Watched in the cinema (123rd visit in 2024)

Sean Wang knows a thing or two about family stories. In his first feature film "Dìdi", the director and screenwriter deals with his own family life. More specifically, he uses his own youth as a model and tells the story of what it means to grow up as the child of a Taiwanese immigrant family in the USA in the mid-2000s. One of his two grandmothers is even involved again, even though she plays the role of the other in the feature film - after all, she is ten years younger and therefore closer to the age she was at the time.

On the one hand, the film tells a very specific story that also functions as a portrait of the times. On the one hand, it is about the experience of growing up as the child of an immigrant family and being caught between two cultures. The language switches back and forth between English and Mandarin, even in the original. Even the title "Dìdi", the Chinese word for little brother, refers to this. Chris (Izaac Wang) would actually like to be like the others in his attempt to find a place for himself, and sometimes denies his origins. This is combined with elements that are associated with that time. Social media was still in its infancy, YouTube was not a pure algorithm machine, the internet was not yet associated with so much likes and hate. Older audiences who experienced this time themselves can look back on it with nostalgia.

At the same time, there's a very universal nature to a lot of it. When Chris struggles with every emoji in search of the perfect answer, searches for common ground with Madi (Macaela Parker), argues with his family or wants to be accepted by the older, cooler boys, you can find yourself in it completely detached from your own age. Much of the story could have been told in a similar way around 70 years ago. This is also one of the qualities that characterize "Dìdi": Sean Wang, who also wrote the screenplay, manages to bring this period between childhood and adolescence to life and make it palpable in a wondrous way. He shows the whole range of emotions and gives his characters the necessary nuances to make them truly human. On the one hand, it is easy to empathize with the boy who doesn't feel at home anywhere. But he also has enough bad qualities, for example when he brutally pushes his mother (Joan Chen) away.

It's also these family scenes that really get to you. The difficult relationships, when there is a lack of understanding for others, when people hurt each other without meaning to. But there are also moments of reconciliation, especially later on when Vivian (Shirley Chen), who is busy moving out, realizes how her brother is struggling with everything. Above all, however, the late rapprochement between mother and son is likely to bring a tear or two to the audience's eyes. The interplay between newcomer Izaac Wang and veteran Joan Chen works very well, combining emotionality and humor. The result is one of the most beautiful coming-of-age films of recent years, when Wang shows the ugly side of growing up with brutal honesty and at the same time celebrates the support that can be found in families and other character constellations.