Didi was made for people who shiver with panic at the sound of AOL Instant Messenger's creaking door alert. 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. What a hellish time to be young and confused.
Chris Wang (Izaac Wang), called Wang Wang by his friends, has the average problems of a 13-year-old kid. He tries and fails to impress girls. He wages all-out warfare with his older sister, Vivian (Shirley Chen). And he's stuck in that resentful stage of development in which paternal disrespect has become a reflex.
This story is from the August 02, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 02, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Carse justifies England faith as the archetypal bold pick
If you won a boxing match after your opponent continually punched themselves in the face, how much credit can you take?
Tenacious Diallo the key to Amorim pressing machine
Old Trafford has not seen anything like this before.
Gold King Cole packs the Bridge with merry old souls
In the 83rd minute, the ball rolled to the feet of Cole Palmer in a bubble of space outside Aston Villa's box, and the crowd snapped to attention.
Vibrant Anfield marks the changing of the Guardiola
There was a lull in the noise, a break in the Anfield atmosphere, when a defiant chant emerged from a corner near Stefan Ortega’s goal.
What is so daunting about Spain's new data checks?
Q You have written about the new “red tape” for visitors to Spain. So, as well as your usual passport details you will give a contact number, address and email. Not exactly the Spanish Inquisition, is it?
Sectarian clashes claim at least 130 lives in Pakistan
At least 130 people were killed in deadly sectarian clashes in Pakistan's northwestern Kurram district in spite of a tentative ceasefire, days after gunmen opened fire on a convoy of vehicles carrying Shia Muslims, local officials said.
Coalition government likely in Ireland as count proceeds
Fianna Fail say decisions on power-sharing for another day’
How Syria's forgotten war is back on the world's agenda
Many believed the country was lost in an unsolvable conflict, until everything changed in a matter of days, writes Bel Trew
Assad regime scrambles to halt Syrian rebels’ advance
Civilians reportedly killed by Russian and Syrian airstrikes
Mother of poisoning victim says she knew she would die
Lawyer Simone White succumbed to the effects of methanol while backpacking in Laos with two of her childhood friends
