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‘I’m Still Here’: Joan Chen Plays Thwarted Immigrant Mom in ‘Didi'

Chinese-American actress Joan Chen poses during a photocall for Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke's film '24 City' at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 2008 in Cannes, southern France. (AFP)
Chinese-American actress Joan Chen poses during a photocall for Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke's film '24 City' at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 2008 in Cannes, southern France. (AFP)
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‘I’m Still Here’: Joan Chen Plays Thwarted Immigrant Mom in ‘Didi'

Chinese-American actress Joan Chen poses during a photocall for Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke's film '24 City' at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 2008 in Cannes, southern France. (AFP)
Chinese-American actress Joan Chen poses during a photocall for Chinese director Jia Zhang Ke's film '24 City' at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 2008 in Cannes, southern France. (AFP)

Long before Joan Chen charmed Western audiences with seductive turns in "The Last Emperor" and "Twin Peaks" she was a child star in China, hand-picked for her debut movie role by Mao Zedong's wife.

That remarkable personal journey, from Red Army propaganda movies to glamorous Hollywood roles directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and David Lynch, could not appear more different to Chen's character in new coming-of-age film "Didi."

Chen plays Chungsing, a Taiwanese single mom and frustrated artist in California, whose 13-year-old is too busy trying to impress his skater friends and navigate adolescent crushes to be nice to his family.

Yet the role -- which is already earning Oscars buzz -- "poured out of me, because that's the life I've lived," Chen told AFP.

"I am, like Chungsing, an immigrant mother, who raised two American children -- with such an intimate, loving relationship, but also fraught with cultural chasm, misunderstanding, unmet expectations," she said.

It all started for Chen, aged 14, when she was spotted by a film director who worked for Chairman Mao's wife Jiang Qing.

"The director picked me out of school, then sent my dossier and my pictures for her to approve," recalls Chen.

"I was so happy that I happened to be the type that they needed. It wasn't my dream. I never thought about it, when they picked me to be an actress. And then slowly, I learned to love it."

She quickly became a beloved movie star in 1970s China -- a job that spared her from being sent to work in rural provinces during the devastating Cultural Revolution.

Chen moved to the US at age 20, studying film but skeptical about her prospects as an Asian woman in Hollywood.

She landed a lead role in Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor," as the wife of China's final dynastic ruler. The film won nine Oscars, including best picture.

Yet Chen, now 63, recalls: "Back then, there just weren't any Asian filmmakers or scriptwriters who could create a part for me."

"I could have been this ingenue, this breakout new lead (actress)... So that was a shame. Nothing could really follow up."

- 'Still here' -

In "Didi," out in theaters on August 16, Chen's character is a talented artist who had to forsake her ambitions for her family, in their new country.

Chungsing is stoic, quietly bearing her disappointment while devoting herself to her frequently oblivious, Americanized children.

Unlike her character, Chen continued to work prolifically through parenthood, acting and directing in both the US and Asian film industries.

Chen's part as femme fatale Josie Packard in "Twin Peaks" remains popular with fans of the cult TV series to this day.

But her Western roles have failed to match the success of her early career.

And she still reflects on the "night and day" difference between her daughters' experience growing up in the West, and her own arrival in the United States as an immigrant, with "that uncertainty of the ground you're standing on."

"The pains and joys we see in the film is a lived experience for myself as well," said Chen.

With "Didi" winning awards at the Sundance film festival, there are hints of a late-career comeback. Chen and director Sean Wang are earning mentions as dark horses for the next Academy Awards.

"I am so thrilled that young filmmakers like Sean exist... when there are enough scriptwriters, directors, then you create more parts for people who look like them," she said.

"It's wonderful. And I'm so happy that I'm still here."

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Entertainment

Home Where Young Bowie Dreamt of 'Fame' to Open to Public

Bowie was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Raph GATTI / AFP
Bowie was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Raph GATTI / AFP
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Home Where Young Bowie Dreamt of 'Fame' to Open to Public

Bowie was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Raph GATTI / AFP
Bowie was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Raph GATTI / AFP

With its grey front door and battered picket fence, No. 4 Plaistow Grove in the anonymous London suburb of Bromley is unremarkable in every way except for one.

The modest terraced house -- originally built as a railway workers' cottage in the late 19th century -- is the childhood home of pop phenomenon David Bowie, said AFP.

An inscription on a small blue plaque to the right of the front door is the only clue to the property's extraordinary past.

"David Bowie Singer and Talented Musician 1955-1968," it reads, a reference to the 13 years that he spent living there.

Bowie, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century who died aged 69 in 2016, spent some of his most formative years here.

Now, the house has been acquired by a leading London heritage body which plans to turn it into a Bowie immersive experience.

Under the curatorship of Bowie expert Geoff Marsh it would be returned to the way it would have been when he was 16 in 1963 and opened to the public hopefully by the end of 2027.

The singer, real name David Jones, and his family moved into the property on the southeastern outskirts of the capital in 1955 when he was eight years old.

"It all started in this building," Marsh told AFP. "It was here that he changed from being an ordinary schoolboy to being determined to be a superstar."

- Step back in time -

Bowie lived in the house with his parents, Haywood and Peggy, and older half brother, Terry, a major creative influence who introduced him to modern jazz, Beat literature and Buddhism.

From 1966 onwards, however, Terry was no longer a constant presence at home due to a schizophrenia diagnosis which saw him in and out of psychiatric hospitals.

According to biographers, Peggy was emotionally distant towards Bowie, and their relationship included periods of estrangement.

Peggy moved out in 1970 following the death at home a year earlier of Haywood, aged just 56.

Once restored, people will be able to take a step back in time and experience the young Bowie's world, just as Beatles fans have done in Liverpool at the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Out will go the central heating, modern kitchen-diner extension and conservatory, plus the upstairs bathroom.

Back in will be a coal fire, outside lavatory, tiny kitchen and garage that once stood at the end of the garden.

It is located a stone's throw from the Sundridge Park railway station, from where Bowie "could get from what he saw as being very dull suburban life... straight into the West End, Soho, the music clubs there", Marsh said.

- Place to dream -

"It was that kind of culture in the 50s: keep your head down. Know who you are. Don't try and get above yourself," said Marsh, who curated the David Bowie Is exhibition at London's V&A museum in 2013.

"And David obviously just thought 'that's not for me. I want to be a success'. And music was his way out."

The main focal point will be the small 2.7 meter by three meter (9ft by 10ft) back bedroom where Bowie's creative journey began.

Bowie wrote his earliest songs here but struggled with rejection for five years before achieving his first major hit with "Space Oddity" in 1969.

In later life, Bowie described the bedroom as a place where he went to escape from his parents and dream.

But the singer, whose career was marked by a commitment to constant reinvention, also voiced a sense that the room had followed him around all his life, Marsh said.

He was "always, to some extent, running away from here", he added.

Heritage of London Trust director Nicola Stacey said she expected fans to find there was "nothing more powerful" than standing in the room.

Bowie had a record player and a tape recorder there as well as a saxophone bought for him by his father, who is said to have been more emotionally supportive.

- 'Moment of possibility' -

Other possible items that could feature include a photograph of Little Richard he bought from the Woolworths store when he was 10 and pinned to the wall. The picture remained with him all his life.

Friends of Bowie have recalled coming through the front door into a "rather austere house" with a "rather austere atmosphere", Stacey said.

"They would come up to David's room, and they would play music and look at all this Americana he was so interested in... and they just felt this sort of moment of possibility."

The project has also triggered memories from people who grew up in the area and recall seeing Bowie "wearing incredible outfits", Stacey said.

Bowie assembled and experimented with the outfits in his bedroom having purchased items from second-hand and surplus stores in central London's trendy Carnaby Street.

They knew there was something different about him and were sure he "was going to be something amazing", she added.

Entertainment

‘Malcolm in the Middle’ Returns After 20 Years with Questions of Legacy and Its Trademark Craziness

Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield, Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston and Frankie Muniz attend Hulu's "Malcolm in The Middle: Life's Still Unfair" New York Premiere at DGA Theater on April 07, 2026 in New York City. (Getty Images/AFP)
Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield, Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston and Frankie Muniz attend Hulu's "Malcolm in The Middle: Life's Still Unfair" New York Premiere at DGA Theater on April 07, 2026 in New York City. (Getty Images/AFP)
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‘Malcolm in the Middle’ Returns After 20 Years with Questions of Legacy and Its Trademark Craziness

Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield, Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston and Frankie Muniz attend Hulu's "Malcolm in The Middle: Life's Still Unfair" New York Premiere at DGA Theater on April 07, 2026 in New York City. (Getty Images/AFP)
Christopher Masterson, Justin Berfield, Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston and Frankie Muniz attend Hulu's "Malcolm in The Middle: Life's Still Unfair" New York Premiere at DGA Theater on April 07, 2026 in New York City. (Getty Images/AFP)

A very grown-up Malcolm turns to the camera at the beginning of the new “Malcolm in the Middle” revival and, weirdly, has nothing to complain about.

“Yeah, I look different, but, hey, everything about me is different. I’m happy. I’m successful,” he says. “My life is fantastic now. You want to know how I did it? All I had to do is stay completely away from my family.”

That's going to be very hard to do in Hulu's four-part return to “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair,” which reunites one of the zaniest and chaotic families ever on prime time. The episodes premiere Friday.

Twenty years after the last episode aired, we learn that Malcolm — a nervous, sputtering Frankie Muniz — is now a father of a teen and desperate to shield her from his dysfunctional parents and siblings.

“I cannot go back to the way I was before and I’m not going to risk you,” Malcolm tells her. “You have to think of it like they’re the full moon and we’re werewolves.”

How the revival came about

Original series creator Linwood Boomer and his co-producer-wife, Tracy Katsky Boomer, batted ideas on how to get the gang back together for years. Both weren't willing to make just anything for a “shameless cash grab.”

Linwood Boomer recalls a light bulb went on when his wife wondered what would it be like if Malcolm had a daughter who was exactly like him. “I was just like, ‘Oh my God, that kid would be miserable,’” he says.

In addition to Muniz, Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek are back as the barely-holding-it-together parents and Christopher Kennedy Masterson and Justin Berfield return as brothers Francis and Reese, respectively.

Newcomers include Keeley Karsten as Leah, Malcolm’s deeply empathic daughter, and Vaughan Murrae, Malcolm’s whip-smart youngest sibling, who we last saw as a baby. Caleb Ellsworth-Clark takes over the role of Dewey.

Director Ken Kwapis, one of the original directors of the show, was tapped to return and was impressed with how the old and new cast members handled the physical and emotional tasks.

“The original cast slipped back into their roles effortlessly. But equally important is they embraced the new members of the cast very quickly,” he says.

“There’s a performance level that some people have described as high octane. And so for the new members of the ensemble, they had to like, ‘OK, I’m going to step up and do it.’ And they all hit it out of the park.”

A comically accurate view of child-rearing

Malcolm may desperately want to keep his distance from his family, but the 40th wedding anniversary of his parents has a gravitational pull, putting everyone on a collision course, albeit a hysterical one.

“It’s hard to do a straight comedy right now because everything’s very serious in the world,” says Katsky Boomer. “It feels nice to just unleash good vibes so people can just take a breather.”

“Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair” joins a list of new and upcoming reboots and revivals from the late 1990s and early 2000s, including “Scrubs,” “King of the Hill,” “Prison Break,” “Baywatch” and “Phineas and Ferb.”

The Boomers credit Cranston for keeping the flame of a revival alive, staying in touch with the actors and crew. And he’s jumped back in boldly, despite becoming a huge star in the intervening years.

“Malcolm in the Middle” originally aired on Fox and ended its seven-season run in 2006. It won seven Emmy Awards — including one for best writing for a comedy series — and currently streams on Hulu and on Hulu on Disney+, where the revival will also live.

Linwood Boomer based “Malcolm” on his own nutty family, and it struck a chord, depicting childhood as a constant power struggle — with bigger kids, teachers, parents and siblings. There were squabbles with a ferocity rare on TV, and it was funny because it was so grounded in truth. It was TV’s most comically accurate view of child-rearing since “Roseanne.”

“There was a line in the pilot I would say to myself all the time — ‘I want a better family!’ — and it turns out most families aren’t any better,” says Boomer.

Parental legacy

For the revival, the tables are turned. This time it's about being a parent and the legacy that we extend to our children. Malcolm's daughter is struggling in life and school, but her father's genetic toolkit only has belligerence, impulsiveness and thickheadedness, passed on by his on-screen parents.

“So much trauma, unfortunately, is the result of good people literally trying their best,” says Katsky Boomer. “You can understand it as you grow old enough to appreciate that your parents are human beings.”

Kwapis says the revival is painfully — and also hilariously — looking at how sometimes years go by and we're often in the same groove when it comes to family dynamics.

“You get to explore new things, but you also get to the explore the idea that some things — for better or for worse — just can’t change,” he says.

As for any future revisiting of this family, the husband-and-wife “Malcolm” team are noncommittal. “There are no plans. It was a really lovely experience,” says Linwood Boomer. Might there be more? “I can’t say no, but I also can’t say yeah,” he says.

Entertainment

Source: Sony Pictures to Trim Workforce by a Few Hundreds in Strategic Reset

FILE - A Sony PlayStation 5 video game console is for sale in Fairfield, Connecticut, on December 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - A Sony PlayStation 5 video game console is for sale in Fairfield, Connecticut, on December 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
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Source: Sony Pictures to Trim Workforce by a Few Hundreds in Strategic Reset

FILE - A Sony PlayStation 5 video game console is for sale in Fairfield, Connecticut, on December 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - A Sony PlayStation 5 video game console is for sale in Fairfield, Connecticut, on December 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Sony Pictures Entertainment is laying off a few hundred employees, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the company restructures parts of its business to align with its long-term growth strategy.

The layoffs are not a cost-cutting exercise but are targeted and strategic, the source added, according to Reuters.

The job reductions come as Hollywood studios contend with shifting audience habits, mounting pressure on traditional television businesses and a reassessment ⁠of spending after ⁠years of heavy investment in streaming.

Unlike many rivals, Sony Pictures primarily licenses content to third-party streaming platforms, giving it flexibility to partner widely rather than rely on a single in-house service.

In a letter sent internally earlier on ⁠Tuesday, Sony Pictures Chief Executive Ravi Ahuja told employees the company was reducing roles in some areas while increasing focus and investment in others, describing the changes as necessary to operate with greater speed and alignment.

"These are difficult decisions," Ahuja said in the message, adding that affected employees would be supported through the transition.

Ahuja said Sony Pictures remains well positioned despite ⁠broader ⁠industry disruption, citing the strength of its independent film and television studios, which allow it to partner widely across platforms rather than rely on a single in-house streaming service.

Media companies have increasingly streamlined operations while prioritizing franchises, global intellectual property and more flexible distribution models.

Sony Pictures is a major Hollywood studio known for franchises such as Spider-Man, Jumanji and Ghostbusters, and television shows including The Boys and Jeopardy!