Sean Wang’s directorial debut film Dìdi was the closing film of Sundance London Film Festival 2024. Ahead of its UK cinematic release, Katie Smith-Wong sits down with Wang to talk about the film.
There have been a lot of Asian-led narratives in the last few years, most of which are from all kinds of different genres. How does Dìdi stand out in terms of how it explores Asian identity amongst Asian Americans?
I think what I wanted to try to do with this movie, especially as it pertains to identity and Asian identity, was to almost make a movie that explores identity without making it an identity movie. I think, when you’re 13, you just don’t have that perspective and so, we do talk a lot about this feeling of ambivalence that I think permeates throughout the movie – we’re talking about identity now, 15 years from when that movie takes place, because those conversations were happening back then.
The hope with our movie that I want to get across is that it’s not essentially a movie about an Asian American – it is more like an Asian American movie. Therefore, all the themes that it explores identity are a result of the character being an Asian American kid and what does that mean. I think it always had to come out of the character first more than it came out of wanting to explore any sort of theme of identity.
You mentioned a lot of things related to identity but there’s a lot of sensitive topics that are explored in Dìdi such as casual racism and micro-aggressions from other characters. With that mind, what kind of thematic elements did you want to prioritise in terms of exploring this?
Our movie takes place in the late 2000s and I really wanted to make an honest portrait of Asian American boyhood. I do think that an honest portrait is a messy portrait – if we were going to explore the joys and adolescence, especially during that time, and, and the pains of adolescence within his own character, we had to do that on every level.
We had to show the ugly sides of what culture was like at the time, too. I do feel like he is a victim of casual racism that was just sort of prevalent of how kids talked back then. But he’s also saying things that are not correct, especially in today’s standards, and so it was an honest depiction of what the culture was like that and realising, with 2024 eyes: “Oh, we had to unlearn so much from that time”, and learning to be a little kinder to your younger selves.
I think the kids who grew up to be people like me, who are now in their late 20s – early 30s, can look back and be like: “Oh, that was weird. That was not chill. That was toxic”. But the kids in the movie don’t know that, so we wanted to make sure we didn’t make a revisionist history movie – we want it to be really hyper honest and specific.
Given the sensitivity of what is being explored in Dìdi, how did the younger cast actually take to it?
I still go to the skate park, and kids still say things that they shouldn’t be saying. But the kids in our movie are 13-15 years old, they grew up with smartphones, they have seen and been introduced to and are around this culture, so there’s nothing in our movie that is new to them.
I think, more than anything, it was my job and our job as a production, especially on days when it was like the kids and they would improv to create the space where people are gonna say certain things on set today that are in the script, and they are not okay – we weren’t giving them a pass.
When we’re not rolling, we’re not staying on script with this kind of stuff. Like, this is not a pass just say these things like, this is not correct. But again, they are reading our script and think: “Oh, my God, kids used to talk like that, like, they hear that stuff all the time. Today, it’s probably way more only worse,” but we weren’t introducing them to anything that they hadn’t already seen.
Why base it in the early 2000s? I read that the cast didn’t have much experience texting with feature phones and this was before the days of social media, so why base it during this time.?
I was 13 in 2008 so it felt personal, but it also felt like an opportunity. I think all the things from that era, whether it was the music, skating, or the technology, I never felt like any movie that was made during that time captured that time in a way that felt accurate and representative of what I remember that time to be like.
Movies that were made in the late 2000s never starred people who looked like me or talked like me or my friends. They never got the internet right, because by the time we learned how to integrate the Internet to the stories that we were telling, the internet had completely changed. The way that we talked online and what programmes we used had completely changed, like two years ago, we were not on TikTok, and things move so fast nowadays. So I think it just felt like an opportunity – it was personal and I knew it like the back of my hand.
The film allowed us to revisit this time and actually show it in a way that I think hasn’t been done accurately before. And the generation of people who grew up during that time can then look at it and be like: “Whoa, how come no movie has captured that generation like this” – it’s because we didn’t know how to then.
So this is your first feature film, following your Oscar nominated short. There were a lot of personal touches in Dìdi – it was filmed in your childhood bedroom, your grandmother’s in the film, and your mom’s paintings are in it. How does it feel to see your childhood on screen?
Honestly, I don’t know. It’s weird and surreal and special. And I’m sure when I look back at this entire experience, five years from now, it’ll hold a different meaning for me. But I think right now, I’m still too close to it all.
But I don’t even really look at it as my childhood – I look at it as a story and a movie inspired by my childhood, but I do think once I have a little bit more distance from this whole experience, it’ll hit me in a way that in the way that films do.
For instance, Nai Nai & Wài Pó was meant to be a time capsule of a very specific time. And now, three years after we shot it, I look at that movie, and it feels like a different time in my life. I think this movie will hold the same thing for me when five years from now, I look back at it and be like: “Whoa, it’s weird that my childhood bedroom – it’s just in this movie”.
There was one prominent relationship in the film, which is between Wang (Izaac Wang) and his mum (Joan Chen), with which their car journey conversations were incredibly resonant. How was it that dynamic between them, being two Asian actors of different generations and experiences of the industry?
Amazing. Honestly, I can’t even take any credit for it. We didn’t have any rehearsal time on this movie, especially between the two of them. You do the exercises in Google Slides and put your cast next to each other, and you think they look great together, and just hope it works.
The first scene that we shot with the two of them was the scene where they have that fight in the car – it was electric, and you could just tell that it was going to work. I think, in a way, it was great, because putting Izaac next to an actress like Joan really pushed and challenged him to be better.
What are your future plans?
I hope I get to sleep a little bit (laughs). I’m excited to keep making things and to explore other parts of my life that I’m excited about, and find other stories that excite me. I’m starting to work on the next thing that I’m writing, but I’m excited to be surprised by what I am excited about. Hopefully, this movie opens doors to get other things made. But you know, trying not to rush the next thing – if I’m not excited about it, I won’t make it.
Dìdi is out in UK cinemas on 2 August. Check out our review from Sundance Film Festival here.
