Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 30, 2024)
With 2024’s Dìdi, filmmaker Sean Wang delivers a semi-autobiographical tale. This one takes us to Frement, California circa the summer of 2008 for a “coming of age” narrative.
Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) prepares to go to high school in the fall. He lives with his mother Chungsing (Joan Chen), his paternal grandmother Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua), and his nearly college-bound older sister Vivian (Shirley Chen), with whom he fights a lot.
On the verge of the big transition to the next grade, Chris struggles with his identity and his attempts to figure out who he is. As the summer progresses, he broadens his friend base and starts to establish more of an identity.
If that synopsis doesn’t convey that Dìdi won’t offer much of a plot, then I don’t know what to tell you. The basic “coming of age” concept pretty heavily implies a film without a strong narrative anyway, and Dìdi follows that path,
Which seems fine with me, of course. Character-oriented movies can work well.
And that becomes the case with Dìdi. At no point does it do anything that breaks out of what we expect from this sort of flick, but it accomplishes its goals in a satisfying manner.
I’ve not been a young teen in a depressingly long time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recall the period. Of course, teens of 2008 lived through a different world than I did in the early 1980s, but many aspects of the experience don’t really change, so I could relate to these universal elements.
Dìdi offers a nice mix of comedy and drama, though it can lean a bit melodramatic at times. Indeed, I think we get a few too many “big events” here, the only factor that can feel a bit inauthentic.
That said, I get that a truly accurate view of a kid’s summer between middle school and high school would probably be pretty boring. I certainly can’t claim anything “movie worthy” happened to me over that two months or so.
As such, I understand the need to add some drama to the story. As noted – and reinforced in the disc’s featurette - Dìdi doesn’t offer a true representation of Sean Wang’s life in the summer of 2008.
Artistic license aside, Dìdi becomes a likable tale, and it does ring true more than enough to overcome the melodramatic moments. Sean Wang retains enough memories of the awkwardness that comes with young teen life to make it come across as realistic.
For instance, we get a scene in which Chris gets positive feedback from his crush Madi (Mahaela Park). When he says he needs to leave, he delays for reasons he doesn’t explain to her.
Any former teen boy knows precisely why Chris needs a couple minutes before he stands: because this interaction with a cute girl gave him a boner. The film doesn’t telegraph this, which makes the sequence more amusing.
Izaak Wang nicely balances the title role’s demands, as he threads the needle of comedy and drama well. The other castmembers seem solid as well.
At no point do I think Dìdi threatens to become a truly great “coming of age” movie, but I feel it accomplishes most of its goals. While I prefer a little less melodrama, I still find it to offer an engaging and well-told narrative.
