Didi film review: A subtle, sweet Y2K coming-of-ager that understands the horror of MySpace

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Each time it played in Sean Wang’s 2008-set coming-of-ager, it felt like a claw hook had launched out of the screen and dragged me back in front of my father’s PC, seconds after realising my crush had just logged on and the indie band lyric I’d picked for my away message really wasn’t as seductive and mysterious as I’d hoped it to be. Wang’s semi-autobiographical feature-length debut takes place at a time in digital history that’s now old enough to feel like an artefact, and includes a major plot development revealed through the removal of one character from another character’s top eight friends on Myspace. Izaac Wang and Mahaela Park in ‘Dìdi’ Wang’s attention to detail here captures the casual cruelty of a generation brought up on South Park. His film is subtle, too, in how a passing racist comment from Chris’s crush – that he’s “pretty cute for an Asian” – is repressed and allowed to silently stew, right until it erupts in his mother’s face.