Melbourne International Film Festival Review - Dìdi (弟弟)

“All my friends just call me Wang Wang.”

Funny, irreverent and adolescent, Dìdi (弟弟) tells a wonderfully relatable and universal coming-of-age story within the very particular context of an Asian American in 2008 as he navigates, friendship, first loves, family and the internet to hilarious and heartfelt results. 

Discussion Points:

Such a universal and yet such a specific coming-of-age film. Some parts of adolescence are transcendent and connect no matter where you grew up or when you did. But for Sean Wang’s autobiographical coming-of-age in mid 2000s San Francisco Bay Area, it’s a story filled with skateboarding and social media. With MySpace, AOL, FaceBook and YouTube, suddenly young Chris, played wonderfully by Izaac Wang, has the ability to connect to his peers like never before - for good and for bad. But some mistakes are bound to happen no matter the medium. Missed opportunities, familial fights, friendships faltering, and falling in with the right or wrong crowd. Along for the ride are Chris’s family, with the wonderfully warm and long-suffering Joan Chen as his mother - navigating life with her husband abroard, overbearing mother-in-law (played by the directors own grandma) and a daughter about to leave for college (played with increasing remorse and care by Shirley Chen). Then there’s the young ensemble of middle schoolers about to head to high school who are irreverent, idiotic, excitable, energetic and endearing. Add some fantastic period accurate slang, fashion and music, and some great handheld camcorder early YouTube vibes and Dìdi (弟弟) serves as a wonderfully unique time capsule for its directors childhood, and as a broadly engaging coming-of-age tale that deeply values family and friends.