A poignant, crowd-pleasing family melodrama built around letters, debt, migration, and long-delayed emotional reckonings. Its appeal comes from the way it turns a twisty premise into a tearful story about women carrying memory, labor, and love across generations and borders.
Dear You
Where to watch: In Theaters
Movie · Drama · Family · PG-13
2026 · 1h 58m
Be a person of integrity and loyalty.
Director: Lan Hongchun
Starring: Li Sitong, Wang Yantong, Wu Shaoqing
Overview
Xiaowei travels to Thailand to find his "billionaire grandfather" who is out of contact due to debt problems, but unexpectedly find the one who has been corresponding with his grandmother for years is not her husband.
Director
Lan Hongchun
Production
Damai Entertainment
Cast
Li Sitong, Wang Yantong, Wu Shaoqing, Zheng Runqi, Wang Xiaohui, Zhao Shuguang, Li Deru, Li Shuhao, Usha Seamkhum, Fang Peisong, Zhong Shaoxian, Zheng Pengsheng, Lese Mai, Xu Peiyong
Curator Review
Verdict
A poignant, crowd-pleasing family melodrama built around letters, debt, migration, and long-delayed emotional reckonings. Its appeal comes from the way it turns a twisty premise into a tearful story about women carrying memory, labor, and love across generations and borders.
Best for
viewers who like emotional family dramas
fans of letter-based or epistolary storytelling
audiences interested in Chinese diaspora or Southeast Asian Chinese histories
people who enjoy tearjerker melodramas with a comedic edge
viewers drawn to stories about women’s resilience and intergenerational bonds
Skip if
you want subtle, minimalist storytelling
you dislike overt sentimentality
you prefer politically explicit historical dramas
you are looking for fast-paced plotting or genre thrills
Overview
Dear You is the kind of melodrama that knows exactly where to press: family obligation, hidden histories, migration, and the ache of a life built around what was never fully said. The premise is simple but emotionally elastic, and the film uses its letter-writing structure to turn distance into intimacy and absence into suspense.
Worth noting
What gives it extra force is the focus on women doing the invisible work of keeping families intact. The story’s pleasures come less from surprise than from accumulation: small acts of care, sacrifice, and endurance that gradually reveal how much a whole community can depend on one person’s silence.
Bottom line
It can feel broad and openly manipulative, and some viewers will wish for more historical complexity or sharper social conflict. But if you’re open to a sincere, highly emotional family drama with strong regional flavor, it lands with real warmth and sadness.
Top Letterboxd reviews
clem peppermint (5★) · 159 likes
bitch i was expecting a mushy love story not two hours of heartwrenching doomed old lady yuri why would you do this to me
sitian c (4.5★) · 147 likes
She really became the first long distance queer surrogate father figure
Ar Nam Ho 何阿嵐 (2.5★) · 131 likes
（English down below） 電影受「主旋律」恩寵是一回事，官方宣傳的側重點，往往與電影本身的敘事選擇和視角有著明顯差異。回顧近幾年被官方重點推廣的電影，從《熱辣滾燙》（2024）、《哪吒2》（2025），再到2026年的這一部作品，背後皆反映出官方在文化定位與國策走向上的脈絡。值得注意的是，帶有「方言」色彩的故事進入主流視角，以及在大國自信的語境下，擁抱一個「陰性」敘事。電影藉由肯定海外華僑對國家的付出與犧牲，讓人聯想到這與當下成立華僑組織、強化海外華人與國家連結相關。 然而，必需去警惕，若全盤以此框架來拆解文本，會流於過度「政治性」，無意間也抹殺與否定了電影中角色本身的生命力，下文篇幅所限，就已經抹殺了這層面的討論，還有電影在melodrama 結構上，做了有趣的嘗試。 同時也必需要去問，二戰前後出生，對「中國」（民國還是共產中國也好）的感情寄托的東南亞華人，是複雜又難以啟齒，面對的種族與政治身份困境，不是我在華人為主生活的人能完全理解，電影在這方面是完全沒有觸及，而且，她們不應該被只說成「偉大」。 但這一刻，只因為在現時的中國電影環境中，一部以「方言」為骨幹的電影能夠成功突圍、被大眾看見，甚至被主流論述所重視，地域性的語言與市井故事，也可以具備強大的市場價值與論說能力，這本身就是一個十分有趣，和需被肯定的，哪怕背後有幕後推手在加持。 這終究是關於鄭木生、謝南枝的海外華人故事。在缺乏事前了解的情況下，對於劇情發展聚焦於泰國華人身上其實令我相當驚訝，並以「Girl help Girl」（女性互助）為敘事核心。這其中有就許多探討空間，尤其是創作者在處理泰國華人題材時（難免有代言泰國華人的意味），自覺地選擇了「寫什麼」與「不寫什麼」。 踏入1960年代，東南亞的反共浪潮席捲泰國，華人社群面臨身分認同危機，生存空間受到擠壓。但電影卻有意無意地將這段敏感的歷史抽空。創作者迴避了冷戰時期的意識形態衝突以及在地的政治壓迫，轉而將敘事重心收攏在女性個體於夾縫中求存的「韌性」上。 這種「不寫」與「迴避」，是出於當下審查語境的考量。電影淡化了華人在異鄉受泰國在地壓迫的真實處境，更略過了潮汕社群「家己人」在危機下產生的防禦與排他心態。這裡可以舉兩個例子：一是反派的置換，電影將核心的生存危機與暴力衝突，旅社被縱火焚毀、主角失去積蓄，轉嫁到一位印度商人身上。這將資本掠奪的惡行剝離於泰國在地社會之外，歷史背景中的結構性矛盾被簡化為單一的外部惡意，這或許也呼應了當下特定的地緣政治情緒（中印交惡）。 同時，近年在官方審查中可見，創作者為避免呈現國內的問題，常以東南亞國家作為借代，但矛盾的是，當故事真的發生在泰國時，又因為害怕影響周邊地區友好關係，又會虛構出東南亞國家或城市。二是災難的過濾，導致兩位女性最終失聯多年的關鍵原因，被設定為一場意外的「颱風」，而非1970年代前後中國或東南亞現實中的政治運動。自然災害取代了人為的政治動盪，洗去了時代的複雜性。 回到電影的軌跡，劇中的「Girl help Girl」呈現出一種跨越地域的形態。謝南枝與葉淑柔從未在年輕時相見，她們的連結完全建立在一個缺席的男性（鄭木生）以及「僑批」這項物件之上。在鄭木生意外身亡後，南枝選擇隱瞞真相，長達十幾年持續代寫僑批並寄送物資，實質上接替了傳統宗族結構中「海外經濟支柱」的男性角色，支撐起遠在汕頭的鄭家生計與淑柔的精神寄託。 但在這裡，需要提出一個簡單的疑問，作為敘事的前設，南枝為什麼要為了這個秘密堅守二十多年？那一場在郵局中，看到其他遠洋過海的華人生命，南枝在木生身上發現到什麼的特質，令她要守護秘密？（話說南枝和木生這兩個具有「木」意象的名字究竟隱含了多少的投射？） 木生雖然對南枝有救父之恩，但這份恩情為何最終演變成牽絆南枝一生的枷鎖？潮汕女性是否必須展現出如此的「忠貞」與「犧牲」？當我們用女性互助來解讀她對淑柔的扶持時，背後隱藏著一個邏輯：南枝的自我犧牲與漫長守候，表面上是出於對另一個女性的同理，但這又是否是官方論述中所推崇的堅忍、奉獻與無私等集體主義美德？ 我想說的是，這未必是女性自覺的覺醒。這種傳統「女性美德」與女性情誼，在這裡反而更成為了維繫宗族、血脈與牌位延續，對華僑無私奉獻國家的肯定而已。 歸根究柢，這種歷史脈絡的缺失與對女性角色道德的側重，是否為了確保「海外華僑心繫故土」的敘事不被複雜干擾？（近年最好的海外華人心境描寫，一定要談到《Everything Everywhere All at Once》）電影利用女性之間的情感連結，填補了因政治避諱而留下的敘事空白，成為一個抽離了政治語境的文本，這與官方強調的大國意識（兩者不一定互斥，可以同時存在）互相配合。 故事以兩家人重逢結拜、鄭木生牌位回歸故鄉作結，安放於「落葉歸根」與「華僑心繫故土」的框架內。這顯示了電影如何透過一個剝去時代背景、將女性犧牲浪漫化的故事來完成敘事。 To understand the cultural footprint of this film, one must look at the landscape of the Chinese box office in 2026. Currently standing as the second highest-grossing film of the year, its massive commercial success might seem surprising at first glance. It is a dialect-heavy film centered on the historical struggles of the Teochew… more
ria (5★) · 77 likes
“were they lovers?” worse.
JeremyZhuang (2★) · 77 likes
Dear You — A Brilliant Premise Ruined by Flawed Screenwriting, and a Microcosm of Chinese Cinema Dear You currently holds an inflated 9.2 rating on Douban. The film is not without merit, which explains its sweeping emotional resonance across Chinese audiences. Centered on transnational remittance letters and two interconnected families, it encapsulates Chaoshan regional culture, weaving themes of romantic love, familial devotion, and local communal solidarity throughout its runtime. Its sentimental set pieces perfectly cater to the average Chinese theatergoer’s… more
For its compassionate focus on chosen family, duty, and the moral complexity of caregiving.
Themes
family obligation, diaspora and migration, women’s resilience, intergenerational memory, letter writing and correspondence, debt and reciprocity, hidden identity, grief and endurance