Dear You (2026)

The score in Dear You tells you when to cry about thirty seconds before the scene does, and the story leans melodramatic more than once. It barely matters. Lan Hongchun’s film, mostly in Teochew with a largely non-professional cast, follows Hiou-ui, a grandson buried in debt, who heads to Thailand to find the grandfather the family swears got rich and forgot them. The trail runs through decades of qiaopi, the letters and money migrants mailed home, and the movie treats every one of those envelopes like a living thing. Li Sitong is the find, quiet and restrained as Zia Lamgi, a young woman in old Bangkok’s Chinatown whose story slowly takes over the film. The whole cast feels natural, never polished. The period detail, the hostel, the riverboat, the sense of place, all of it feels lived in rather than built. It runs 119 minutes and earns most of them. An 8.2 because its sincerity beats its syrup. $14.15 says you walk past a post office this week and get weirdly emotional about it.

What works: The letters carry real emotional weight, Li Sitong’s quiet performance is lovely, and the Teochew setting feels deeply authentic.

What doesn’t: The score is heavy-handed and syrupy, and the plot tips into melodrama more than once.

Who it’s for: Anyone with a grandparent who left home young, and anyone who still keeps old letters in a box.