I can’t believe we’re at the point where we can look back at 2008 with nostalgia, but apparently we are. I’m too old to be in that position myself, and if you feel the same way, I recommend watching the new film Dìdi with someone a little younger than you, because there’s a lot in this great film about teenage life in the 2000s, and you’ll miss a lot if you don’t have someone to point things out to you.
In the broadest sense, this movie is something we’ve seen before: a coming-of-age story about a teenager trying to figure out what direction he wants to take while navigating a frustrating family, girls, and his own bad choices, which are really just teenage choices and aren’t all that bad in the grand scheme of things. But it’s also funny and charming, and it’s important that people keep telling these stories, because every generation’s experience is a little different in the details.
I think that at least part of this film is autobiographical, as the film was directed by Sean Wang about a boy named Chris Wang who begins to get interested in camerawork and filmmaking. But the part that touched me the most is Wang’s treatment of Chris’ mother, played by Joan Chen, who is always welcome on my screen. Like anyone who has raised children, she has put aside many of her previous dreams to create new ones that involve her children, she has endured a whole lot, and she loves them like hell. She sees her children for who they are, even if that is annoying, and you can sense how exhausted and happy she is in general just by having them in her life. Dìdi may focus on Chris, but it devotes enough attention to his mother that it’s a nice addition to a film that would have been quite entertaining, but lighter without her.
Dìdi is in cinemas.
