Didi (2024) Review

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Didi (2024) directed by Sean Wang narrates the story of Chris Wang struggling through adolescence as a Taiwanese teen growing up in California. Throughout the film, he learns to get along with his older sister who’s going off to college, he learns to make friends as an Asian American, and he learns to see his mom not as his mom, but as a person.

This story crafted Chris as a widely relatable character. Sometimes I wonder if my mom ever thinks about what she would be if her life had been different: She talks about how she used to hide under the blankets at night with a flashlight to read, how her dad threw away all her sketchbooks full of drawings so she could focus on studying. There were a few times where I didn’t speak to her for days where I think I hate her, or that she hates me. I always think my mom had to be destined for things greater than this, and I don’t think I’ll ever understand the fact that I am somehow part of her dream. I don’t think I ever completely shook off the shame I felt about myself from when I was in middle school: I didn’t want people to think I was Chinese, I didn’t like my last name, etc. Every once in a while I get the strong frustration that I wasn’t born at least half white. I wanted to connect with people the way other people did, but I was never cool enough, competent enough, nor good enough of a person. It all seems so stupid now, but what you were in middle school has to be the most awkward and vulnerable version of yourself that becomes fundamental to who you are. Didi completed this feeling by appealing to the older Gen Z generation through Y2K pop culture.

I’m really enjoying the increase in Asian diaspora movies. Not only is it personally relatable, everyone whom I know watched this movie related to it in some way. I wouldn’t have the guts to call it a “universally relatable” story, but if you went to a North American middle school, if you knew Paramore, MySpace… But it also appeals to specific audiences in a more intimate way. I laughed at one of the first scenes when the family was having dinner, the dialogue was exactly what my family would say, word for word. I understood the sentiments of growing up with a single mom. Even the title, 弟弟, “little brother”, exactly how I hear some Mandarin-speaking parents address their children. Being first/second generation diaspora means living a “third” identity where you don’t relate to your parents nor your peers, a frustration that’s also highlighted in the story. With movies like Didi, you’re in the theatres laughing and crying with everyone else, it feels like a chance to be understood.