If you need an antidote to the bloated and increasingly tiresome summer blockbuster releases, you could do much worse than watch ‘Dear You’. Made on a modest budget, this massive sleeper hit has bewitched audiences in China and, after two hours in its company, it’s easy to see why.
Yu Shurou arrives at his grandmother’s birthday with one thing on his mind: inheritance. In massive debt to some unscrupulous individuals, Yu needs money and he focuses in on his relatives, his errant grandfather being the main target. The rumour that his grandfather went to make his fortune in Thailand before marrying again fascinates Yu, and when rumours surface that the émigré had founded numerous successful schools, he is sure that an inheritance is awaiting. Yu arrives in Thailand to uncover the millions only to find that many are unwilling to offer him an easy explanation for what happened to his grandfather. Eventually, he finds someone who knows the full story and the result is life-changing.
A bittersweet paean to qiaopi – remittance letters sent back home to China by those who had emigrated for a better life – ‘Dear You’ unfolds into a captivating and moving portrait of love and friendship. That it nails both themes so successfully is testament to the quality of the writing and acting; it weaves together a truly inspiring pattern of everlasting love between spouses, friends and adopted sisters. And despite a small budget, it does this in a very evocative recreation of the past, both in China and in Thailand. As mentioned, that the look of the film is so accomplished speaks volumes for the creators behind it.
Though Lan Hongchun wrote this specifically about Teochew (Chiuchow) emigrants, it succeeds because of its familiarity. Many of us will have heard stories about our parents and grandparents and the struggles they went through to provide for those left behind. In this way, ‘Dear You’ will resonate with some even more than others, though it never excludes or alienates in its message. Ultimately, it is a timeless and frustratingly tragic story about regret and how the past can become mythologised, leading to complications.
‘Dear You’ takes a while to hit its stride. The framing story doesn’t work as well as the other components and the redemption of the avaricious Yu is an afterthought. This is the main weakness here and feels like the movie’s one missed opportunity. That said, the rest of ‘Dear You’ is a delight and stirs the emotions without contrivance. That the cast is mainly non-professional is a remarkable point of interest; every role is perfectly performed and you believe every relationship and dynamic. The fact that ‘Dear You’ is also an ode to the Teochew diaspora is more than just window dressing too; it’s clear from this and Lan Hongchun’s other work that this means so much. By turns uplifting, tragic and inspiring, ‘Dear You’ is a film to treasure.
‘Dear You’ is now screening in cinemas across the UK and Ireland through Trinity CineAsia. For full details and screening locations, visit trinitycineasia.com.
