How a Fremont skateboard brat conquered Hollywood

Wiki Article

For most of the 25 years Susanna and Oliver Wan have operated Hilltop Gifts in Fremont, it wouldn’t have been unusual for Sean Wang to have arrived by skateboard to shop at the Asian imports store, where you can buy Pokémon items and K-pop posters.

So it was quite the thrill to see Wang show up on a recent Monday in a chauffeured black Lincoln Navigator, with a small entourage in tow.

“I’ve known Sean since he was 5,” Susanna Wan said after emerging from the back to greet her customers. “His sister and mommy, too. We’re so proud.”

Wang, 29, is the toast of his hometown this month with the release of his first feature film, “Dìdi,” which opened Friday, Aug. 2, in the Bay Area and expands nationally on Aug. 16. Shot completely in the East Bay city, it is an at times sweet, sometimes funny, occasionally angry and ultimately an achingly melancholic autobiographical coming-of-age story.

Yes, the brat who grew up making YouTube videos about skateboarding and other childhood exploits would grow up to receive a special certificate from the city of Fremont, “America’s happiest city,” presented by Mayor Lily Mei, before a screening at the Cinemark Century at Pacific Commons.

“The ethos we had of this movie was to make it in a very homegrown way,” Wang told the Chronicle at Mr. Sun Tea in Fremont, hours before the screening on July 29. “I really, really wanted to try to retain the spirit of, we’re really just making this with our friends. The vibe that we carried on set of making something that felt communal.”

Wang was sipping a Dìdi Tea Drink, a new item on the menu described as a “peach passionfruit green tea with lemon and green tea jelly.” He later snapped a selfie next to a poster outside Mr. Sun Tea advertising the drink. Proof of purchase of a “Dìdi” movie ticket gets you $3 off at Mr. Sun Tea. The cafe is just one example of how Fremont is all in on the movie; workers there and at the Pacific Commons movie theater all were decked out in “Dìdi” T-shirts.

Wang and Focus Features, the distributor responsible for the sweet ride and T-shirt promotions, invited the Chronicle on a mini-tour of the director’s favorite spots in Fremont, including the Fremont Skate Park and, of course, Hilltop Gifts, which is featured in the movie. It is there that young Chris (played by Izaac Wang, no relation) uses the five-finger discount to take a small gift item in an emotionally raw moment — one of the several fictionalized elements in the film, apparently.

“I never stole from you,” Sean Wang said, smiling.

“I know you didn’t,” Susanna Wan replied with a grin, “but some others did.”

The Wans, also wearing “Dìdi” T-shirts, saw the film for the first time the previous night at a screening hosted by Wang’s parents and sister at Pacific Commons, where Wang spent a good portion of his youth lost in the movies. Wang arrived in town earlier Monday for interviews and the special screening with Mayor Lei and an enthusiastic crowd that night.

It was yet another moment that reminded Wang how much his life has changed in 2024.

In the span of less than a week in late January, “Dìdi” won the audience award in the U.S. dramatic competition of the Sundance Film Festival, as well as a special jury award for its ensemble cast, which includes San Francisco actress Joan Chen in one of her best performances as Dìdi’s mother; Wang’s real-life grandmother, 86-year-old Chang Li Hua; and Shirley Chen (“Beast Beast”) as his sister. Focus Features quickly bought the distribution rights.

A few days later, Wang’s short film about his grandmothers, “Năi Nai & Wài Pó” (also starring Chang Li Hua, now streaming on Disney+) was nominated for an Academy Award for best short documentary.

A couple of weeks later, Wang and his grandmothers, Chang and 96-year-old Yi Yan Fuei, were at the annual Oscars luncheon for nominees, hobnobbing with Steven Spielberg and other fellow nominees.

“I was sitting at a table with the production designer of ‘Barbie,’” Wang recalled, referring to British set decorator Sarah Greenwood. “My D.P. (director of photography Sam Davis) and my grandmas were sitting next to Hoyte van Hoytema, who shot ‘Oppenheimer’ and is one of our favorite cinematographers, and we’re in the room with Spielberg!”

Though “Năi Nai & Wài Pó” lost, Oscar night was a blast, he said. His grandmas wore custom Rodarte print-patterned suits and shouted “Grannies coming through!” as they were ushered down the red carpet in wheelchairs, one pushed by Wang, the other by Davis.

“Dìdi” has played the festival circuit — opening the San Francisco International Film Festival in April — and targeted special screenings, including an event in Los Angeles hosted by Spike Jonze, a hero of Wang’s who also made skateboarding videos before directing movies.

The movie was released in New York and Los Angeles on July 26, grossing about $200,000 in five theaters. (For those keeping score, $40,000 per theater is pretty darn good.) The Bay Area release the following week is part of a gradual expansion across the country.

This year’s success might have changed Wang’s life, but it hasn’t changed him. Aside from the time he spent in Fremont during the height of the COVID pandemic, he has lived elsewhere; after going from De Anza College to USC, he has lived in New York and currently Los Angeles. Yet, he has remained in contact with multitudes of friends and family from the area, many of whom were at Monday’s screening. He uses many of the same crew members he collaborated with on his short films, too.

“He has the kind of gentleness I think the world needs,” said Joan Chen, who has worked with such directors as Bernardo Bertolucci, Oliver Stone and David Lynch. “I sense in him that gentle love, that tenderness and sincerity. A pure talent.”

In a way, he’s still Dìdi, which means “little brother” in Mandarin, a term of affection Chinese mothers use for younger sons, including by Wang’s mom, Cynthia, who still calls him that. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Cynthia Wang and Chen, who essentially played her, have become friends.

As the Lincoln Navigator traversed Fremont, Wang riffed. “‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3’ (a 2001 video game) was like my childhood right there,” he’d say after visiting the skate park. “I had ‘Skater 3’ on GameCube.” Or he’d talk about how, after he and his friends got driver’s licenses, they would go on nighttime excursions to San Jose or Santa Cruz to hang out at the Santa Cruz Diner.

“And then there was a period where we went to Berkeley a lot,” Wang said. “Hang out and go to CREAM, for ice cream sandwiches and cookies. … We just liked driving somewhere out of Fremont.”

Wang said he was heavily influenced by such coming-of-age films as Rob Reiner’s “Stand by Me” (1986) and François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” (1959). But with “Dídi,” a film about a young wannabe filmmaker, one can’t help but draw a comparison to “The Fablemans,” his Oscar luncheon mate Spielberg’s ode to his own childhood.

The difference is that while it took Spielberg, a Saratoga High grad, until age 75 to confront his complex childhood, Wang is beginning his career with a film that addresses what he calls “the shame” he felt as a child.sex movie