This breakout hit from Sundance about growing up as an Asian-American in the late 2000s is energetic and emotionally resonant, overcoming its sense of familiarity through the sincerity of its filmmaking.
Review #2,840
Dir. Sean Wang
2024 | USA | Drama | 94 min | 1.85:1 | English & Mandarin
NC16 (passed clean) for language throughout, sexual material, and drug and alcohol use – all involving teens.
Cast: Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen
Plot: 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.
Awards: Won Special Jury Award & Audience Award – U.S. Dramatic (Sundance)
Distributor: Universal
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Asian-American; Mother & Son; Family & Friends; Coming-of-age
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Slightly Mainstream
Viewed: The Projector Golden Mile
Spoilers: No
A breakout hit from Sundance, it remains to be said whether Didi will have enough legs to be in the awards conversation come Oscars 2025.
There is something inherently likeable about this energetic and emotionally resonant work about growing up as an Asian-American in the late 2000s. Set firmly in the coming-of-age genre, Didi overcomes its sense of familiarity (after all, these stories aren’t new) through the sincerity of its filmmaking.
Directed by Sean Wang, who was recently nominated for an Oscar for his short film Nai Nai & Wai Po (2023), Didi propels us headfirst into the chaotic life of the occasionally ostracised teenager Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) with a swift prologue: a recording of a prank and its aftermath as several boys scurry away like rodents.
This was the time of MySpace and 480p YouTube videos, with Chris discovering what infatuation as well as losing old friends and making new ones feel like.
“Mom, are you ashamed of me?”
Insert never-ending family arguments with his Mom (Joan Chen in a quietly effective role), annoying older sister (who’s leaving for college very soon), and a doting if ailing grandmother, and one might somehow draw similar parallels, at least thematically, to one of the year’s box-office hits Inside Out 2 (2024).
Both tackle the perils of teenagehood, but of course, Didi is more culturally specific with that mix of Mandarin and accented English being that obvious marker.
There are also minute observations that perhaps come across as universal in Asian households, be it a close-up ‘tatami’ shot of Chris’ new friends entering his house without taking their shoes off (how triggering!), or Chris’ grandma advising everyone in the midst of dinner to eat more fruits so as to poop better.
At just 90+ minutes, Didi is efficient and enjoyable. Best of all, it encourages us to be grateful—friends and crushes come and go but family will always be there forever.
Grade: B+
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 