
Such instances are rare, but there are times when I feel that my first impression of a film may have been too cynical. My first reaction to Sean Wang’s emotionally devastating coming-of-age film Didi, while it played at the Sundance Festival and won the audience award, was that the follow-up film to an Oscar-nominated short film would be bearish at the most and quite repetitive in its portrayal of nice girly slosh sustainably cinema’s reach at Sundance. It was hard not to notice “Eighth Grade,” “Skate Kitchen,” “Mid90s,” “Minari,” and “Minding the Gap” which were clearly less aspire films but managed to do their job of representation far more naturally, with flair, and swift zest. However, after revisiting the film, I was able to appreciate “Didi,” his first feature as a director, a lot more than time which would have previously qualified as giving “too much” appreciation to the film.
Wang’s story bears striking parallels to so many of the films and there is a formula in which it is told that perhaps was serendipitously the plan all along. Chris Wang played by Isaac Wang affectionately known as Didi by his mom would like to think, is being mocked by every other person in Wang Wang because that is how Didi is about to enter high school and the reality that comes with being a teenager.
He is the odd one out in a predominantly white neighborhood in Fremont, California. And for that reason alone, it’s understandable why he has made friends with other people of color such as Farad (Raul Diad) and Jimmy, Soup (Aaron Chang). Unfortunately, they too are beginning to integrate themselves into the stereotypical mold of a white Bronx that seems to be common for their age group. It upsets Chris even more than he is already alienated by their gradual separation from him.
Chris seems to be unlucky when it comes to finding a romantic partner. He has a crush on one girl, Madi (Mahaela Park), who he meets at a party and chats with over AOL Instant Messenger. Even though his friends push him to have sex, Chris, who is still very immature, is far too shy to make the plunge. Even in the shy manifestations of such incipient emotions, so much is given away. “You’re actually quite adorable for an Asian boy,” Madi, who may be grappling with her own ethnonational identity, is told off. Anderson also describes several other acts of ‘Didi’ that point to racial slippages. For instance, how Chris goes to great lengths to remind people he is half-Asian or how his overly-obsessed mother gets called out for being Asian too much by him, or how a group of boys chant Chris’ name and go add “Asian” to the end, to make it more appealing. Chris, the central anti-hero, claims repeatedly that he does not want to be the loud-mouthed hypermasculine cool kid, but this is not the case. But when he does, he becomes senselessly cruel, malevolent, and simply damaged.
In his grim world, he shifts the blame towards many people: the elder sister, Vivian, who is an adversary until she learns of his profound alienation; the overprotective mother Chungsing (Joan Chen), a would-be artist with a dominating mother-in-law and obstinate children, left alone by her husband who is based in Taiwan; and fellow students, who think he is simply strange. Chris attempts to fit in with older skaters and his so-called friends at school only to discover those areas which he finds lacking in himself.
Characters often resort to such rather explicit choices as the use of AOL Instant Messenger to imprint on the screen what they can’t bring themselves to voice in person, even if it is through a robot. There is also Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua), his comical grandmother who embodies the mature woman’s ideal of success and the perception of gender roles, who is rather inconsequential to the plot in the second half of the movie.
Though Sam A. Davis, the cinematographer, seems to have achieved the essence of the year 2008 with his attempt to replicate the look of camcorders and striking picture compositions that appear to have captured the glow of the sun in California during that year, there are instances when he tends to go overboard with shadows, vividly enough to cover an emotional goodbye between Chris and Vivian.
Didi’s strongest points occur precisely when it departs from the established norms of visual representation that are taken for granted in the genre. Where a screaming fish doll talks, a bereavement squirrel comes to life, and the sanity of Chris is purposively lost as miniature golf figures come into view. These are some of the most off-the-wall elements that make this film different from others. Those delightful swings also help link the film to the late 2000s period, which recreates everything from random scribbles to early Facebook and the strange videos that used to be on YouTube many years ago. Add in a plateful of mild references to the movies The Notebook and A Walk to Remember alongside some clamshell phones, and the decade, propelled by misplaced optimism in transformation, feels surprisingly nostalgic.
With the above observations, “Didi” also gains added vitality whenever the camera focuses on Chen. The actress Chris’ mother, accurately delivers a combination of slight hurt and anger without going out of the line and sounding loud.
Imagine finding depth in a romance page seen over and over again. It could be said that the scene proving this is when a heart-to-heart scene between Chris and their love interest occurs. The performance of Chris in this scene is emotional and very sincere. It is hard to believe that it was an actor. You can be sure that this scene looks very familiar as in almost every other movie. At the same time, the emotions were beautifully conveyed, and even if it seemed cliched, it was not so much. Chen performs this beautifully and makes it seem effortless; she creates a great balance with Wang who is younger but just as remarkable. When I listened to the last notes of “Didi” my thoughts wandered to the fact that this structure is quite common in television dramas. Even so, there is a desire to rewind the film.
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