"Dìdi (弟弟)" is a mirror of adolescence

by Desiree Luo

I once heard art can serve as either windows or mirrors. The windows were abundant. Nearly every novel and movie offered glimpses into lives different from mine. But as an Asian American from the Bay Area, I rarely encountered mirrors.

“Dìdi (弟弟)” was different.

Sean Wang was the first filmmaker I heard of from my hometown. A few years ago, my mother said Wang was casting Bay Area skateboarders for a movie set in Fremont.

In February 2024, Wang received an Academy Award nomination for his documentary short “Nai Nai & Wài Pó.” My family and I cheered when we saw him and his grandmothers on the Oscars broadcast.

Wang’s debut feature film follows 13-year-old Chris (Izaac Wang) through the summer before high school in 2008. Like many teenagers, Chris fights with his older sister, third-wheels his friends in photos, and calls “A Walk to Remember” his favorite movie to impress his crush. After old friends grow distant, he meets three older skateboarders and offers to film their skate videos. He doesn’t tell them his sole videography experience consists of filming his friends’ pranks and his grandmother (Chang Li Hua, Sean Wang’s grandmother who starred in “Nai Nai & Wài Pó”) in their backyard.    

Chris is undoubtedly awkward yet wants to be cool. He walks the confusing line between childhood and something older. It’s a struggle that defines adolescence, one that makes sympathizing with Chris inevitable.

Only his mother, Chungsing Wang (Joan Chen), witnesses the unfiltered Chris. She stomachs his outbursts in the car. She takes him to McDonald’s after his friends desert him, and he mocks her for eating a burger with utensils. She remains silent when he scoffs at her paintings. She must also grapple with her mother-in-law and her own dream of becoming an artist. Absorbed in his troubles, Chris cannot recognize his mother’s burdens, nor does he appreciate the well-meaning intent behind each scolding.  

During a screening at the San Francisco Film Festival, Wang said he drew inspiration for the movie from his past. His subtle inclusion of personal elements, such as his childhood bedroom decor and his mother’s paintings, give the story its resonance.

Nearly every scene elicited memories for me. A grandmother’s nagging escalating to a lecture on college and marriage. A shot of an upturned colander by the sink almost identical to the view of my kitchen window. And though I never experienced MySpace, I felt exposed watching Chris write, delete, and rewrite messages, only not to send a single one.

Fremont amplified this effect for me. Chris examines an eraser in the gift shop where I splurged on plush toys. He and Chungsing walk the aisles of the supermarket I visited weekly. Montages of the freeway transported me to the passenger seat of my car, where I laughed, cried, and shared secrets with my mom during the long drive home from school each day. 

With each hyper-specific detail, I felt a jolt of pride. It was an unfamiliar sensation. Films often leave me in awe, or tears, or deep thought. For the first time, I grinned not only because of a joke itself but more so due to its striking resemblance to the ones I had heard too many times in eighth grade.

But “Dìdi (弟弟)” isn’t only for people who grew up in Fremont. Chris’s experiences transcend the Bay Area and Asian American communities. They capture the crux of adolescence: shouldering uncertainty that feels insurmountable in the moment and looking back to realize it was inconsequential.

Of course, Chris has a ways to go before internalizing the latter part of this lesson. Nonetheless, his story comforted me. Mirrors are mirrors for a reason: they make you examine yourself. Before, I avoided looking at photos and text conversations of my 13-year-old self. I could now uncover the memories with fondness and gratitude. In fact, I embraced the cringe, the laughter, the nostalgia, and the relief of having reached the other side. After all, I was not alone.

Rice & Spice spoke with director Sean Wang and lead actor Izaac Wang about the film “Dìdi (弟弟)” (this interview was edited for clarity).

R&S: From its casting to its set locations, “Dìdi (弟弟)” is homegrown. What decisions did you make as director and actor, respectively, to translate that authenticity to the big screen?

Sean Wang: One of the decisions we made was casting a lot of first-time, non-actor kids to bring a raw authenticity to the performances. We’re working in a genre that is a little oversaturated and does have a lot of tropes. We do try to subvert some of the tropes. If the movie is going right, our process should go left. What are the things that are going to be unique to this movie that no other movie can do? One of those is, let’s go find a bunch of kids who have never been in other movies before. Except Izaac. But he was the perfect balance of that. 

Izaac Wang: I think the most important thing is being organic and being yourself and being grounded. If [I] tried to do this film like an overexaggerated, angsty teen, that would have been weird and awkward to watch. I probably wouldn’t have been cast if I tried to do that. 

Sean, you’ve been working on this script for several years. How did your view of your adolescence evolve in that time span? 

SW: Writing this script forced me to look at my adolescence and helped me recontextualize, and understand, and unpack so many things from my adolescence. There’s a line in the movie where [the character] Madi says, “You’re cute for an Asian.” I know a lot of my friends have heard things like that before. I heard things like “You’re the coolest Asian” or “You’re the cutest Asian.” That’s recontextualizing something in my 20s. I was like, “That’s a little insidious.” It’s not really a compliment. But when you’re 13, it definitely is. It’s like, “She thinks I’m cute — I’ll take that.” There were so many things like that. Writing the script has forced me to look at certain things [from] an adult perspective and be like, “Interesting — that really shaped how I looked at the world and myself.”

You mentioned that this movie tries to subvert the tropes found in this genre. It’s one of the first major coming-of-age films with an Asian American lead. Izaac, as an Asian American teenager yourself, what does that mean to you?

IW: Like, a freaking lot. I don’t think you see a lot of movies nowadays with an Asian American teenager. This movie was in the making before the whole craze of “Crazy Rich Asians.” “Crazy Rich Asians” [came out in] 2018. You started making this movie…

SW: The year before that.

IW: This was the one of the first steps into that Asian American major film craze that’s been going on [recently], unless “Crazy Rich Asians” has been being written for, like, 20 years. Then Sean’s been outdone. There’s a lot of impact behind this movie. There are a lot of Asian American kids out there who want to be actors, and I even know a few of them. This is another step into a more diverse acting world.

SW: You see so many movies about teenagers. They’re casting 30-year-olds to play 17-year-olds. The reason people do that is [they’re] always looking for people who are bankable in this industry […] That’s why there are so few Asian actors. It’s so hard to have precedence before you've done anything. 

It was really amazing that we were able to have this cast of largely unknown Asian kids. All of these kids who never wanted to be in movies before now love acting, want to act, and they have our movie in parentheses on their resume. People will be like, “You were in that movie that went to Sundance, won Sundance, got bought by Focus.” You are now a proven actor that we can put money behind to go be in a movie. 

One of my producers, Josh [Peters], has these, I call them Joshisms. He always goes, “This is about lifting while you climb.” That, to me, is one of the most awesome things about this movie. Izaac is going to have this movie in parentheses. Raul [Dial] is going to have this movie in parentheses. Aaron [Chang] is going to have this movie in parentheses. They all want to keep acting. Hopefully, it widens the acting pool. And gives Izaac more competition. 

IW: Sean’s just making actor inflation. He’s just throwing more actors into the market.

What role did you want Fremont to play in this film? What impression do you want people to have of Fremont?

SW: This movie is a love letter to Fremont and that corner of the Bay Area. I really wanted it to feel understated in a way where it wasn’t trying to showcase the city in a way that was anything more than just, “This is where the story takes place.” Because the story takes place here, it needs to be a certain way. The population of Fremont, the cultural makeup of Fremont, all of that informs who the characters are and why the characters are the way they are. 

In recent years, San Francisco and Oakland [have] had sort of a resurgence of stories and films [coming] out of there. Fremont has largely been overlooked. I think the story that Fremont has to tell is maybe a little bit more quiet than the stories that are being made about our other barrier communities, but it’s no less emotional. You have to see it from the inside out. From the outside, it looks super boring. People are like, “Great, you have two Targets. That's awesome.” But when you look at it from the people, the stories, and the communities inside these deeply rooted immigrant bases, there are a lot of intimate, personal stories that you can dive into. You’re able to take those small local stories to explore very big national themes.

One of the main storylines in the movie is about the relationship between mother and son. You used paintings that your mom painted in the movie. As an artist herself, how has your mom supported you throughout your evolving creative journey?

SW: She’s the best. She’s never once swayed me away from pursuing this. She was hesitant when I was like, “I want to do this as a career now.” We never had that tiger mom clash. She was always very supportive and pushed me. Now, she reads my scripts. I send her rough cuts, and I send her music cues. I’ll ask her, “How does this feel?” She’ll be like, “It feels like a winter, sunny, like the snowfall of the…” I was like, “I don’t know if that’s what we’re going for.”

What do you hope Asian American adolescents uncertain about their future — people like Chris — take away from the film? 

SW: It gets better. Growing up isn’t easy. All the kids in the movie, the millennial generation, grew up to be people who are in their late 20s, early 30s, late 30s, 40s. You have perspective as you grow older and look back. You’re like, “Those things that I thought were life-defining [were] actually just a chapter.” It goes on and gets better.

IW: I agree with Sean. As long as you stay true to who you are and don’t get peer-pressured into doing dumb things, you’ll be fine.

“Dìdi (弟弟)” is in theaters everywhere, starting August 16. At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, it won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast. Watch the trailer here.