SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A new coming-of-age movie is as much about the mother struggling at midlife with her own dreams as it is about her teenage son who's struggling into adulthood. "Didi" - means little brother in Mandarin - is Sean Wang's new film set in a Bay Area suburb. It follows a Taiwanese American family in which the husband is absent, working in Taiwan. The big sister is soon off to college, and the family is now a fractious threesome - hard-nosed mother-in-law, teenage boy Chris, just about to start high school and the mother, trying to keep balance as all pull on her. The mother is played by Joan Chen, of course, whose talents have graced works from Bernardo Bertolucci, Ang Lee and David Lynch. Joan Chen joins us now from Montreal. Thank you so much for being with us.
JOAN CHEN: Thank you. It's my pleasure to be talking to you.
SIMON: Tell us, if you could, about this mother, Chungsing Wang. Devoted to her children. But...
CHEN: Yeah. But she is not feeling very fulfilled at the same time as an artist. She's had her own dreams. And right now, she is stuck in between being a terrible daughter-in-law and trying very hard to be a good mother to her American child, and she is unsure.
SIMON: She's still painting.
CHEN: She still paints. That's how she keeps her sanity. Otherwise, she'd only be, like, a maid in the family (laughter). Like, she keeps her sanity and joy. There is joy. I'm not saying that there isn't joy in being a mother - there is. But oftentimes, it's fraught.
SIMON: Yeah. And fair to say that her children and her mother-in-law don't make an effort to understand that?
CHEN: No, they don't see her, basically. So you go through the movie, and you know that they don't see her. It takes my son's new friend who just came in and noticed, oh, you know, I like your painting. And for her, that was the moment she was just overjoyed.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DIDI")
CHEN: (As Chungsing Wang, speaking Mandarin). Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Mack) Hi.
SUNIL MUKHERJEE MAURILLO: (As Cory) Ni hao.
CHEN: (As Chungsing Wang) Hello. Nice to meet you.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Nice to meet you.
CHEN: (As Chungsing Wang) I'm Chris' mother.
MAURILLO: (As Cory) Hey, I really like your paintings.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Really beautiful, by the way.
CHEN: (As Chungsing Wang) Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yeah.
CHEN: (As Chungsing Wang) You notice?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Yeah.
MAURILLO: (As Cory) I love the colors and stuff.
CHEN: (As Chungsing Wang) I paint all myself.
I really appreciate the fact, actually, being really a supporting character, but Sean has written enough that this is still a complex and rich character that has that is multifaceted.
SIMON: I have read that you had some qualms about taking the role when Sean Wang, the director, approached you?
CHEN: Yes, I wanted him to be sure that he's creating a consistent world and a community, a family, that people will believe it. And I just feel like, wow, a 13-year-old? You know, I'm not physically capable of giving birth to a 13-year-old. So I wanted him to be sure. But he did convince me. He had his conviction. He had no doubt whatsoever. Now we find a very believable, authentic family in the film.
SIMON: You've been a movie star since you've been 14. Would that be fair to say?
CHEN: Kind of, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I...
SIMON: Yeah.
CHEN: ...Made my first film when I was 14. So when it came out, I was, like, 15, 16 and overnight sensation. Yeah, it was a strange adolescence for me.
SIMON: We should also explain, of course, this was in China.
CHEN: Yes. It's in China, and it's during the Cultural Revolution. That's when I grew up. I didn't choose to be in films. I was just chosen out of my high school first year. I was chosen to be in the rifle team because of my build. So I was in the rifle team, and they needed someone who knew how to handle a rifle. And so they picked me.
SIMON: And you came to the United States when you were 20. Did you expect to make a life here, a career here?
CHEN: No. I didn't have any plan at that time. There was this clear line - if you left China, you know, you betrayed China. So I had to go through a lot of hoops to get my passport. And eventually, I arrived, and I was in shock because I never thought for a moment of what would happen after the arrival. It was like, OK, now what? It was a difficult period but also very exciting, very exciting.
SIMON: Back to "Didi" and this mother. There's an extraordinary moment that's a long close-up on your face. How did you put that look into your face and into our eyes?
CHEN: It's my own experience of being a mother to two children. I mean, I do relate to the character very much because I am myself an immigrant mother who raised two American children. Sean, the filmmaker, is saying I love you to his mom. And for me, I'm saying I love you to my children. They have not left adolescence that long ago, and so the memory, the joys and pains, and all the tumultuous time are fresh with me. And so there were moments that I just felt the emotion just pouring out of me. And Sean had to actually nudge me a little bit to the more restrained character, more like his mom. I mean, I'm babbling on with this, but it has been a very cathartic and redemptive, in a way, experience for me to play this mother character in "Didi."
SIMON: Yeah. You have been a factor in world film for five decades. What's left to do?
CHEN: Lots. There's so much I want to do, but I'm glad that throughout almost half a century of my career, I didn't stop. Even when the parts sometimes weren't so great, and you wish for better ones, but I would take it just as a practice. I want to keep my craft there, and I still - there's so much still to learn. I'm just happy I'm still alive, vertical, when the scene is better now for Asian Americans. Yeah, I'm ready.
SIMON: Joan Chen. And the movie "Didi" is in theaters now. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
CHEN: Thank you. Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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