Dear You

Lan and his collaborators don’t simply approximate Den and Zia’s lived experiences; they also remind us what their material world looked and sounded like through earthy stylistic grace notes and carefully phrased dialogue exchanges. As a result, “Dear You” is an arresting and surprisingly sensitive window into the past.

If you want to learn about this historic chapter of Chinese expatriates, this film provides an entertaining and credible entry point. But it leaves you very little room for interpretations, as everything is spelled out in a very definite manner, like a text book through unreal characters who are used as vessels in sync with the director’s ideology.

An unexpectedly moving tribute to the written word.

Co-written by director Lan Hongchun with Zheng Xuanxuan, Yang Leng, and Zhu Liyun, the script deals with the complexities of identity and migrant integration in subtle fashion.

Lan provides a moving and often surprising window into Teochew culture and history through the life of an often-dysfunctional but loving family. It’s an approach that has touched audiences all over China and is poised to do so here as well.