By Brian Susbielles

Superbad. Lady Bird. Mid-90s. Eighth Grade. The trend of coming-of-age stories continues on with Sean Wang’s debut feature about 13-year-old Taiwanese-American boy Chris (Izaac Wang), also known as Wang-Wang, and his summer of 2008. He is having a lot of stupid fun with friends while trying to be cool with his YouTube videos, MySpace page, and AIM messages to others.  He fights with his college-bound sister (Shirley Chen) and is bothered by his mother (Joan Chen) who keeps getting critiqued by her mother-in-law (Chang Li Hua). All Sean wants to do before he enters high school is max out his freedom with skateboarding or trying to get with a crush before high school or just trying to be the coolest kid on the block. 

It is the story of a first-generation immigrant child who finds himself trying to fit in with others and separate from his cultural connection he feels trapped in. The 2008 throwbacks, now a real period era, send us back to a more innocent time where America wasn’t so divided because Twitter, while existing, wasn’t a real thing at the time. There are human connections not separated by texts and social media over the phone – a flip phone, specifically – where they all go out to mini golf, skateboard at the industrial park, and party while consuming marijuana “Wu-Tang style.” Some have incredibly funny moments while others are painfully realizing that Wang-Wang isn’t this all innocent kid, but this immature punk who needs to be humbled. 

What makes Didi even more special is how Wang, relying on his own childhood memories for the story, doesn’t try to cook up something which feels farfetched. Izaac Wang’s performance makes Chris an authentic person who really makes mistakes and eventually comes to terms with it. The messages are universal way beyond the cultural backgrounds with success, failures, and moments of realization, particularly with mother-grandmother butting heads. The truths are uncomfortable as certain scenes can attest to the realities of saying the worst thing towards a girl or the consequences of hitting another person. More proficiently is the relationship of mother-son and the struggles to connect while his father remains working out of the country.  

After directing the Oscar-nominated short Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó, Sean Wang is clearly on a roll that makes his grand entrance even more special. Didi is a truly wonderful coming-of-age film, one higher on the list than some of the movies mentioned of the same realm and one of the best films of the year. It taps deep into the well of nostalgia with many things to make us really feel old like A Walk To Remember at over twenty years old and keeps us entertained with a lot of heart incapuslating Chris/Wang-Wang as the awkward, cringeworthy teen we all were at one point. Didi is a perfect film that screams Sundance, where it came out this year, and carries itself over with a lot to love from it.

5 stars

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