: Dìdi (弟弟)
SIFF Cinema Uptown: 511 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle
Thursday, August 8th – Thursday, August 15th
Tickets start at $12.50 | Reserve your seats here
I’ve lived in Seattle for 15 years, and I still pause when someone mentions they’re headed to Fremont. My first thought isn’t the hopping North End neighborhood along the canal, but the Bay Area city that’s not quiiiiiiiiite San Jose, the town you cut through on your way to Great America, the last stop on the BART train. Sure, you can see a speck of San Francisco off in the distance from there, or slog north along I-880—one of the worst stretches of freeway in the country—and end up in my old East Bay stomping grounds. Point is, it’s not really a place you think about unless you’re from there. But now, maybe filmmaker Sean Wang will finally put in on the map.
Dìdi (弟弟), winner of two awards at Sundance 2024 (Audience Award – Dramatic, Ensemble), is Wang’s 2008-set semi-autobiographical ode to being a dumbshit kid during that treacherous space between middle and high school when all you want to do is make skate videos, dick around on MySpace, and maybe learn how to kiss a girl. But 13-year-old Chris (Dìdi means “little brother”) is also a first-generation Taiwanese American, and learning how to be an adult comes with navigating how you treat your immigrant elders.
Those who still need a little PNW connection will be happy to learn that Joan Chen (Twin Peaks) plays Chris’ patient mother, and Academy Awards nerds will love that Sean Wang cast his own grandmother (subject of Wang’s Oscar-nominated short film Nai Nai & Wài Pó) as, essentially, herself. But if all the above isn’t enough, how about the film’s banging aughts soundtrack, featuring the likes of Hellogoodbye, Atmosphere, and a brand-new track from Motion City Soundtrack.
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