Dìdi (弟弟) Director Sean Wang Just Made One Of The Best Coming Of Age Skate Films We’ve Seen In A While
Capturing the intense aimlessness of being a teenager when everything and nothing is happening simultaneously is an extremely hard thing to do in fiction and on film.
The same goes for accurately portraying skating. Or anything that you really have to be in to fully understand to do it in a way that isn’t cliche, lame, making fun or minimising the experience. But Dìdi (弟弟) the coming of age film by Sean Wang does it all right. Painfully and beautifully so, just as growing up is. From the embarrassment of your first crush to the specificities of spelling some words right but not others to the ever changing top eight of your MySpace friends - this is a film that stirs an emotional response across the whole spectrum. There isn’t a summary that would do the brilliance of this film justice, you just need to watch it. Monster Children approved. Even Spike Jonez approved. Here’s our chat with Sean following the US release.
Hey Sean.
Hi Sam, good to meet you.
How are you going?
I’m good, it’s been a day.
Been a day? My day is only just getting started and it’s already been a day.
I have this little tech deck that I’ve been messing around with in between all my meetings keeping me sane.
Custom Dìdi tech deck that is so sick.
I have to ask before we start but you know Kevin Duffel?
Yeah - that was actually one of my questions because I see it’s an associate producer on Didi. He worked with us at Monster Children for five years. Such a lord. How do you know him?
Kevin is a dear friend of mine. I used to work at The Berrics - a skate media site and park. I worked there for about a year between 2015-2016 while Kevin was the editor there. He was the one that would watch all of my cuts that I would make for the site. So I met him there and then over the course of the last decade we would always cross paths every now and then. A friend of mine would have a meeting with him and he’d text me being like ‘dude I just met so and so.’ He’s always been really kind and supportive. When we were prepping the movie, looking to clear a lot of the skate brands we went through traditional avenues and the production team found a lot of them weren’t responding so I just texted Kevin being like ‘Hey it’s Sean I’m working on my first movie,’ and within half an hour every single skate brand was cleared, and even going on to send us so many boxes of stuff. He really just went out of his way and made sure I was taken care of and became this guardian angel of the movie. I owe him so much so that’s why I wanted to put him on as an associate producer. So he was involved first as a friend but then also as so much more.
Aw we love Kevin and that sounds exactly like him, especially being able to hook you up with a couple phone calls. He’s the man.
Exactly.
Anyway, to jump into this. Even though I know it’s semi-autobiographical, from ideation to release - how long have you been working on Dìdi?
I had the idea for the movie seven years ago but it was a very simple idea asking what if I took a movie like Stand By Me and set it in a place that I know and have it star kids who look and talk and felt like me and my friends, which are the kids in this movie and write hyper specific to those characters? What does that do to the story by setting it in a suburb and starring different cultural backgrounds? Over the course of a few years I would take notes in between other projects and then I would write for a little bit and eventually I was like alright there’s something here. 2022 was when it became a real full time thing being like okay we’re making a movie let’s get this thing off the ground.
And with your writing process - I know you said you were working on other stuff in the initial stages but how did you make that work? Did you write before work or take time off?
Yeah well I was working in a team at Google called Creative Lab, a production company and ad agency set up in New York. While I was working there the idea was just kind of percolating in the back of my head. I’d jot ideas down on my notes app and then I would take a few weeks off and take those notes and write. It’s hard for me to write in between other things. I can direct and edit and all of that all at once but with writing I really need to dedicate a specific time to it, whether it's a week or two weeks. So I’d do that and just really sit with all the ideas, really get into that writer’s mindset. Take walks, daydream, all that. And when I would get stuck and lose inspiration I would just go back to work knowing that part of my brain with the movie is still going and then revisit it months and months later when I was inspired again.
“ I had a lot of Asian friends growing up and I saw a lot of myself in my world but I didn’t see myself in the world. Popular culture never had people look like me. And so what does that do to your immediate life? It does something strange and when you’re thirteen you can’t really articulate why. ”
Yeah wow. That gives me a lot of hope because I struggle with writing outside of work even though I have lots of ideas I want to work on. So thank you (laughs), I needed that inspiration. I want to ask as someone who is close in age to you - do you still feel like a kid yourself? And do you find it funny or weird at all that this movie is already being referenced as nostalgic? Like it’s crazy that we’re already at the point where there are era-specific references for someone who grew up in the 2000s even though it still feels like yesterday.
I definitely still feel like a kid. But working on this movie forced me to tap into the playful side of me that is always there. In a way I hope it is something that I never lose. To use filmmaking as a tool for play, I mean that’s why I got into it in the first place. Because it was fun right? The older I get though I realise that while I can still include that silly, joking part of it in my filmmaking I can also use it to confront deep, very human questions about love, relationships, and shame. It’s a container to really question deep things in life which is just as rewarding as the stupid jokes that make your friends laugh.
So true. A lot of your personal life is a part of this movie - your grandma, your house - was there any hesitation in bringing that into the film at all or were you just like this is going to add so much more authenticity than anything else?
There was hesitation for sure. I didn’t want to shoot in my own room. It felt too meta, close to home and self promoting so I didn’t love the idea but it worked creatively and logistically. But it was great set wise. And being in my room obviously felt very familiar so it gave me an access point from the get go. The same goes with my grandma. I was always excited about the possibility that there is a world where the version of this movie stars my grandma and my mum. So we got halfway there. I always wondered about what is the most indie version this movie could be? Do we cast all first time non actors? Is that the most exciting version of this movie? Obviously we decided against that because we have Joan Chen, an amazing actress but it was nice to find a good balance with my Grandma involved and she delivers.
Oh absolutely. She’s incredible.
She should win an Independent Spirit Award.
What is the impact of not seeing yourself represented in movies as you grow up? What feeling do you hope this gives to underrepresented kids now?
I hope the movie speaks for itself in that sense. One thing I was excited to capture in this movie is what it feels like to grow up where you see yourself in a lot of your community but not other parts. I had a lot of Asian friends growing up and I saw a lot of myself in my world but I didn’t see myself in the world. Popular culture never had people look like me. And so what does that do to your immediate life? It does something strange and when you’re thirteen you can’t really articulate why. That's the feeling I was trying to capture in the movie. The sort of subtle ambiguity of maybe always feeling slightly less than the people around you. Part of that is just being thirteen and an adolescent figuring out your place in the world.
I hope when millennials see it today, they remember certain references that they’ve now had to unlearn. Dìdi is standing on the shoulders of other amazing Asian American movies already out there, so young kids watching it have already been able to see themselves. Growing up watching Stevan Yeun and John Cho leading the industry. I think Dìdi is coming out into a world where kids who look and talk like me already feel less alone.
That is beautiful stuff and yeah that impact must be amazing to contribute too. Bit of a pivot but how much does skating influence your life?
It's the thing that has never gone away in my life. I mean there’s chapters in my life where I would skate less as other things took priority but I’ve always done it. I’m about to go skating after this interview, you know? I still watch skate videos. It’s been a very pure form of joy. Going back to feeling like a kid - I step on a skateboard and I feel like I’m fourteen again. Every time. My body doesn’t (laughs) but my brain does. There’s something so special about putting your phone away and going to skate with your friends.
Yeah, I can’t skate to save my life but I surf so I relate to that.
Yeah I surf too, it's something I hope to do forever.
Same. So obviously this story is a lot about friendship and falling in love but at its core it is an ode to your mum. I’ve read that dynamic wasn’t originally within the story - how did it find its place considering it’s such a big part of it?
I was very inspired from movies about adolescence, boyhood and friendships and trying to make something that captured how teenagers talked and felt. Like Stand By Me and even Superbad, but with people that looked and talked like me. In the early draft I knew I was onto something with that. It was funny and poignant but there was also something missing. You hear this a lot from filmmakers, about the story telling you what it wants to be and even though I was hesitant at the start for it to be about my mum because I had made a few shorts that were about motherhood and felt like I had been there done that once I started writing some stuff it was just like oh this is it. Looking back I think there was just a lot to mine there.
Was that a lightbulb moment or something that you worked on the more you wrote?
When I did a reread of a draft that I came back to, like I said going away and coming back, I think that’s when I knew something was missing. But then as I started writing out things that I remembered about that time in my life, the relationship with my mum, all the funny and turbulent memories I realised underneath all the friendships that was the movie. All this other stuff will hopefully make people laugh but this is the true heart that people will walk away with. A movie that starts with friendship but ends with family, but almost invisibly.
And you’ve done that brilliantly by the way.
Thank you.
“I think the thing that I keep telling myself is to try and ignore what you think you need to make for the industry to pay attention and just look inward. Ask yourself - what excites you? Chase that and the industry will follow”
And what’s it like being friends with Spike Jonez now? (laughs)
Yeah you guys did an interview with him recently right, the Analog something? He talks about breaking his leg.
Analog to Digital - yeah Naz did that one. He’s been friends with the magazine for a while now.
I mean I don’t know if we’re friends? Like I’m not getting brunch with him.
No but he knows who you are.
Yeah I mean it’s so surreal but also slightly embarrassing at the same time. There’s so many homages to him in the film. There’s a literal name drop. I didn’t think in a million years he would ever see the movie let alone say he liked it. He influenced so much of my work, life, how I see the world and myself, the boards I skate, the brands I like. Without sounding like a stalker, his work, since I was thirteen, really affected me in a big way. He helped me feel seen in a way that I hope my movie does for some other kid. So yeah for him to like the movie is crazy, but to even just to meet him. They say don’t meet your heroes but that was just the best case of meeting your heroes. He was the nicest, coolest, humblest, kindest, most curious person. Our movie could suck but..
Who cares when Spike Jonez likes it?
(Laughs) Yeah wow never in a million years did I think that was going to happen.
I’m sure there will be some aspiring filmmakers or even screen writers who are certainly inspired by you reading this - what would you say is the most important skill to hone in on or the best piece of advice?
I think the thing that I keep telling myself is to try and ignore what you think you need to make for the industry to pay attention and just look inward. Ask yourself - what excites you? Chase that and the industry will follow. This movie does that. The short I did before does that. It was so personal and small and it got nominated for an Oscar. But even if it didn’t, I still would have been happy because I cared about it. When you make something from that place it doesn’t matter if other people like it because at least it’s yours and when they do like it means so much more because you know it’s something that you’ve poured your heart into.
