Joan Chen Archives – CULTURE MIX

July 26, 2024

by Carla Hay

Izaac Wang in “Dìdi” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features/Talking Fish Pictures)

Directed by Sean Wang

Some language in Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2008, in Fremont, California, the comedy/drama “Dìdi” features an Asian and white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A 14-year-old boy feels alienated from his mother and older sister, as he tries to make new friends and has insecurities about being Asian in a mostly white community.

Culture Audience: “Dìdi” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching realistic movies about teenagers who come from immigrant families.

Pictured clocwise from left: Izaac Wang, Chang Li Hua, Joan Chen and Shirley Chen in “Dìdi” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features/Talking Fish Pictures)

The comedy/drama “Dìdi” authentically depicts teenage angst about self-identity and wanting to belong somewhere independently from a family. The story’s perspective is from a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy, but the themes transcend generations and cultures. Anyone who is or has been a teenager will probably find something in “Dìdi” that is relatable.

Written and directed by Sean Wang, “Dìdi” is his feature-film directorial debut and is inspired by Wang’s own real-life experiences as a teenager in Fremont, California, where the movie was filmed on location. “Dìdi” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two prizes: the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic and U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble.

“Dìdi” takes place in the summer of 2008, during the last month before 13-year-old Chris Wang (played by Izaac Wang) will enroll in high school. Chris lives with his protective homemaker mother Chungsing Wang (played by Joan Chen); his moody sister Vivian Wang (played by Shirley Chen, no relation to Joan Chen), who is about 17 or 18 years old; and his paternal grandmother Nai Nai (played by Chang Li Hua), who is cheerful and optimistic. Chris’ parents and grandmother were born in Taiwan, while Chris and Vivian were born in the United States.

Chris’ parents are married, but his father lives and works in Taiwan and sends money to Chungsing to support the family. Chris’ father is never seen in the movie. Observant viewers will notice that Chris’ father doesn’t communicate with Chris and Vivian during the period of time shown in the movie. This absence and emotional neglect from their father probably cause feelings of bitterness and rejection and might explain why Chris and Vivian are quick to get angry and take their anger out on each other.

Throughout the movie, Chris goes through an identity crisis. He feels like an outsider in his own home. And he even though he has friends from middle school who will be going to the same high school, he feels restless and bored with these friends and wants to make new friends. Vivian excels in academics and seems to have goals in life. Chris does not.

Part of Chris’ identity crisis has to do with his insecurity and sometimes embarrassment of coming from an Asian immigrant family. There are many times throughout “Dìdi” where Chris tries to downplay, deny or degrade his Asian heritage. There’s a scene were Chris lies to some of his peers and claims to be biracial (half Asian, half white) instead of telling the truth that his racial identity is fully Asian.

As an example of the different identities that Chris is juggling, he has three different names in this story. His birth name is Chris. His friends call him the nickname Wang Wang. And his mother and grandmother call him Dìdi, which is a nickname he really dislikes. (Dìdi means “younger brother” in Mandarin.) Chris angrily tells his family members not to call him Dìdi.

Chris and Vivian bicker over petty things, but these arguments are really about their sibling rivalry and unspoken feelings that their relationship will change when Vivian is moving away to go to college around the same time that Chris will start going to high school. Vivian and Chris have a relationship with its share of ups and downs. They love each other but don’t always show it.

An early scene in the movie takes place with the Wang family having dinner together. Vivian insults Chris and gripes at him because he’s wearing one of her sweatshirts. Their argument turns into cursing. Chris and Vivan don’t listen to Vivian and Mai Mai, who tell the kids to stop arguing.

Chris calls Vivian a “bitch.” He then goes in the bathroom and urinates in Vivian’s lotion bottle. When she later finds out, Vivian threatens Chris by saying that he ever does something like that again, she’ll put her menstruation blood in his food.

A great deal of “Dìdi” is about how technology that was fairly new in 2008 is used as catalysts or tools in teenagers’ social lives. Facebook and YouTube are prominently featured throughout the movie. In 2008, most people didn’t have the types of smartphones that exist today, so phones were mainly used for calling, texting and taking photos.

Chris has a crush on a classmate named Madi Peters (played by Mahaela Park), a popular girl who will be going to the same high school a Chris. He looks at Madi’s Facebook page to find out what her interests are—she’s a big fan of Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams and the 2002 romantic drama “A Walk to Remember”—so Chris pretends to be a fan of the same things. Chris has a nervous conversation with Madi at a house party, and the movie shows how their relationship develops from there.

Youth skateboard culture is also a big part of the movie. Chris and his friends Soup (played by Aaron Chang), Fahad (played by Rahul Dial) and Hardeep (played by Tarnvir Kamboj) like to skateboard. However, Chris prefers filming videos of people skateboarding rather than skateboarding himself. He posts videos that he’s filmed on his YouTube channel, which is an indication that he has an interest in filmmaking.

Later, Chris meets three friends named Donovan, Corey and Nugget, who take skateboarding more seriously than Soup, Fahad and Hardeep. Chris thinks Donovan (played by Chiron Cillia Denk), Corey (played by Montay Boseman) and Nugget (played by Sunil Maurillo) are a lot cooler to hang out with than Soup, Fahad and Hardeep. It should come as no surprise that Chris wants to join a new clique and is desperate for this new clique’s approval.

One of the things that “Dìdi” shows with credibility is how teenagers are often embarrassed by their parents, no matter what their parents do. There’s a scene that’s uncomfortable to watch (but very realistic) when Chungsing goes in Chris’ room while Donovan, Corey and Nugget are visiting. Chungsing is friendly, but Chris’ hostile reaction to her is a reflection of his insecurities about himself.

“Dìdi” is told from Chris’ perspective, but the movie gives glimpses into Chungsing’s interior life. She’s married but she has to raising her kids like a single mother. One child is moving away from home. The other child acts like he doesn’t want to be around her. Chungsing is a loving mother who wants the best for her family, but it’s easy to feel empathy for her because she’s obviously going through her own identity crisis. As way to find solace from her pain, she does paintings that she feels no one appreciates.

Chris is socially awkward but he is not always a likable dork. He often doesn’t know the difference between saying something that he thinks is “cool” and something that is very offensive. He’s also very rude and verbally cruel to his mother. There’s a scene where Chungsing and Chris are eating together in a fast food restaurant. She is using a fork and knife to eat her hamburger. Chris mutters in disgust but loud enough for her to hear this racist comment: “So Asian.” The wounded look on Chungsing’s face could say a thousand words, even though she says nothing in response.

“Dìdi” has a well-cast ensemble but the best acting performances are from Joan Chen and Izaac Wang, who both are utterly convincing as a mother and a son having a hard time with each other because they both feel misunderstood and frustrated by how their lives are going. The tension-filled relationship between Chungsing and Chris is a reflection how they want to feel accepted in a world that is not always welcoming to them. They are both experiencing emotional pain for reasons that are similar and different.

“Dìdi” is not a perfect film (some of the movie’s scenes could have used better pacing), but what this movie does perfectly is not overstate or over-explain things that are realistically left unsaid. Many people in life have a hard time admitting what’s really bothering them because they often don’t want to admit it to themselves. “Dìdi” is snapshot of one month in the life of a teenager experiencing emotional growing pains and finding out in his desperate search for peer acceptance if he can ultimately have self-acceptance.

Focus Features released “Dìdi” in select U.S. cinemas on July 26, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on August 16, 2024.

May 3, 2023

by Carla Hay

Feng Xioagang and Joan Chen in “Hachiko” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Hachiko” (2023)

Directed by Xu Ang

Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in China, the dramatic film “Hachiko” (based on a true story) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A college professor convinces his wife to let their family keep a stray Akita puppy that he found, and the puppy grows up to be a very loyal companion, even after tragedy strikes the family.

Culture Audience: “Hachiko” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching heartwarming stories (with some tearjerking moments) about family pets.

Pictured clockwise, from far left: Yang Bo, Feng Xioagang, Eponine Huang and Joan Chen in “Hachiko” (Photo courtesy of CMC Pictures)

“Hachiko” is a worthy remake of the original film of the same name. This drama about a loyal family dog has some dull moments, but the movie has good performances. The tone is sentimental without overloading on schmaltz. Because the movie is based on a true story, many people might already know how this story is going to end. That doesn’t make watching the movie any less emotionally poignant.

Directed by Xu Ang, “Hachiko” makes some changes to the real story, as well as to previous movie versions of this true story. Xu co-wrote the “Hachiko” screenplay with Zhang Hansi, Li Liangwen and Li Lin. The movie is based on a true story of a male Akita dog named Hachikō, who lived in Japan, from November 1923 to March 1935. Hachikō showed unusual loyalty to his closest companion: a Tokyo-based college professor named Hidesaburō Ueno, who adopted Hachikō from a farm when Hachikō was a puppy.

This story has been made into several movies, beginning with the 1925 Japanese film “Hachikō.” The most famous and most commercially successful movie about this story is the 1987 drama “Hachikō Monogatari,” which was Japan’s biggest hit film of the year. An American movie version of the story, titled “Hachi: A Dog’s Story,” starring Richard Gere, was released in 2009.

The 2023 “Hachiko” movie is the Chinese version of the story. The movie takes place over a 15-year period. The dog is still an Akita, but the entire movie takes place in early 21st century China, not in the 1920s or 1930s.

The name of the dog in “Hachiko” is actually not Hachiko but is BaTong. That’s because in real life, Hachiko (which means “eighth prince” in Japanese) was the eighth puppy born in his litter. In the Chinese “Hachiko” movie, the dog is not adopted from a farm but is found as a stray puppy in a rural area. The professor who finds the dog and keeps him has no idea what the background information is for this puppy.

In the beginning of “Hachiko,” Chen Jingxiu (played by Feng Xioagang) is a mild-mannered professor who is living a comfortable but dull and stagnant life. The main disruption to his peace is when his cranky homemaker wife Li Jiazhen (played by Joan Chen) nags Jingxiu about the fact that he could be making more money if he had the talent and ambition to become a tenured professor. Jingxiu has been an associate professor for years without getting a job promotion.

Jingxiu and Jiazhen have two children—a son (played by Yang Bo) and a daughter (played by Eponine Huang)—who are teenagers at the beginning of the story and are in their 30s by the end of the story. Jiazhen spends a lot of time play mah jong with her female friends. And because Jiazhen gets irritated easily, she often says, “So annoying,” when she doesn’t like something.

The movie’s opening scene shows Jiazhen and her two children going back to visit the house that they lived in for years before moving away, for a reason explained later in the movie. The house is now abandoned and in a state of disrepair. This visit leads to Jiazhen to reminice about the years that she and her family lived there, beginning 15 years earlier. Most of the “Hachiko” is a flashback to those years.

During this flashback part of the movie, it shows early on how BaTong came into Jingxiu’s life. He and six or seven colleagues are riding on a private bus together, because they’re attending an event. The bus is going though a rural area in Yunyang County, China, when it gets stuck in the mud.

The passengers disembark from the bus to help the driver get the bus un-stuck. When all of a sudden, they see a 3-month-old Akita puppy underneath the bus. Jingxiu is immediately charmed by this frightened puppy. He picks up the dog and comforts the dog.

While the others are tending to the bus, Jingxiu walks around in the area to ask people in nearby houses if they know anything who might own this puppy. No one he asks knows anything about the dog, so Jingxiu decides to keep the dog, even though he knows that his wife Jiazhen doesn’t like dogs. He decides to name the puppy BaTong.

Jiazhen is predictably upset at the sight of the dog. She has a fear of dogs, ever since she was bitten by a dog when she was a child. Before she and Jingxiu got married, she made him promise that they would never have a dog in their household. Jingxiu tells her that he’s only going to keep this stray dog temporarily until he can find a permanent home for this adorable pup.

Jingxiu goes through the motions of putting up flyers around town to solicit adoption of the puppy. But he rejects people who answer the ads, for various reasons. Of course, we all know that Jingxiu doesn’t really want to give away this dog, and he ends up keeping it. Jingxiu becomes very attached to BaTong, by treating the dog as his best friend. Eventually, Jiazhen warms up to the dog and considers BaTong to be a member of the family too.

“Hachiko” shows that it isn’t all smooth sailing for Jingxiu and BaTong. When BaTong is a puppy and small enough to hide in a backpack, Jingxiu secretly brings the dog to work (he keeps the dog in his office), even though it’s against the campus policy for pet dogs to be the work offices.

BaTong’s presence on the campus isn’t a secret for long: One day, the escapes through an open office door while Jingxiu is teaching in a classroom. And you can easily predict the rest. Jingxiu doesn’t get in a lot of trouble for it, but BaTong is now officially banned from being in any building on the campus.

As BaTong grows up, he has a routine of accompanying Jingxiu to and from work, with BaTong patiently waiting outside in a campus area for his Jingxiu at the end of each day. BaTong has a routine of sitting on the same seat. A newsstand operator (played by Qian Bo) nearby gets to know BaTong and is friendly with the dog. The newsstand operator sometimes feeds treats to BaTong.

Jingxiu’s close bond with Batong comes at a price. It’s later revealed that Jingxiu’s son feels that Jingxiu treats the dog better than Jingxiu treats his own son. After the on graduates from college, there’s a subplot about the son contemplating taking a job as a web designed in Beijing. Jingxiu doesn’t seem very concerned about the son’s decision will be and tells him that the son can make his own decisions.

The son interprets it as Jingxiu not really caring at all, because what the son really wants are for Jingxiu to give him some advice or some indication that the son will be missed if he moves away from home. Surprisingly, the usually prickly Jiazhen is the more nurturing parent in this situation.

“Hachiko” then takes a tragic turn, which won’t be revealed in this review, because some people watching this movie won’t know what happened in real life. It’s enough to say that it’s a bittersweet part of this story about family love and loyalty. The cast members’ performances, as well as directing and screenplay, are perfectly competent but not outstanding. Overall, “Hachiko” is exactly what you might expect from a movie about a beloved family pet and how that family copes with loss and grief.

CMC Pictures released “Hachiko” in select U.S. cinemas on April 14, 2023. The movie was released in China on March 31, 2023.

Tag: Joan Chen

Review: ‘Dìdi’ (2024), starring Izaac Wang and Joan Chen

Review: ‘Hachiko’ (2023), starring Feng Xioagang and Joan Chen