Sundance-Winning ‘Didi’ Portrays Asian American Coming Of Age

by RUBEN V. NEPALES.

LOS ANGELES – Sean Wang’s Didi, one of the year’s best films, is also one of the most relatable, regardless of your age and race.

But filmgoers, especially Asians, including Filipinos, will especially empathize with the coming of age drama about a 13-year-old boy living under one roof with his mother, sister and grandmother. Asian American immigrants will also identify with the brilliant film’s treatise on racial identity, pressure and conflict to belong, and multigenerational family dynamics.

Winner of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award (US Dramatic competition) and Special Jury Award Ensemble, Didi recently made its theatrical debut. It’s a funny, tender, and moving semi-autobiographical feature directing debut of Taiwanese American Sean Wang centering on Chris Wang (Izaac Wang), an adolescent growing up in East Bay, California.

Sean also wrote the screenplay which is unsentimental, dead-on in its dialogue, especially among the family members (the love-hate exchange between Chris and his sister is amusingly yet painfully on point), and unflinchingly honest.

The emerging filmmaker was born in Fremont, California where his growing up years inspired the pain, awkwardness, and turbulence he realistically portrays in his first feature.

Typical of many immigrant families, Chris lives with his mom Chungsing (the luminous Joan Chen, back in an American film), sister (Vivian), and grandma or Nai Nai (Zhang Li Hua, Sean’s real-life maternal grandparent). In addition to casting his wai po, who is in her 80s, Sean filmed in his childhood home, including his bedroom as a kid.

Didi was sparked by Sean’s 2023 award-winning documentary short, Nai Nai & Wai Po (Grandma & Grandma), where he follows wai po and nai nai (his paternal grandma, Yi Yan Fuei, who is in her 90s) as they go about their daily lives sharing one house in California, even sleeping together on the same bed.

The film, Sean’s love letter to his two lolas as he spent more time with them during the pandemic and appreciated them more at the height of anti-Asian hate and crimes, earned a 2024 Oscar best documentary short film nomination.

Set in 2008, Didi (a Chinese term of endearment for the youngest son) uses that era’s MySpace, AOL messenger and flip phones to effectively dramatize Chris’ adolescent angst, complicated by his Asian American identity and dealing with racism and plain old teen growing up ambivalence.

Chris’ conflict is also illustrated as he is torn between his friends, mostly Asian Americans like himself, and a SAT prep group including Josh (FilAm actor Joziah Lagonoy) and a skate group for whom he offers to shoot videos (Sean also made skate videos when he was growing up).

In a video conversation, we talked to Sean, Joan, and Izaac about Didi, which is being hailed as an outstanding addition to noteworthy coming of age and immigrant tale cinema. I also chatted via email with Chris Quintos Cathcart, a FilAm who is one of the executive producers of Didi.

Sean Wang

The University of Southern California film school alumnus shared why the nonexistence of a movie poster showing an Asian American kid like him when he was growing up spurred him to make Didi.

“I’ve always been drawn to stories and movies about youth,” began the filmmaker. “I don’t know why. That’s a time in all of our lives…that’s so formative and turbulent when small things feel big and big things are big.”

“I’ve always been drawn to movies like Stand by Me, The 400 Blows, and Ratcatcher, and even like Water Lilies. When I grew into my own as a filmmaker, I thought about the stories I wanted to tell.”

“I thought, all of those stories that I love about adolescents and childhood that didn’t pander to kids. I never saw the version that starred a kid who looked like me or Izaac, that version of boyhood.”

“As I started writing Didi, this was like 2017, and in the subsequent years, Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, Mid90s, Edge of Seventeen, and Moonlight came out. All these now seminal contemporary classics of what you would consider coming of age genre, and all of their posters are just of the protagonists’ faces, huge.”

“Then it struck me. I was like, literally the movie that I’m setting up to make has an audience for it. People clearly want this type of movie. And also that movie poster with Izaac’s face, an Asian American 13-year-old.”

“As a fan of these types of movies, I can’t think of that poster. I can’t think of that movie. It just felt like, okay, here’s an incredible opportunity to try and do something fresh and new.”

Didi’s autobiographical element is enhanced by the active participation not only of Sean’s grandma but also of his mother, Vivian Wang Donohue, who is a painter like Joan’s mother character.

“It’s been lovely across the board,” Sean remarked. “My mom has been pretty involved. Part of the writing process was allowing my mom to give notes, suggestions, and thoughts on the character in the script.”

“She has an associate producer credit on the movie. She was really helpful in the production. And she was on set every day just to hang out. It was really special.”

“She saw the movie for the first time at Sundance. She hadn’t seen any dailies or rough cuts but she watched the movie and loved it. There’s a dedication to her at the very end of the credits. She didn’t expect that. She was very moved.”

Didi’s other remarkable real-life family connection is Zhang Li, utterly convincing, with her pointed comments at her daughter-in-law, Joan’s Chungsing.

Asked what it was like to work with his grandma in Didi, a feature with a script to follow unlike the Nai Nai & Wai Po documentary short, Sean answered:

“She really did her homework. She took it really seriously. In a way, the short film became like her audition tape because obviously, it’s one thing for me as the director to be like, I’m gonna cast my grandma.”

“But then we have financiers. We have, obviously, someone like Joan as well. We have people who ultimately are giving us money and be like, no, I can’t see that as a cool, interesting decision.”

“I think without the short film, they would have been like, what the hell? But they see the short and what the short does is show both my grandmas but Nai Nai is too old, I think, to play in our narratives box. But she has been amazing too.”

“And she (wai po) is incredibly charming. But I was like, if we cast her, it could be a home run but it was still kind of a swing, right? It could be a swing and a miss or it could be a home run.”

“For like two years, I was like, wai po, you’re gonna play the grandma in our movie, right? And she was like, no, no, no. I can’t do that. That’s like a real movie. We did a documentary.”

“I was like, no, no. But think about it because you’re going to do it. As we got closer to production and putting the movie together, she said, if you’re really that confident in me, I’ll do it for you and do my best.”

“And when we did officially cast her, her script was so lined that she knew which was so off-book. And she had opinions, too.”

“And then the first time she and Joan rehearsed a scene, I was the most nervous. I was like, I hope this works. We read through it once. Wai po was incredibly off-book and natural.”

“Joan put her hand on my shoulder and was like, you have nothing to worry about. She’s amazing. And she was incredibly natural. Joan, to her credit, was incredibly generous, too, and warm, and as the trained actress in the equation.”

“Joan would be malleable sometimes to what wai po would do and if she didn’t hit her mark or something. But ultimately, that’s what made it feel electric and alive.”

Joan Chen

One of Didi’s feats is to bring back Joan in a US film and she rewards us with a riveting turn as a frustrated artist with an absentee husband who has to deal with a disapproving ma-in-law and two Asian American children, one of whom is the rebellious Chris.

Joan, whose early Hollywood career was capped by roles in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, chatted about her reaction upon reading Sean’s script:

“I haven’t encountered a good part like that for a while. I wasn’t working in the United States for quite a long time. When parts dried up, I went back to China to work.”

“So when Sean gave me the script, I was really thrilled. I was impressed how well written that script is, a great coming of age story with a love letter to his own mom wrapped in it as well. Even though she (Chungsing) is a supporting character, she has many facets and it’s quite full and complex.”

“And different from a lot of movies like Crazy Rich Asians, where the matriarch is strict and stern, and The Joy Luck Club. And this very real, genuine, gentle, and full of warmth mother.”

“She is also an artist and she has a sense of humor, even though she is not well adjusted to American culture. She’s confused about how to best love her son.”

“Every scene that I’m in, it’s a slightly different facet of her, either background or of the stages in her relationship with her mother-in-law. So it’s so well nuanced and the character is so well written. It was a great opportunity for me.”

The actress, who has several directing credits, including the Richard Gere-Winona Ryder starrer Autumn in New York, was asked about a pivotal family dinner scene where her two kids are arguing, resulting in her mother-in-law berating her:

“The scene introduces exactly where she is in her life. I didn’t have to do a lot – just to take it all in and try so hard to control.”

“You’ve spent a couple of hours making a good dinner and no one was eating. I love that scene. In just one scene, it introduced the entire family.”

“I’ve had times like that. I raised two daughters who would also fight at the table and you feel so underappreciated sometimes because children take it for granted – when you’re taking care of it is what you should be doing anyway.”

“And if you make any mistakes, they remember the mistakes. So for me, that chaos, confusion, is something I’m familiar with.”

“Also, I am an immigrant mother. I raised two American children and exactly like what’s in the script, though our professions or personalities are different, the core of the emotional truth is something that resonates with me very much. So it just felt really natural.”

Izaac Wang

Izaac, now 16, is one of this year’s major acting breakouts, thanks to his very convincing take of a boy about to enter high school, learning how to kiss and handle friendships via MySpace and AOL, on top of a contentious relationship with his mom.

“This specifically wasn’t something that I was searching for,” said the Minnesota-born actor of Laotian and Chinese descent. “This was something that was sent to me by my manager. And then after that, a whole audition process, all the callbacks, and eventually, I managed to get the role.”

“My start in acting has been a while. It started when I was eight years old. In my past few years, I’ve been in a few things and they’ve mostly been supporting roles.” These included roles in Good Boys, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Chris Quintos Cathcart

FilAm Chris, who is also an actress, explained how she became one of the exec producers of the most acclaimed films of 2024: “I started Unapologetic, our film financing company, in January 2023 with my partner, Tyler Boehm. Didi was one of the first scripts that we read.”

“We both loved it for really different reasons. He hadn’t seen boyhood treated that way before and I loved seeing a slice of my background as an Asian American who grew up in the Bay. It was the first film we decided to invest in as a company.”

Sean’s script immediately appealed to Chris’ Asian American background. “On the page, it echoed some of my adolescence in the Bay Area and it magically felt both so familiar and fresh. It definitely made me think of my own younger brother who was a skater kid.”

“I thought it might speak to every Asian American kid who didn’t fit into the parts we are ‘supposed to,’ myself included. We are nuanced. We are multi-faceted.”

“We have different strengths and weaknesses beyond high test scores and college rankings. Didi celebrates that through a kid who is trying on different identities as many of us did at 13.”

The actress-producer whose parents come from Quezon City elaborated on why Didi resonated with her as a young FilAm: “It captures what it’s like to be a third culture kid in the Bay Area.”

“Didi highlights what it’s like having to navigate both the cultural norms of what it means to have immigrant parents and how to live in a world with your American peers who mean everything to you at that stage of life.”

“Before Didi, I hadn’t seen anything that pays homage to that challenge specifically. It made me think about all the microaggressions and sometimes just overt racism that unfortunately followed me throughout my childhood.”

“Chris Wang isn’t Filipino American but he probably knows more about what that’s like than someone who was born in a country where the majority of people look like you. Every time I see the film, I find something new that resonates with me.”

“Most recently, it was growing up in a house that didn’t watch all the popular American movies, feeling like I had to pretend I knew what people were talking about a lot. TFC was always on at my Lola’s house, though.”

The rising Hollywood executive cited what’s up next for her: “We’re building up our TV slate at Unapologetic, which is an entirely different and exciting challenge than indie film finance. And there are a couple of films already in our pipeline that we’re excited to work on.”

“We’ve got a documentary with Fisher Stevens as producer, Keanu Reeves as EP, and Jennifer Tiexiera directing about Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez whose career in professional kickboxing evolved into him becoming one of the most well-known martial arts choreographers in Hollywood.”

“And I always say this when I’m talking to Filipinos but I’m actively looking for great Filipino American projects. Maybe Kuya could be next?”

Chris clarified, “Kuya is not an actual project – just trying to manifest it. No script, no one’s pitched it, just something that feels like it goes with all the Didi talk.”

Yes, how about it – Kuya, Ate, and Lola, to further amplify the saga of our fearless, dedicated, and nurturing grandmas? – Rappler.com

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See Original Article at Rappler