Sean Wang Spotlights Teen Angst and Growing Pains in Didi

Brothers and sister relationships can be tricky depending on the ranking order.  Not to mention, sometimes,  siblings may not like each other very much, but will love each other always in spite of ourselves.

Chris (Izaac Wang) is just entering his teens and a handful to say the least. He steals from his sister and, when she makes the pretty good case that he should cut it out, he proceeds to urinate in her lotion bottle.  Yet, his mother makes excuses for his behavior and loves him in spite of himself.  That’s what all mothers do…right??

Written and directed by Sean Wang, Didi follow Chris Wang  a.k.a Wang Wang spending an aimless summer in
his quiet Northern California hometown of Fremont. He fights with his sister (Shirley Chen), rolls his eyes at his mother (Joan Chen), and blows up mailboxes with his friends Fahad (Raul Dial) and Soup (Aaron Chang). In other words,  he is your average 13-year old boy. But in Fremont, he’s a chameleon who can’t quite find his shade. The only person who
sees and loves Dìdi (Mandarin for “little brother”) for who he really is his mom, Chungsing.

Giving me vibes of ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ meets ‘Stand By Me,’ Didi captures the awkwardness of teen years from the first kiss to finding your tribe and losing friends due to growth and maturity. Chen and Izaac are magical, as are Shirley Chen and his buddies comically portrayed by Dial and Chang.  All of these performances are supremely acted while reminding the audience unapologetically of how challenging and crazy being on the cusp of teenage angst can be.

Sean Wang’s skateboard footage is cool and indicative of his unique style of film making, while simultaneously not romanticizing early teenage life depicting the good, the bad and the ugly from all sides and individuals involved.  The fact  he doesn’t shy away from Izaac not taking responsibility for his actions or consequences is a lesson to be witnessed and learned.  Being thrown back technology wise to the static noise of signing into AOL or remembering that MySpace was the social media site of choice reminds us of how much the genre has grown in less than a 10-20 year time span.

I found myself nostalgically giddy while being reminded of my own teen years and similar chaos that ensued as a military child ultimately paving the way for a woman on a continuous journey of being a work in progress. Didi is uniquely poignant and will strike a chord mentally and emotionally audiences of all ages reminding them that there is no wrong way to grow up and evolve through life.