Didi is such a trip down memory lane back to 2008, perfect capture of the weird in between time when we were moving from analog to digital life, the early days of social media and all the awkwardness of being a teenager in that era hit me right in the face. For anyone who is from 35 to 40 at the moment this movie will bring so many memories and now I realize why technology was so special back then than now, its because it was slow and not mobile, that been the case it was harder to enjoy and mostly real geeks were into it, I was part of a group of friends who were always online when at home, learning about computers, software, sharing hardware, going to LAN parties when it was a big deal. The movie is from an era that bring all those memories.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30319503/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
Directed by Sean Wang, the story develops Chris Wang, a 13 year old Taiwanese American kid in his last summer before high school in Fremont, California. That specific moment in time when Facebook was absolutely taking over MySpace, YouTube was trying to figure out what it was doing, and we spent hours crafting the perfect AIM message to our crushes, in my opinion the movie does that perfectly. It's crazy how much the movie nailed all these small little details that were our digital lives back then, Chris doing all these things to impress his crush Madi on Facebook and those cringey statuses that we all used to post.
Not that I know anything about been Asian or I'm from the Bay, but I think the movie pulls off the perfect balance of the experience of being a teenager and the specific cultural experience of being Asian American kid. The story isn’t trying to be preachy or something big on identity, it just tells life as it was, messy and complicated and sometimes really stupid, but always real and raw as it use to be. Chris and his mom Chungsing lives with his college bound sister Vivian and his grandmother Nai Nai and his dad works in Taiwan to support the family.
The whole vibe of the movie makes you feel like you were all trying to figure out who we are online and offline as we were back then, makes me remember when we thought having the right song on MySpace profile would make us look cool? Or spending hours on picking the perfect profile picture. Didi brings all that and then the real world family drama, friend group stuff and how not to look like a complete moron in front of your crush.
Chris is this perfect mix of trying too hard and not trying at all, lie about being half Asian to seem cooler, pretend to know about movies he's never seen and trying to be a skateboarding videographer, while he hasn't a clue what he's doing. The movie doesn’t judge him for all his mess ups and bad decisions and I guess at that point in life we all did similarly cringe stuff, we all had those moments and without knowing better well things just sort of happen, its called getting experience in life.
Izaac Wang who played the role of Chris Wang brings a lot of authenticity as he seem so natural, during the movie there will be moments where you’ll both want to high five him and then slap him to smack some sense into him. Another highlight of the movie is Joan Chen as his mom Chungsing is just incredible in these quiet moments where you can she is trying to connect with Chris, I'm a parent with two kids about to become teenagers soon and I can only imagine how hard it must be to be in her position, when talking is just not enough then what do you do?. I think Chris and Chungsing have such good chemistry, especially in their arguments which are so real because they are not extreme but do get to that point to hit memories when a lot of viewers connect, remember when as teenager arguing with their parents.
What I personally like the most about the movie is how natural Chris mess up looks and feel, specially with his friends and relation with everyone else around him, for example those moments when they all hanging together saying and doing stupid things, but then in contrast when things don't go as Chris plan he feels like he might need better friends, other friends. The movie also highlight his relationship with his sister Vivian who is annoying and obnoxious for him but latter on down the road she becomes very close to him, someone he can be with, someone he can relate to, specially when things get rough at home.
The ending of the movie is not your standard wrap everything up and everyone life happy for ever, things just get a bit easy for everyone. There is Chris still working out stuff starting high school, but now at least he knows who he is and what really matters after all his ups and downs. He finally stops trying to be someone he is not, especially with his new skater friends and you can see him start to accept himself more. But the way the movie handles his relationship with his mom at the end is one of the best aspects; I'm really bias into this movie probably because of my age, many things I like about and keep repeating. Its just great that Chris and Chungsing start learning to understand each other better even if they can't quite overcome the differences between them. Another important aspect is how finally he doesn’t reject everything about his Taiwanese heritage but embrace his heritage while still being his own person, it's not perfect and that’s the reason it feels so real.
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