With a poor-quality video and poor framing, a gang of young schoolchildren explode a firecracker on the edge of an old lady’s terrace, running off as they go. The screams are shrill, the laughter and excitement set the tone. We’re in the 2000s, at the dawn of Youtube and the carefree spirit.

Dìdi, by Sean Wang, follows Chris aka Wang-Wang aka Didi (Izaac Wang), in the middle of his summer just before starting high school. It’s all in a day’s work: hanging out with your buddies, making videos to post on Youtube and going home to talk – obviously with your buddies – on the computer. And yet, in this contest of egos with your friends, you’re moving into a more mature stage of your life, both in public and in private.

Starting with that, it’s pretty crazy to look back and realize how insufferable we were when we were younger. Always bragging, talking nonsense and pretending to know things we wouldn’t really understand until years later. It’s a never-ending quest to be the coolest of the bunch. But it’s in these aspects that Dìdi finds its authenticity, a time capsule to a time that seems so far away and yet so near. Living with his mother Chungsing (Joan Chen), grandmother Nai-Nai (Zhang Li Hua) and sister Vivian (Shirley Chen), two different cultures and mentalities are blended when Wang returns home. A traditional Taiwanese culture of success and hard work, which Nai-Nai keeps repeating to her daughter as she points out her inability to raise her children, and a youthful, rebellious American culture in which school and parents are the lowest priorities.

Underneath Wang’s armored shell, hidden behind his hood, there’s an ongoing identity crisis. Wanting to look older than his years, inventing a personality to please everyone, including a group of young skateboarders, and especially Madi (Mahaela Park). It’s far from the first time this kind of story has been told, and Jonah Hill’s Mid90’s has similarities. But Dìdi finds a particular quality in its multicultural mix. Chunsing tries to make ends meet between loneliness, taking care of and enduring Nai-Nai’s reproaches, and maintaining contact and closeness with her two children, each of whom is drifting away for their own reason. Although secondary, Chungsing more than once steals the show from the rest of the characters, so emotionally moving is she. On several occasions, she’s on the verge of bringing a tear to our eye, so heartbreaking is her look, silence and smile. We feel her sadness, her reclusion and her helplessness in the face of what’s happening around her, and yet she always remains hopeful. Her character is one of the many examples of how, with sometimes little dialogue, Sean Wang makes us feel the emotions of his characters.

This whole story is sublimated by the fact that Dìdi is a gorgeous film to look at. The composition by Sean Wang and his cinematographer (Sam A. Davis) is consistently thoughtful and offers some captivating marvels (the shot in the kitchen never gets old). The filmmaker also cleverly uses his sets and frame to project Wang’s feelings just through the image. After an argument with his mother, when Wang returns home alone at night, the wide, distant shot of Wang walking down the street says everything about his character without even needing to say anything. But like his character, the camera and editing find moments of madness where the directing reflects carelessness and stupidity, notably with the story of Wang’s squirrel. The editing frenetically alternates between camcorder footage, slow-motion and close-up shots to give the story an unabashed fun.

More than once, Dìdi will make you uncomfortable with Wang’s interactions with other characters, and other times, he’ll make you laugh at his stupidity, or frustrated by his actions. But that’s how Sean Wang manages to convey an age, an attitude, to the screen. Through his recklessness, embarrassment and absurdity, which characterize a pivotal period in our lives. Wang is strange, because he’s searching for himself.

It’s not the first time a story of this kind has been told, but it’s written with an apparent simplicity that makes it obvious, natural, yet filmed with great skill. Dìdi is a touching film that leaves you silent after its credits, but with an irresistible urge to listen again to Giosuè Greco’s sweet soundtrack.

Dìdi Official Trailer