'Didi' director Sean Wang says 13 is 'old enough to know better, too young to care'

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Being in middle school is hard for almost anybody. Like, you're trying to figure yourself out. You're trying to seem cool in front of your friends or your crushes. And for filmmaker Sean Wang, those years represent the worst version of yourself and the best time of your life.

SEAN WANG: You're old enough to know better and young enough to not care. So, me and my friends, I just remember during that age, we would do, like, the stupidest things. We were the most irreverent and the most immature.

CHANG: That irreverent immature period is the subject of Wong's new feature film, "Dìdi." The movie follows Chris Wang during the summer before his freshman year of high school, with all of its highs...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DÌDI")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Are we Facebook friends?

IZAAC WANG: (As Chris Wang) I'm not sure.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) OK, well, you should add me.

CHANG: ...And all of its lows.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DÌDI")

I WANG: (As Chris Wang) OK, Mom, just get out right now, Mom. Just get out, Mom. Get out, Mom. Get out.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR SLAMMING)

CHANG: The movie is inspired by Sean Wang's own experiences as a kid growing up in the Bay Area. And when he came into the studio to talk to me, I asked him, was he really as mean to his mom as Chris was in the movie?

S WANG: Probably not as mean as Chris is in the movie. But, you know, there's definitely things that I look back, and I'm like, man, I was not nice, said things just because I was angsty, and I took it out on her. And I think even in the movie, every relationship in the movie is conditional to him being, like, a version of himself that he's not, and the only one that is unconditional is the one between him and his mom. And I think that is ultimately why he is acting out because he knows that, like, that love is always going to be there, and that's a very selfless move from the mom's perspective, but it leads to, you know, angst that can kind of...

CHANG: Harsh behavior.

S WANG: Yeah, from harsh behavior. So...

CHANG: But, you know, the way you wrote the mom character, played by Joan Chen, there's real empathy in the way you depict her struggles as an immigrant mom who's raising Chris by herself, basically. I mean, with some help from the grandma. But I was wondering, like, when you were growing up, did your own mother share with you much about what she gave up when she left Taiwan? Like, did she talk about that much with you?

S WANG: Yes and no. You know, I think in terms of that journey of seeing your parents more as humans and your mom, not just as your mom, I think she was the one to take that first step always and, like, wanting to share with me more about when she first came to America. And I think as I was growing up, I was like, I don't want to - it's like too much.

CHANG: Yeah.

S WANG: You know?

CHANG: Yeah. Yeah.

S WANG: And I think so much of the journey of me growing up and even making this movie is kind of learning to shed those walls and not feel so afraid of getting to know my mom and my parents, both of them, on, like, a deeper level.

CHANG: So, your real-life grandmother, your waipo (ph), she plays the grandma in this movie. And I was just curious. When she found out that she was going to be acting opposite the famous Joan Chen, what did she think of the whole idea at first?

S WANG: I never thought about that from her perspective because she never was, like, nervous...

CHANG: Wow.

S WANG: ...About it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DÌDI")

ZHANG LI HUA: (As Nai Nai, speaking non-English language).

S WANG: I think the thing with my grandma that was actually the hardest thing to direct because directing is all about semantics. You can't just be, like, say it louder. That's not a good direction. But that's kind of the limit of my Chinese.

CHANG: Yeah.

S WANG: In Chinese, I'd be like...

CHANG: Need more feeling.

S WANG: Yeah, like, bigger.

(LAUGHTER)

S WANG: But I remember the first rehearsal that we had. I was, like, shaking. Like, oh, my gosh. I really hope this works. And Joan and her, you know, just - we went outside in the backyard, rehearsed the scene once. And I was like, OK, that was pretty good, actually. And then Joan put her hand on my shoulder and was like, you have nothing to worry about. She's incredible.

CHANG: Oh, I love that, that she reassured you.

S WANG: Yeah. And then I was like, all right, well, we have some time. We should, like, keep rehearsing. But like, waipo, you know, she knew her line. She really did her research. She had opinions. I was like, waipo, so you're going to wear this jade bracelet? And she was like, I don't think my character would wear that.

CHANG: Oh, I love that. Another thing that felt so familiar in this movie was when the character Chris gets these backhanded compliments - right? - likel from the other kids. You're cute for an Asian. You're the coolest Asian I know. And, you know, when you're a kid, you don't always have the language to be like, hey, that is a stereotype you just uttered right there. I'm wondering about you personally, like, when did those kinds of offenses start to sink in for you?

S WANG: I mean, yeah, that was one of the big realizations of the movie in a way was, like, I heard those things when I was a kid. You're the cutest..

CHANG: Or, wow, you Asians are all so good at math.

S WANG: Yeah. Or, like, you're the...

CHANG: Thanks?

S WANG: ...Cutest Asian. You're the coolest Asian. You're the whitest Asian. I don't even see you as Asian. You call them offenses now, and you realize, like, oh, yeah, there is something insidious about those sayings. But back then, like, nobody meant it as an offense. It was a compliment. I took it as a compliment. And then it wasn't until I think I entered, like, my early 20s and writing the movie. So much of it was like, OK, what are the specifics of growing up in the Bay Area and Fremont that I can, like, unpack? And it's like, you don't really hear things like you're the coolest Asian if you're the only Asian.

CHANG: That is so true because I also grew up in the Bay Area, California. I grew up in Las Altos. And I just talked to John Chu, the director who also grew up in Las Altos, about this. Because it is confusing to grow up Asian in the Bay Area. There are so many Asians. And sometimes that can mean that your race education gets delayed. Like, you know you're not white, but you don't feel like a minority all the time, either. So it's confusing, right?

S WANG: Yeah. And I mean, this is layered, but it's because, you know, looking back, like, people would say certain things like that. And then you look at the culture, and there's no cool Asians, there's no handsome Asian. You know, you're just kind of, like, OK, I guess what they're saying is, inherently, people who look like me are not cool. And so I think I entered my 20s, I was like, whoa. I have a lot of things I have to unlearn about the way I look at myself and the way I look at my work and the way I look at the world, and they all kind of trace back to that time in my life.

CHANG: It's cool that you get to explore these things in filmmaking. And, you know, it's funny. I can't help but notice that after John Chu, you are now the second Taiwanese American filmmaker from the Bay Area I've talked to in a week, which is awesome. But, like, what is happening? Five years ago, I don't know if this would ever have happened, right?

S WANG: Yeah.

CHANG: Something has definitely shifted in Hollywood. Does it feel like you are breaking into filmmaking at this unprecedented time for Asians?

S WANG: I don't know. I definitely feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of filmmakers like Lulu Wang, Lee Isaac Chung, Aneesh Chaganty, you know, Daniels, Hiro Murai. The list goes on, but, like, it didn't always, right? Like, I remember a time in my life when I was starting to get into making stuff and wanted to be a filmmaker. And that was, again, like my late teens, early 20s, and there were no Asian American filmmakers, like, making stuff the way that there were today. And so I do feel very lucky and fortunate that I get to be a filmmaker that has filmmakers like them to look up to, and they really paved the way. Like, they weren't trying to do anything revolutionary. They were just making work that spoke to them, but they happened to be Asian. And, like, that meant everything to me.

CHANG: Filmmaker Sean Wang. Hi new movie is called "Dìdi." Thank you so much for this movie, for coming into NPR West. I loved this conversation.

S WANG: Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, this was very exciting.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.