Director Sean Wang impressed film buffs with his feature-length debut Dìdi (弟弟), a sweet yet unflinchingly honest portrayal of Taiwanese American teen Chris Wang in 2008 that’s already put him on the map.
Wang was recently chosen to join the BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, supported by Netflix, which highlights up-and-coming creatives in the film, television and video game industries who are talents to look out for over the coming years.
Speaking exclusively to Screen Time, the director opened up on his decision to cast his own grandmother, Chang Li Hua, in a key role opposite Twin Peaks and film legend Joan Chen.
“[Chen] really feels like family,” he said. “And she brought such a warmth to the production.
“She was acting alongside my grandmother and I think any actress of her calibre could have easily been like, ‘What is this? What a joke of a production. This first-time director casts his grandma…’
“It was a recipe that could have very easily gone off the rails but I look back and everything went right and I’m just like, ‘Wow, we’re so lucky everything went well’.
“But it wasn’t until later on that I realised it was because Joan is so generous and patient. And the reason that my grandma’s so performance is so good in the movie is because Joan was her scene partner, too.
“Joan, as an experienced actress, could kind of be the water that kept everything afloat. She could modify her performance and be reacting to what these first-time actors were doing with her. She wasn’t rigid at all.”
In addition to Didi, Wang has already directed several highly regarded shorts, including his 2023 documentary which also features Li Hua as well as his other grandmother Yi Yan Fuei.
Whatever comes next from the emerging talent shouldn’t be missed, though his next project remains a mystery as of now. But, what’s clear already is that Wang doesn’t want to be pigeonholed.
“I’m so happy and honoured to be a part of this programme [BAFTA Breakthrough],” he shared. “And I’m excited to get to know the cohort more. And as far as telling stories about the Asian American experience… it’s just the human experience.
“I don’t think I’m really setting out to tell Asian stories as much as I’m trying to tell stories that feel like an extension of me. And I happen to be Asian, so they’re pretty connected.”
When Didi came to streaming in the states, one champion for the film posted on X (formerly Twitter): “PSA: Dìdi – one of the best movies of the year and one of the best coming-of-age movies this decade – is now streaming on @peacock.
“Trevor and I both loved it. Old kids, you need to see this one.”
Another fan said: “Dìdi is now one of my top five films of 2024. Coming-of-age films always hold a special place in my heart. Love Joan Chen’s immaculate performance here, it elevates the role even further and is easily one of the best performances of the year thus far.”
Online blog Unseen Films called it one of the best films of 2024 and went even further to say: “This film is glorious. It’s one of the best coming of age films I’ve ever seen. Any film that can make this old fart who is writing this feel like a kid and relate is something special.
“And that is what makes the film so magnificent – the film isn’t about the technology or the things of the moment, this is a film about growing up.”
The i paper agreed, “Coming-of-age films don’t get much better” and wrote: “At 13, we are too close to – and too frustrated by – our parents to see them clearly.
“Wang’s film is an attempt to look again and witness something new, and it’s a beautiful thing.”
One Letterboxd user summed up the film in a four-and-a-half star review: “Painfully accurate (but also enormously compelling) depiction of what it was like to grow up in that bizzare intermediate of gen z and millennial— MySpace, Motion City Soundtrack, and the melancholy of teenhood in the late 2000s.”
And a five-star post said: “It has the awkward innocence of Eighth Grade, the aesthetic of Mid90s and the charm of Lady Bird. The perfect coming of age combination.”
You can currently stream Didi on Peacock in the US and rent or buy it on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and the Sky Store in the UK.
The full BAFTA Breakthrough 2024 cohort is as follows:
UK BREAKTHROUGHS (21):
● Alice Russell, Director – If the Streets Were on Fire
● Beth Park, Lead Performance Director – Black Myth: Wukong
● Clair Titley, Director – The Contestant
● Cobbie Yates, Costume Designer – Layla
● Daf James, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer/Musical Director – Lost Boys & Fairies
● Fred Hoffman, Art Director – Paper Trail
● Georgina Hurcombe, Creator/Producer/Director – Pop Paper City
● Harry Gilbert, Casting Director – G’wed
● Jennifer English, Performer – Baldur’s Gate 3
● Kyla Harris*, Lead Performer/Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Associate Producer – We Might Regret This
● Lauren Sequeira, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer – Domino Day
● Lee Getty*, Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Associate Producer – We Might Regret This
● Loran Dunn, Producer – Hoard
● Luna Carmoon, Writer/Director – Hoard
● Luned Tonderai, Series Director – Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star
● Mawaan Rizwan, Performer/Writer/Creator/Executive Producer – Juice
● Otto Baxter, Writer/Director/Performer – The Puppet Asylum
● Poulomi Basu, Creator/Director/Writer/Art Director – MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero
● Rochelle Newman, Producer – White Nanny Black Child
● Shahnaz Dulaimy, Editor – Top Boy
● Sophie Knowles, Lead Artist – Viewfinder
*applied as a team
US BREAKTHROUGHS (13):
● Angela Walker Patton**, Director – Daughters
● Elaine Gómez, Creative Director – Blink Land
● Erica Tremblay, Writer/Director – Fancy Dance
● Hanna Park, Editor – Bottoms
● Jih-E Peng, Cinematographer – Girls Will Be Girls
● Joy Ngiaw, Composer – WondLa
● Juliana Hoffpauir, Costume Designer – Hit Man
● Karrie Shirou Shao, Game Writer/Lead Designer – Pacific Drive
● Nafisa Kaptownwala, Casting Director – Dìdi
● Natalie Rae**, Director – Daughters
● Nava Mau, Performer – Baby Reindeer
● Nicole He, Creative Director – The Crush House
● Sean Wang, Writer/Director – Dìdi
**applied as a team
INDIA BREAKTHROUGHS (9):
● Abhinav Chokhavatia, Game Producer – Down and Out
● Christo Tomy, Director – Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case
● Deepa Bhatia, Writer/Director/Producer – First Act
● Dhiman Karmakar, Sound Designer/Production Sound Mixer – Amar Singh Chamkila
● Jaydeep Sarkar, Showrunner/Series Director/Executive Producer – Rainbow Rishta
● Monisha Thyagarajan, Series Producer – The Hunt for Veerappan
● Neeraj Kumar, Producer/Lead Developer – Artifice: War Tactics
● Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Writer/Director/Performer – Aachar & Co.
● Varun Grover, Writer/Director – All India Rank