Sometimes a film comes along that completely catches you off guard. You go in expecting a straightforward drama and come out feeling like you have been taken on an emotional journey through decades of love, loss, family and sacrifice.
That is exactly what happened to me with Dear You, the latest Chinese drama from writer-director Lan Hongchun.
Well Go USA Entertainment is the U.S and Canada distributor and Dear You follows a debt ridden young man who travels to Thailand in search of the grandfather he believes abandoned his family. What begins as an attempt to track down money and uncover the truth slowly develops into something much more heartfelt, as he discovers a story stretching back generations and involving the qiaopi letters and remittances sent by Chinese immigrants to their families back home
A story that grows and grows
One of the things I really enjoyed about Dear You is the way the story gradually opens up. At first, it feels like we are following one fairly straightforward journey, but as more letters, memories and secrets are uncovered, the film expands into a much bigger story about family connections and the sacrifices people make for those they love.
Lan Hongchun takes his time with the characters and the history behind them. The film moves between generations, gradually filling in the gaps and allowing you to see events from a completely different perspective.
It is a film built around emotion, and there is no escaping the fact that it can be very sentimental at times. The music occasionally lets you know exactly when you are supposed to feel something, but I have to admit… by the time the film reaches its most emotional moments, I was already fully invested.
The film’s particular Teochew cultural setting and its use of the qiaopi tradition give the story a real sense of identity, while the central themes of migration, separation and family sacrifice remain easy to connect with wherever you are from.
The performances
The cast includes Li Sitong, Wang Yantong, Wu Shaoqing, Zheng Runqi and Wang Xiaohui, and one of the real strengths of the film is how natural many of the performances feel. Li Sitong is particularly impressive, bringing a quiet strength and emotional weight to her role. She never feels like she is trying too hard to force the audience into feeling something, which makes her more dramatic moments land even harder. Several critics have also singled out her performance as one of the film’s strongest elements.
Zheng Runqi provides the audience’s way into the story through his character’s search for answers, while Wang Yantong, Wu Shaoqing and Wang Xiaohui help give the story its emotional connection across the different generations.
What I particularly liked is that Dear You never feels like a collection of big movie-star performances. There is a rawness and sincerity to the cast that suits the story perfectly.
Not your typical Eastern Film Fans review…
I will be honest, if you come to Eastern Film Fans looking for flying kicks, sword fights and crazy Hong Kong action, Dear You is definitely not that kind of film this is a much quieter experience butthat is exactly why I wanted to highlight it.
Well Go USA has built a fantastic catalogue of Asian cinema, and Dear You is a good reminder that some of the most memorable films are not always the loudest ones. This is a story about ordinary people whose lives are shaped by extraordinary circumstances.
There are moments where the film perhaps leans a little too heavily into the melodrama, and at nearly two hours it takes its time getting where it is going. But for me, the emotional journey was worth it, by the end, Dear You had won me over.
Final Thoughts
Dear You is a heartfelt, beautifully told story about family, distance, regret, love and sacrifice. Lan Hongchun has created a film that is deeply rooted in a specific cultural history while still telling a story that anyone can connect with. It may be sentimental, and it occasionally pulls at the heartstrings a little too obviously, but when a film is this sincere and its characters are this easy to care about, I am happy to go along for the ride.
This is not an action-packed crowd-pleaser in the traditional sense. Instead, it is the kind of film that slowly gets under your skin and leaves you thinking about its characters long after the credits have rolled.
★★★★☆ – 4/5
