Focus Features has released the newest trailer for the Sundance darling “Dìdi (弟弟).” Directed by Sean Wang, “Dìdi (弟弟)” is a coming-of-age film for anyone who’s ever been a teenager or is on the verge of being one.
“Dìdi (弟弟)” is no ordinary coming-of-age story, but one that distinguishes itself with its cultural specificities. In it, we see how a 13-year-old Chris or Wang Wang as his friends call him navigates the challenges of being a teenager and meeting certain expectations from his family and community, all the while discovering his identity.
Switching back and forth from English to Taiwanese languages is an important choice as it reflects on the experience of the first generation immigrants who emigrate to America to achieve the American dream. The fact that they use this also helps to capture Wang’s story with authenticity and adds a certain level of interest as we get to see the story unfold through their perspective and use their voice in their way.
The overall troublemaking, from stuffing mailboxes with fireworks to the peer pressures of underage drinking and fighting with his older sister, are just some of the things we can all relate to, but it gets even more specific when Chris and his mom are at a restaurant with another mother and her son Max. Though Max’s mom praises her son’s 4.0 GPA, Chris’s mom is proud of her son’s creativity—even though that may not mean much to others.
Set against MGMT’s “Kid’s”, the trailer teases a lot of Chris going through the motions of being a teenager – learning how to kiss and film skateboarding videos on youtube, while also trying to figure out how to tell he likes a girl – we see inklings of his softer side. Shots of Chris filming his grandmother telling her that she is beautiful and that she loves him are intercut inbetween him asking his mother if she is ashamed of him and her responding that he is her dream but that he can make it difficult sometimes.
At its premiere in competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival DÌDI (弟弟) received critical and audience acclaim, winning both the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble Cast.
The film also stars Shirley Chen, Chang Li Hua, Raul Dial, Aaron Chang, Mahaela Park, Chiron Cilia Denk, Montay Boseman, Sunil Mukherjee Maurillo, Alaysia Simmons, Alysha Syed, Georgie August and Joan Chen.
Dìdi (弟弟) is written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sean Wang. The film is set in 2008 in the Bay Area, and is a funny, irreverent, and affecting ode to first-generation teenagers navigating the joy and chaos of adolescence as seen through the lens of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy, played by Izaac Wang (Good Boys, Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon).
Here’s the official plot synopsis for “Dìdi (弟弟):”
In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.
