This year has been surreal so far for 29-year-old filmmaker Sean Wang. His first feature, Dìdi, won several awards at Sundance, where it debuted, then got picked up by Focus Features. Then his short documentary, Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, earned an Oscar nomination.
The short documentary focuses on Sean Wang’s grandmothers, Yi Yan Fuei and Chang Li Hua, whom he calls Nǎi Nai (which means paternal grandmother) and Wài Pó (which means maternal grandmother). Both are immigrants from Taiwan — ages 86 and 96. They live together, take care of each other, and even sleep in the same bed.
Wang tells KCRW that his grandmothers’ bond is almost like a sisterhood and they complement each other well.
He explains that after Wài Pó’s husband died — he was previously paralyzed, and being his caretaker was her main identity — she immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan and moved in with the family. That was when she started living under one roof with Nǎi Nai, who also became a widow around the same time.
“They had … found each other in this late stage in their life where their partners both passed away. … I think it was a very special thing for them. … It blossomed into this beautiful friendship.”
Wang says that in retrospect, the film gave them an opportunity to play — they’re captured dancing and wearing old costumes — and showcase unexpected parts of their personalities. “They're so creative, and they're so playful, and they're so fun, and have this infectious childlike energy.”
The idea for this film began during a transitional period in Wang’s life, he explains. In spring 2021, he moved to his Bay Area home (then later went back to LA, where he studied) and witnessed his grandmothers’ daily, mundane rhythms and routines, such as Wài Pó washing dishes and washing fruit, and Nǎi Nai reading the newspaper. He also interacted with them in “a way that was very silly and chaotic.”
“That joy … that they bring out of me, that youthful energy was contrasted with a lot of the anti-Asian hate crimes that were happening at the time in our country, but especially in the Bay Area.”
He continues, “We don't explicitly talk about it in the movie, but I think there's an undercurrent that is woven throughout, especially in the part where they're reading the newspaper, and they say, ‘It's been a year since we've been to the supermarket. We're scared.’ … There was [sic] just a lot of things happening during that time, obviously, with COVID, and then being elderly and being especially vulnerable to something like that. … It was wanting to create an antidote to so much of what I was seeing in the news.”
Wang says he also wanted to create a keepsake for himself, his children, and his sister’s children. He shot the film when Nǎi Nai was 94 years and Wài Pó was 83, so he was aware that the months-long homestay with them was special — something he might never experience again once he left.
If one of them dies, how would the other cope? Wang says he hasn’t talked to them about that.
“But there's something that Nǎi Nai says in the movie that I find so poignant, where she says, ‘We could spend our days feeling joy or our days feeling pain. Each day is the same day spent. So I'm going to choose joy.’”
Right now, the women are still physically active and seem to have most of their mental faculties. So what’s their secret to anti-aging? Wang points to their daily stretching.
They both will be attending the Oscars ceremony on March 10.
“They're getting a really high-profile stylist. … I'm there to make sure they can have the Hollywood night of their dreams. … We took them to the Oscar nominees luncheon, and they were on the red carpet like they've done it their entire lives,” Wang says.