Director of ‘perfect coming-of-age film’ spills on casting his grandma | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Director Sean Wang impressed movie buffs together with his feature-length debut Dìdi (弟弟), a candy but unflinchingly sincere portrayal of Taiwanese American teen Chris Wang in 2008 that’s already put him on the map.

Wang was not too long ago chosen to hitch the BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, supported by Netflix, which highlights up-and-coming creatives within the movie, tv and online game industries who’re skills to look out for over the approaching years.

Speaking completely to Screen Time, the director opened up on his resolution to solid his personal grandmother, Chang Li Hua, in a key position reverse Twin Peaks and movie legend Joan Chen.

“[Chen] really feels like family,” he stated. “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 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 a number of extremely regarded shorts, together with his 2023 documentary which additionally options Li Hua in addition to his different grandmother Yi Yan Fuei.

Whatever comes subsequent from the rising expertise shouldn’t be missed, although his subsequent venture stays a thriller as of now. But, what’s clear already is that Wang doesn’t wish 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 got here to streaming within the states, one champion for the movie posted on X (previously 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 stated: “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 weblog Unseen Films referred to as it among the finest movies of 2024 and went even additional 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 consumer summed up the movie in a four-and-a-half star evaluate: “Painfully accurate (but also enormously compelling) depiction of what it was like to grow up in that bizarre intermediate of gen z and millennial— MySpace, Motion City Soundtrack, and the melancholy of teenhood in the late 2000s.”

And a five-star put up stated: “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 at present stream Didi on Peacock within the US and lease or purchase it on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and the Sky Store within 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

*utilized as a group

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

**utilized as a group

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