By Amanda Gilmore
Dìdi (弟弟) is set in 2008. A time when it was common to AIM your crush, film YouTube videos with friends not for fame but for fun, and realize that Facebook is the best form to stealthily spy on your friends. It follows Dìdi (Isaac Wang in the summer before high school begins. This impressionable boy learns through his friends and family what it means to be a good friend, person, and most importantly a good son.
Writer-Director Sean Wang makes a striking Feature debut about coming-of-age during the onset of the ‘social’ internet. It’s an honest look at being an adolescent. A time when we were completely self-absorbed but weren’t aware of it. Dìdi, brought to the screen with a vibrant energy by newcomer Wang, is precisely at this stage. The stage of yearning to fit in while being selfish.
He wants to start dating his crush but is scared of his first kiss. He wants to film skateboard videos with a group of boys who’re older than him. Overall, he just wants what every 13-year-old wants: to belong. But while he’s doing everything he can to belong, he loses his connection to his family. A family with an ill grandmother, a sister moving away for college, and a mother (captivatingly performed by Joan Chen) who sacrificed everything for him.
The Ensemble is outstanding. It comes as no surprise they won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble. Dìdi (弟弟) is at its best when it focuses on the family dynamic, particularly between mother and son.
Dìdi (弟弟) is in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at this year’s festival. It won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Audience Award along with the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble.
Dìdi (弟弟) screens at Sundance ’24:
Jan 19 at 7:30 PM at The Ray Theatre
Jan 20 at 5:00 PM at Redstone Cinema – 1
Jan 21 at 1:45 PM at Broadway Centre Cinemas – 6
Jan 23 at 5:15 PM at Library Center Theatre
Jan 24 at 5:00 PM at Holiday Village Cinemas – 4
Jan 26 at 6:45 PM at Redstone Cinemas – 7
Online — Jan 25 – Jan 28
By Mr. Will Wong
Up-and-coming Filmmaker Sean Wang is a name to look-out for as evinced by his heartfelt and funny meditiation of life in NAI NAI & WAI PO (GRANDMA & GRANDMA). Wang returns home to visit his two paternal and maternal grandmothers who happen to live together, sleep together and are BFFs.
The Documentary Short, spanning 17 minutes begins as a festive reunion. The energy of their playful banter between the two women is infectious – fart jokes, “making it rain” and all. But as the Film progresses, we get glimpses into Wang’s grandmother’s past lives, which weren’t so easy. In Mandarin-Chinese, they speak on widowhood, not having necessities during times of war and looking back at photo albums to remember what they looked like. The underlying theme though is an appreciation of the now and getting to spend time with their grandson, and this could their last time together.
So many emotions, affecting, sweet and self-reflective. And incredibly timely as American Cinema continues to experience an renaissance of the Asian-American experience right now. Wang leaves us wanting more and we get why right away he felt it was a great idea to document these fascinating and endearing women who happen to be his two grandmothers.
NAI NAI & WO PO is not to be missed. It screens at SXSW ’23 as follows:
Mar 12, 2023
2:15pm — 3:46pm
Mar 16, 2023
6:45pm — 8:16pm
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