Of all the facets of adolescence in the digital age DIDI 弟弟 captures impeccably, the total blank stare on Chris’ (Isaac Wang) face as he scrolls through MySpace and AoL is quietly the most genius. Even in reaction to risky texts and awful updates, his eyes and face sit motionless, illuminated by the flicker of the screen.
Didi depicts its experiences realistically, often to the point of pain. Whether it’s “you’re cute for an Asian” or finding out you’re no longer one of your best friends’ best friends, Didi navigates the minefield that is being 13 masterfully, painting a holistic picture of Asian-American adolescence in the digital age. Filmed and set in his hometown, the story is based on his experiences as a teenager in Fremont, California. His own family’s dynamics are addressed, but not mirrored, on screen, and his own grandma is even seen in the film, playing a fictional version of herself.
Sean Wang had been working on Didi over a few years, but he hit double jeopardy in 2023 when his short film Nai Nai and Wài Pó was nominated for an Oscar the same weekend Didi was selected for premiere at Sundance. As a native of both the Bay Area and the nascent internet age, Didi’s exploration of adolescence, socio-racial dynamics, and the modern Confucian family is not necessarily autobiographical, but every aspect of Didi’s story reveals much about Wang’s own upbringing.
A few weeks after the international release of Didi, Sean Wang sat down to discuss the music of the Bay Area, the motivation his family provides, and the filmmakers who paved the way for Didi.
I have to start talking about the music of the movie, which is basically the emotional center. Was there any music that you had hoped to get into the film?
Sean: Let’s see, music that we couldn’t get to work out. I’d have to revisit some of my playlists. But there was a song- it was a scene that we ended up cutting anyway, but I really wanted a track by either Nujabes or Blue Scholars, something in that lo-fi hip-hop world. Then, something that was a proper Bay Area hyphy track, whether it’s like Mac Dre or something but otherwise I think we got most of the things I wanted to get in the movie.
I want to ask you the significance of the Myspace top song, and also in tandem with the Myspace Top 8 friends. As someone who didn’t necessarily have that experience. What’s the social significance of both of those factors?
I would say, it’s almost just translating things that are universal. Friendships, social hierarchy, where you are in a given space, how your friends see you, how you see your friends. I think that was all being thrust in the public eye with MySpace at that time. The themes and the emotions of it are as old as life and storytelling goes, but hopefully, putting it in the context of a MySpace Top 8 felt specific to our movie, and also specific to a generation that I felt like I had never seen in a movie. So it felt like, you know, let’s try to capture that.
As far as the MySpace song, that was just part of MySpace, and it’s part of shaping your identity and who you are. It’s also just ingrained into my memory, like people’s MySpace songs, and what it says about them. The fact that you go on someone’s MySpace page and you immediately have to click pause because it starts blasting at you. It’s trying to capture a feeling that was hopefully Just within the world of our movie.
I want to shift a little more to the physical locale. As someone who grew up in the Bay area, I recognized a lot of physical scenery in the movie, I really appreciated that GolfLand inclusion. But something I also recognized was the social and the cultural scenery. One thing that stood out to me was these friends of Wang Wang who were dishing out the “you’re cute for an Asian.” These kids aren’t white themselves. The kind of internalized self-hatred depicted in the film is clearly not in contrast to whiteness. What would you say these kids are drawing from?
Hopefully, the movie just describes it in a way that’s felt and not explicitly commented on, but I remember when people would say to me, “you’re the whitest Asian I know,” because of the things I was interested in, like skating, the way I dress, or punk, pop punk, and emo music. I think when you hear things like you’re cool for an Asian, you’re cute for an Asian, you’re the cutest Asian, stuff like that, what the other person is inherently saying is that you’re good for the lower tier. Inherently, there’s a hierarchy of what they’re saying, and I don’t think you can really unpack that, for me, until I entered my twenties.
I think what I was trying to capture in the movie was, what does it feel like to be an outsider among outsiders? For all these kids, there was no positive representation. What does the world say of these kids, versus the world that they live in, and where does cultural imbalance happen? I think it is striving to be some version- I don’t know if it’s necessarily whiteness, but something other than the thing that you are, because of what the world says you are.
As someone who was also into certain subcultures that very few people in the Bay Area really appreciate as growing up. I very much recognize myself and Wang, and the moments that he’s jumping to spend time with people who also “get it.” Was that aspect of the film autobiographical? Did you see the Bay Area somewhere that just didn’t align with your interest?
No! I think the Bay Area, if anything, was so aligned with my interests. Skating was huge in the Bay area. San Jose wasn’t that far from me and that was a big skating hub. I remember being really obsessed with San Jose growing up, and my friends were like, “Why are you so obsessed with San Jose?” I was like, “no, you don’t get it, the Enjoi team is from here!” And then obviously, San Francisco.
Even the music that me and my friends listened to. Obviously, the hyphy scene originated from adjacent cities, and there’s a big underground hip hop scene that my friends introduced to me a little bit more, like Hieroglyphics and that world of music. There was also a very local underground punk music scene, and obviously San Francisco would bring a lot of touring bands there, and so I would go to the city to go to venues like Slim’s. My first show was at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. So no, I never felt ostracized for my interest. If anything, it was all there and it was accessible. The labels that got put on me for having certain interests, I would then question, kind of like what I said when people were like “you’re super white for an Asian.” I wasn’t chasing that label just because of the things that I was into, and the things that I was into were accessible to me so I never felt ostracized by it.
You took a fairly nontraditional route to your current success. Two years at [local community college] De Anza and then 2 years at USC. You’ve said that, during this time, you didn’t necessarily have any examples to follow. Was it difficult to picture your path forward, in the Bay as an Asian American making film? Was there ever any doubt during this process, either internally or externally.
I think doubt is just a part of the process. Even if you had filmmakers that you looked up to, everyone’s roadmap is a little bit different. You’re gonna find your own way, and ultimately, pave your own way. I think in the early years- I mean, I’m still young. It’s still early years- but I don’t know that there was necessarily more than “I like this enough, and I care about this thing enough.” I spend 16-18 hours a day just thinking about it and trying to do some version of it, and it brings me a lot of joy, and I get excited about it. It was just trusting that if I feel this, and this feeling never goes away, I trust that some version of it will work out. And it’s worked out so far.
Turning this to your mother, she seems to have almost been your biggest supporter through this journey, and it’s depicted. throughout the film. This kind of support for the arts in the Asian community, especially one as risky as filmmaking is pretty unheard of. How has her support in both your adult career and your youth shaped your outlook of your perspective of your craft?
Just the fact that she didn’t derail me from being interested in it, it was a huge blessing, and again she’s a painter herself, so I think she saw something and was excited about the fact that I was excited about something. She saw how excited it made me, and it’s not like I was going out and doing super sketchy things. I was going out and skating and making videos. It’s not like I had a High School Musical moment where my parents were like, do this or that, and you have to pick. She never forced me to go in any one direction, or obviously there were concerns. But it never got to a point where it was “you can’t do this, you have to go do something else.” In that sense I’m very grateful she gave me the space to let me figure it out.
One of the best moments of the film is following party, which I think highlights the dynamic between Wang Wang and his sister, who’s 4 years older. You yourself have a sister of that same age gap, what was her having a role model so much older than you, at least when you’re 16? How does that shape your cares and interests over time?
I think just having an older sibling; as an impressionable kid, everyone looks up to the older people around them. My older sister and my closest family friends here were all older than me. My cousins in the States were all older than me, so I think when you’re young, especially at that age, there was a lot of just imitation and literally trying on different clothes and identities that were shaped by them and looking at what the older, cooler kids were doing. Then you start finding your own interests in your own things that feel like you.
I think that’s kind of where Chris finds himself. Literally in the beginning of the movie, he’s trying on his sister’s clothes and different clothes. And the whole movie has him trying on different identities until he finds the things that click for him. I think it’s just having an older figure in your life that helps you figure things out and has your back. I think it’s really important.
One part of the film I really loved to see depicted was the dynamic between Nai-Nai and his mom. I think the film’s most important moment was the argument they had. Hashing that kind of stuff out to your mother-in-law- threatening to kick her out, that’s almost marital suicide. That’s an insane conversation to have with your in-law. What was your intent behind the subplot?
I think [it was] the different cultural and generational standards. You have three generations under one house. Having them each have their own respective point of views on the correct way to raise a child, or just the correct way to live your life, is inherently interesting. Trying to see where those worlds clash and overlap was the thing that I was trying to mine and explore.
Fundamentally, it is always really brilliant for me to see Asian-America depicted on screen, but for you, there must be a lot of pressure that comes with that. Being the first or even one of the first to anything is scary, but I wouldn’t be surprised if in ten, twenty years a filmmaker in your position credits you the same way you credit Spike Jonze , and Stand By Me. Is this legacy something you’re thinking about?
I don’t know that I think about it, necessarily, but I’m also not the first. I’m definitely writing and standing on the shoulders of filmmakers that inspire me. Obviously Spike, but like Lulu Wong and Aneesh Chaganty, and this wave of filmmakers that I have the privilege of getting to look up to. The Daniels are my heroes, both of those filmmakers I discovered in my late teens. That was really big for me to just see Asian American filmmakers making work that really spoke to me, and was meaningful for me, without doing anything other than make work that was meaningful to them. I think the most powerful forms of representation for me in that space, again, were filmmakers like Daniels and Hiro [Murai]. You look at the work that inspired me. It wasn’t things that were explicitly about cultural identity. They were just making things that were personal to them and that really spoke to me in a big way, and inspired me. I think the hope is to not think about it and make stuff that is meaningful to me. And hopefully, the people who see the world similarly, can find something in it for them.
Didi (弟弟) is available in theaters and digitally via Focus Features