“Dear You,” directed by Lan Hongchun, is a historical film centering around qiaopi, or letters and money sent by Chinese workers overseas back to their families on the mainland – specifically, qiaopi sent by Teochew immigrants in Southeast Asia throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
The film, which is spoken primarily in Teochew and features a slew of nonprofessional actors, became a sleeper hit in China, and opens in Atlanta this weekend. It’s an admirable attempt on Lan’s part to bring attention to a segment of history that, if you didn’t grow up in China, you might not know much about. But, an admirable story doesn’t always make for an interesting movie. And “Dear You” suffers from poor pacing, structure, and characterization.
“Dear You” is about a young man, Den Bhagseng (Wang Yantong) who flees China in the 1950s to avoid military conscription. He eventually ends up in Thailand working as a rickshaw driver, trying to raise enough money to send back to his wife, Sogriou (Wang Xiaohui), and eventually return to her and their children.
But, we don’t start in the past with Bhagseng as a young man. Instead, we start in the present day with a much older Sogriou (Wu Shaoqing). She hasn’t seen Bhagseng in decades and doesn’t like to think of him too much – instead of returning to China like he promised, he married another woman, stayed in Thailand, and became unfathomably wealthy. In the 1970s, he sent a letter containing nothing but a photo of him and his new family. He kept sending letters after that, but she never responded.
But once again, the movie doesn’t really start with her either. Instead, we start with Sogriou’s grandson, Hiou-ui (Zheng Runqi), who is in serious debt and needs to find the funds to fix it fast. He decides to travel to Thailand to find his long lost, richer-than-God grandpa, hoping he’ll feel bad enough about abandoning his family to at least send them some money.
If reading that felt a little discombobulating, I’ve successfully recreated the feeling of watching the opening of this film. “Dear You” attempts to hide the ball with its structure, throwing the audience into the middle of what feels like it might be a mob movie as Hiou-ui yells at the collector hounding him on the phone, promising them he’s good for the money. The film quickly evolves into a family mystery (we don’t hear much about Hiou-ui’s debts after the opening), but that too quickly becomes a moot point.
Read Sammie’s full list on Rough Draft
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