Didi (15, 94 minutes)
Verdict: A brilliantly observed drama
With summer vacation approaching some parents will be thrilled with the endless, arid landscape of the Gobi Desert, three cheers for the country’s movie theaters that at least offer some oases of entertainment.
This week’s premiere is Didi, a funny, touching and piercingly well-observed coming-of-age drama that will appeal not just to older teens, but to plenty of adults who still vividly remember the torments of those years: stains, crushes, awkward dates, peer pressure, obnoxious older siblings, you name it.
Plus, Sean Wang’s partly autobiographical film (an impressive debut) will resonate even more with those whose adolescence was complicated by immigrant parents, well-meaning single mothers or headstrong grandmothers living with their parents. Thirteen-year-old Chris (played impeccably by Izaac Wang) has to endure all three.
The year is 2008. Chris (“Didi” to his loved ones, “Wang Wang” to his friends) lives in Fremont, California, with his Taiwanese mother Chungsing (the wonderful Joan Chen), older sister Vivian (Shirley Chen), and paternal grandmother Nai Nai (Chang Li Hua, the director’s real-life grandmother). Chris’s father is away in Taiwan, sending money home, though his absence is deeply resented by Chungsing and is a source of perpetual conflict between her and her elderly mother-in-law.
Indeed, the house is rife with conflict, with Chungsing watching proudly but uneasily as her all-Californian children assimilate; and Chris and Vivian often argue loudly. But with all three women in the house, Chris’s relationships evolve. He is written and acted with great tenderness.
(L-R) Izaac Wang as ‘Chris’ and Mahaela Park as ‘Madi’ in writer-director Sean Wang’s Didi.
Outside of home, his life is just as complicated. He has a crush on his classmate Madi, and she gives him hints, exciting but also nerve-racking, that she might be willing to take him back. “You’re pretty cute for an Asian,” she tells him, and he’s happy to take that as encouragement rather than a sign of condescension or racism.
As for his male friendships, they come and go, as Chris stumbles through the rapidly growing minefield of social media. At school he stands up to bullies, but that gets him into trouble. At the local mall he befriends some nice older guys, guys who skate, who invite him to become their official cameraman. He’s flattered and excited, but, as in other areas of his life, his eagerness to fit in holds him back. It’s not long before his skateboarding adventure falls apart.
Some of it is sad, some of it hilarious, but it’s all utterly believable, tremendously engaging, and, cleverly, the director doesn’t try to wrap things up with easy resolutions, rejecting all the usual trajectories of movies that are rites of passage.
Better still, he keeps it to just over an hour and a half, which isn’t all that great in the context of filling a summer school holiday afternoon, but it amounts to the kind of concise, compelling storytelling that some far more experienced filmmakers than Wang no longer seem to consider valid – it’s a shame.
Harold and the Purple Crayon (PG, 92 min)
Verdict: Delete the original
An option for much younger children, Harold and the Purple Crayon is based on the book of the same name, which my own children loved when they were young. Carlos Saldanha’s film, unfortunately, makes no attempt to recreate its spirit.
Crockett Johnson’s charming 1955 tale told the story of a boy who created a magical nighttime world with his purple crayon and returned safely home by drawing a window around the Moon.
The ending always brought a satisfied, sleepy sigh to our kids, so 20 years later I can hardly bring myself to tell them that the movie turns Harold (Zachary Levi) into a goofy, grown man, who befriends a little boy named Mel (Benjamin Bottani) as he runs amok with his crayon in the real world.
It’s entertaining at times, with faint echoes of the 1970s TV show Mork & Mindy. Zooey Deschanel, as Mel’s widowed mother Terri, might have been cast for her resemblance to Pam Dawber, who played Mindy all those years ago. Jemaine Clement is hilarious as the shrewd librarian Gary, who has a crush on Terri.
But none of that stopped my indignation, which was latent, because the story is very far from Crockett’s original.
Harold and the Purple Crayon Poster
Kensuke’s Kingdom (PG, 85 minutes)
Verdict: Curiously retro
Kensuke’s Kingdom is another adaptation, an animated version of a novel by author Michael Morpurgo.
Our hero is a boy named Michael (voiced by Aaron MacGregor) who is swept overboard during a around-the-world sailing trip with his parents (Sally Hawkins and Cillian Murphy) and, with the family dog, Stella, washes up on a remote Pacific island, where he is cared for by an elderly Japanese war veteran (Ken Watanabe).
With a top-notch voice cast and a script by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Kensuke’s Kingdom promises much more than it delivers.
The film pulses with a wholesome charm, but the line-drawing animation in particular is disconcertingly retro, oddly reminiscent of another ’70s classic, Scooby-Doo.
All the movies are in theaters now.
Kensuke’s Kingdom is another adaptation, an animated version of a novel by author Michael Morpurgo.
British writer Michael Morpurgo poses during a photocall in Paris on January 29, 2024
Maria celebrates 60 supercalifragilistic years!
This month marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most wonderful children’s films of all time, the glorious Mary Poppins. A few years ago, at the Venice Film Festival, I had the privilege of listening to the great Julie Andrews talk about it.
She had nothing dirty to say. The 1964 film earned her an Oscar for best actress. It was a joyous atmosphere, thanks in large part to her co-star Dick Van Dyke, who in the role of Bert the chimney sweep may have mangled his cockney vocals, but spread joy wherever he went.
Karen Dotrice, who played Jane Banks, tells happy stories about how Van Dyke became a father figure to her and has equally fond memories of Walt Disney.
On his weekends off, Disney would fly her, her mother and her sisters to his lavish Palm Springs ranch in his private plane (called “Mickey Mouse One”), but because young Dotrice was afraid of flying, he had it set up like the inside of a candy store.
It’s nice to know that Mary Poppins was as much of a pleasure to make as it always was to watch.
Actress Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in a scene from the film ‘Mary Poppins’, 1964
That said, the 2013 film Saving Mr Banks, much as I enjoyed it, ended up sanding down some of the rough edges of the formidable Mary Poppins author, PL Travers, played in the film by Emma Thompson.
Richard Sherman, one half of the film’s brilliant songwriting team with his brother Bob, went to the grave earlier this summer remembering Travers as “a walking icicle.”
Mary Poppins is now playing in select theaters and available to stream on Disney+.
(tags to translate)dailymail
