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Dìdi

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Dìdi
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySean Wang
Written bySean Wang
Produced by
  • Sean Wang
  • Josh Peters
  • Carlos López Estrada
  • Valerie Bush
Starring
CinematographySam A. Davis
Edited byArielle Zakowski
Music byGiosue Greco
Production
companies
Distributed byFocus Features
Release dates
  • January 19, 2024 (2024-01-19) (Sundance)
  • July 26, 2024 (2024-07-26) (United States)
Running time
91 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • Mandarin
Box office$5.1 million[2]

Dìdi (Chinese: 弟弟; lit. 'Younger Brother') is a 2024 American coming-of-age comedy drama film, written, directed, and produced by Sean Wang in his directorial debut. The film stars Izaac Wang and Joan Chen. Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters and Chris Columbus serve as producers and executive producers under their AntiGravity Academy, Spark Features and Maiden Voyage Pictures banners, respectively. The film portrays Chris, a Taiwanese-American eighth grader (Wang) at the dawn of social media. Chris uses social media as an escape from his underwhelming childhood and overburdened mother (Chen), but the Internet also accentuates his preexisting feelings of Asian self-hatred and personal inadequacy.

Dìdi had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2024, where it won the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic and U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble.[3] It was released in the United States by Focus Features on July 26, 2024.

Plot

[edit]

In the summer of 2008, 13-year-old Chris Wang (often called Di Di) lives in a middle-class neighborhood of Fremont, California, with his mother Chungsing, Chungsing's demanding mother-in-law Nai Nai,[a] and his older sister Vivian. Chungsing, Nai Nai, and Chris' father are Taiwanese immigrants. Chris rarely sees his father, who has moved back to Taiwan for work and supports the family in America with remittances. Chris constantly bickers with Vivian, who is about to leave for UC San Diego. He is not one of the popular kids at school. He makes silly YouTube videos with best friends Fahad and Soup, which incorporate a great deal of juvenile humor.

Chris's behavior and feelings of inadequacy begin to strain his relationships. Chris uses AIM and Facebook to strike up a friendship with his crush, the half-Asian Madi. When they go on a date, she reveals internalized racism and tells Chris he is attractive "for an Asian." She tries to initiate a sexual encounter, but Chris is too nervous to continue. Although Madi tries to reach out after the incident, he is too embarrassed to speak to her and blocks her on AIM. During a group hangout with Fahad, Chris disgusts Fahad's African-American crush by cracking a casually misogynistic joke and luridly describing how he and Fahad once fooled around with a dead squirrel. Fahad decides to distance himself from Chris, lest his crush realize that Fahad's sense of humor is similarly immature. When Fahad demotes him from his "top eight friends" list on MySpace,[b] Chris is devastated.

Chris begins to realize that his mother is under great stress. Chungsing and Chris have dinner with another Taiwanese mother and her son, Max. The mother makes Chungsing ashamed that Vivian did not get into Berkeley or UCLA. Chungsing criticizes Chris' academics in front of Max, hoping the humiliation will motivate him to study harder. At the mother's suggestion, Chungsing sends Chris to a cram school, where Max's friend Josh ruthlessly bullies him. In addition, although Nai Nai is warm and grandmotherly to Chris, she frequently criticizes Chungsing's parenting and negatively compares her to her absent son. Chris overhears Chungsing lose her temper and threaten to send Nai Nai back to Taiwan. Finally, Chungsing is disappointed that her submission to a local painting competition has been rejected.

Chris sees an opportunity to become cool when a trio of older skateboarders recruit him to film highlight reels for them. Still smarting from Madi's comment that he is cute for an Asian, he tells the skateboarders (who are white and African-American) that he is half-Asian. They take him to a party where he tries alcohol and marijuana; when he gets sick, Vivian covers for him. Before Vivian leaves for college, the siblings reconcile. The skateboarders visit Chris' home and find his footage unusable. Chungsing, unaware of Chris' deception, greets the skateboarders and reveals that Chris is not half-Asian. Chris angrily berates his mother to get her to leave. The other boys are shocked to see Chris treat his mother rudely, leaving in disapproval.

At cram school, Chris hits Josh after Josh mocks him for his failed date with Madi. Chris is nearly expelled. In the car back home, Chris yells at Chungsing, calling her a failed artist who does not contribute to the family. Chungsing bitterly responds that Chris is an embarrassment to the family and that she might have been a successful painter if Vivian and Chris had never been born. Chris runs away from home for a night. When Chris returns home, Chungsing conciliates him by recounting how Vivian also ran away from home when she was 14 and that as much as she likes to paint, her children are her true dream.

On the first day of high school, Chris attempts to reconcile with Madi after months of ignoring her. She rebuffs him to save face, although it is implied that she is still interested in him. He joins a club for visual arts, and Fahad nods hello when Chris greets him. Chungsing picks up Chris from school, and he tells her about his day.

Cast

[edit]
  • Izaac Wang as Chris Wang
  • Shirley Chen as Vivian Wang
  • Chang Li Hua as Nai Nai
  • Joan Chen as Chungsing Wang
  • Raul Dial as Fahad Mahmood
  • Aaron Chang as Jimmy "Soup" Kim
  • Mahaela Park as Madi
  • Chiron Denk as Donovan
  • Sunil Maurillo as Cory
  • Montay Boseman as Nugget
  • Georgie August as Georgia
  • Jayden Chiang as Max
  • Spike Jonze as Dead Squirrel
  • Stephanie Hsu as Kissing Tutorial Instructor
  • Alaysia Simmons as Ellie

Production

[edit]

Principal photography took place in July 2023 in Fremont, California.[5] The film consists mostly of first-time actors from the Bay Area.[6] The film was previously selected for the 2023 Sundance Institute Screenwriting & Directors Lab and the 2022 SFFILM Rainin Grant.[7][8]

Release

[edit]

Dìdi had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2024.[9] A few days later, Focus Features acquired distribution rights to the film.[10] It also screened at South by Southwest on March 12, 2024,[11][12] and had its international premiere at the Beijing International Film Festival on April 19, 2024.[13][14] It closed the 11th edition of Sundance London on June 9, 2024.[15] It had a limited theatrical release in the United States on July 26, 2024.[16] It was released in all theaters on August 16, 2024.

Critical reception

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 120 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "A semi-autobiographical love letter to teenage angst that's also slyly self-critical, Dìdi is a deeply moving personal statement by writer-director Sean Wang." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

In her review for The Guardian, Adrian Horton described Dìdi as "easily one of the best, most seamless films [she's] seen on the experience of growing up online" and declared that it has a "clear antecedent" in Eighth Grade (2018).[17]

Accolades

[edit]
Award Date of ceremony Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Sundance Film Festival January 26, 2024 Grand Jury Prize – U.S. Dramatic Dìdi Nominated [18]
Audience Award – U.S. Dramatic Won
Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble The cast of Dìdi [c] Won
Southwest Film & TV Festival March 16, 2024 Audience Award: Festival Favorite Dìdi Nominated [19]
Seattle International Film Festival May 27, 2024 Best Director Sean Wang Runner-up [20]
Grand Jury Prize – Best Feature Film Dìdi Nominated
Youth Jury Prize for Best Futurewave Feature Nominated
Munich International Film Festival July 5, 2024 CineKindl Audience Award Won [21]
Miskolc International Film Festival September 14, 2024 Emeric Pressburger Prize (Best Feature Film) Nominated [22]
Celebration of Cinema and Television November 12, 2024 Career Achievement Award Joan Chen Won [23]
Gotham Awards December 2, 2024 Breakthrough Performer Izaac Wang Pending [24]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Chinese for "paternal grandmother."
  2. ^ A real feature of the website.[4]
  3. ^ Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen and Chang Li Hua

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Dìdi". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on January 16, 2024. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  2. ^ "Dìdi". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  3. ^ Buchanan, Kyle (January 26, 2024). "'In the Summers,' a Father-Daughters Tale, Wins the Top Prize at Sundance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
  4. ^ Ross, Amanda (April 24, 2017). "I miss the era in which we were forced to savagely rank our best friends online". The Tab US. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  5. ^ Lavalee, Eric (July 19, 2023). "Fremont Flirt: Sean Wang Begins Production on Sundance-Labbed "Dìdi"". ION Cinema. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  6. ^ Spicer, Lucy (January 8, 2024). "Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Sean Wang, the Writer-Director of "Dìdi (弟弟)"". Sundance Film Festival. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  7. ^ "Meet the 2022 SFFILM Rainin Grant Winners". SFFILM. August 22, 2022. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  8. ^ "Meet the Sundance Institute 2023 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Lab Fellows". Sundance Film Festival. April 27, 2023. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  9. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony; Patten, Dominic (December 6, 2023). "Sundance Unveils Packed 2024 Lineup That Includes A.I., Pedro Pascal, Kristen Stewart, Satan, Devo & Steven Yeun". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 11, 2024. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  10. ^ Lang, Brent; Rubin, Rebecca (January 31, 2024). "Focus Features Buys Sundance Coming-of-Age Movie 'Didi'". Variety. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  11. ^ "Didi". South by Southwest. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
  12. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 7, 2024). "SXSW 2024 Second Wave Includes Pics With Sydney Sweeney, Nicolas Cage, Camila Mendes & 'Monkey Man'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
  13. ^ "准备好了吗？北京展映排片表来了，内含重大福利！" [Are you ready? The Beijing screening schedule is here, with great benefits!]. Beijing International Film Festival (in Chinese). Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  14. ^ "错过就不再！这届电影节最珍稀的放映，居然还有票？！" [Don't miss it! The rarest screening of this year's film festival, there are still tickets available? !]. Beijing International Film Festival (in Chinese). Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  15. ^ Ramachandran, Naman (April 4, 2024). "'Kneecap,' 'Dìdi' to Bookend Sundance London". Variety. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  16. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 14, 2024). "Focus Features Sets Summer Release For Sundance Award Winner 'Didi'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  17. ^ Horton, Adrian (January 26, 2024). "Dìdi review – a tender, specific rendering of adolescence on the early internet". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved February 5, 2024.
  18. ^ "AwardsWatch - 2024 Sundance Film Festival Awards: 'In the Summers, 'Didi,' 'Daughters' Top Winners". AwardsWatch. January 26, 2024. Retrieved January 27, 2024.
  19. ^ Zee, Michaela (March 14, 2024). "'Bob Trevino Likes It,' 'Monkey Man' Lead SXSW Film & TV Festival Audience Awards". Variety. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  20. ^ Carson, Lexi (May 19, 2024). "Seattle International Film Festival Awards Top Honors to 'Sing Sing,' 'Gloria!'". Variety. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  21. ^ "It's raining awards!". www.filmfest-muenchen.de. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
  22. ^ "The 20th Anniversary Edition of CineFest Miskolc IFF Ready to Take Off". FilmNewEurope. August 31, 2024. Retrieved September 15, 2024.
  23. ^ Hammond, Pete (September 26, 2024). "Critics Choice Association Sets Dates For Celebrations Awards Shows; Tyler Perry, Zoe Saldaña, Joan Chen First Honorees". Deadline. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  24. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (October 29, 2024). "Gotham Awards Nominations: 'Anora' Leads Pack, 'Challengers' & 'Nickel Boys' Among Group Up For Best Feature". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 29, 2024.
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