her younger but non-the-less winning co-star. It had seemed familiar in Didi’s manicured build up towards its final dramatic notes. I have seen that story a hundred and one times already. Still, I was turning the knobs backwards to my pleasure.
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