Didi

Sean Wang's directorial debut is sweet if slightly scattered

Coming-of-age stories are go-to material for first-time directors. It allows them to deliver an authenticity to their journey in becoming artists as well as using hyper-specific memories that prove universally relatable. Sean Wang has chosen this common theme for his feature directing debut, Didi (2024).

Didi follows Chris Wang (Izaac Wang) on the summer of 2008 before his first year in high school. We see as he hangs out with his prankster friends, develops his first crush, and becomes enamored filming skateboarding tricks with some older kids. Chris also struggles with his identity as a Taiwanese-American, feeling ashamed and frustrated at the cultural disconnect he finds in his mother (Joan Chen) and grandmother (Zhang Li Hua), and finding little solace in his irritable sister (Shirley Chen).

Didi follows the similar beat and tropes of films such as mid90s (2018) and Eighth Grade (2018), and just as with those two films, viewers are increasingly seeing retrospective and nostalgic look into the 1990s and 2000s, making Young Critic start to feel old. We get uses of AOL instant messenger as the source of much drama, MySpace pages doling exposition, and YouTube proving the crux of Chris’ visual ambitions.

As with other films in its genre, Didi also approaches its structure with vignettes and sequences rather than a set narrative. However, while mid90s and Eighth Grade jumped around the happenings of their subjects, there was a common throughline in their motivation. Didi is more unfocused, largely due to Wang’s ambition to include many disparate arcs. Conflicts with friends, artistic awakenings, and romantic troubles crowd each other out for attention, leaving an intermittent and wispy resolution for each and watering down their emotional impact. The familial element of Didi is its strongest, with Wang showing the imperfections of various family members, yet understanding that their actions come from a place of hurt or love. It is in Wang’s dissection of Chris’ mom or the hints of sibling love that Didi proves richest.

The young Izaac Wang (no relation to the director) proves to be a gem of a performer, inhabiting the quieter moments of Chris’ troubles with a transparency and poignancy inexistent in many young performers of today. One could easily believe that Didi was a documentary following its protagonist around, such is the organic nature of Wang’s performance. Likewise, Chen as the mother is another standout, giving such a restrained performance that one is astounded at how much conflict and emotion she holds within her stillness.

In the end, Didi is a sweet and nostalgic coming-of-age film hitting all the classic marks of angst, hope, and fun. The film loses some of its tightness and clarity by cramming one too many arcs within its narrative, but thankfully the strong family storyline alongside spectacular lead performances make Didi a true delight.

7.9/10