Some films are complicated in their storytelling but leave little behind once you’re done watching. Others tell a seemingly simple story, yet somehow manage to stay with you for a long time.
Dear You (给阿嬷的情书), the 2026 family drama directed by Lan Hongchun, belongs to the latter. I finished a pack of tissues while watching! And there are still scenes that make me tear up whenever I think of them.
At its core, the film is a story about family, love, sacrifice and the painful distances people are sometimes forced to endure for the sake of those they love. Built around the tradition of qiaopi, remittance letters sent by Chinese emigrants in Southeast Asia to relatives in their ancestral hometowns, the film transforms what might seem like old correspondence into a powerful record of love, responsibility and the passage of time.
Traditionally, qiaopi combined personal letters with money sent home to support family members in China. In Dear You, these letters become much more than financial transactions. They carry memories, promises, secrets and emotions that survive decades of physical separation.
The story follows a cash-strapped grandson who travels from China to Bangkok in search of his long-lost grandfather, hoping to find money to solve his problems. What he discovers instead is a decades-old sacrifice, a hidden second family and a lifetime of love preserved through the letters that passed between people separated by geography and circumstance.
It is, on paper, a relatively simple story. But that simplicity is precisely what makes Dear You so effective.
The film understands that some of life’s biggest emotions do not require elaborate plots. Love, family, longing and sacrifice are experiences that audiences across cultures immediately understand. And this is perhaps why the film has connected so strongly with audiences in China and across Asia.
For Filipino audiences, the connection is particularly striking.
The story of families separated because someone has to leave home to provide for those who remain behind is painfully familiar. The Philippines has millions of Overseas Filipino Workers who leave their families to work abroad, sending money home to support their children’s education, pay household expenses and build a better future. Like the characters in Dear You, these families learn to maintain relationships across borders and through time.
A remittance is never simply money. Behind every amount sent home is a person who is working, waiting, missing birthdays, milestones and ordinary days with the people they love. There is trust between those who leave and those who stay. There is sacrifice on both sides. And sometimes, years can pass before families have the chance to be together again.
This is where Dear You hits hardest. The film does not simply tell us that separation is difficult. It allows us to feel the weight of the years that people lose while trying to give their families a better life.
And yet, the film’s message is ultimately not one of sadness. It is about the ability of love to survive distance and time.
Love in Dear You is not limited to romantic relationships. It exists between grandparents and grandchildren, parents and children, husbands and wives, and even between people who were once strangers. In some of the film’s most touching ideas, family is not always defined solely by blood. Sometimes, people find love, belonging and family in unexpected places. That universality is one of the film’s greatest strengths.
The emotional impact is also supported by the film’s visual world. One of the things I particularly appreciated about Dear You is the consistency of its costume design and production design. The details work together to transport the audience back to the 1960s, giving the story a strong sense of time and place.
Rather than feeling like decoration, the period details become part of the storytelling. The costumes, locations and production design help establish the world in which these characters lived, making their experiences feel grounded and authentic.
And then there are the performances. The cast brings an extraordinary amount of warmth and humanity to their characters. The actors do not merely look the part but they also breathe life into the people they portray. Their performances make the characters believable, approachable and emotionally accessible.
There is a certain charm to the cast that makes it easy to become invested in their lives. They are visually appealing, yes, but more importantly, they have heart.By the time the story unfolds, you no longer feel as though you are simply watching characters on a screen. You feel as though you have met them.
That emotional connection is what ultimately carries Dear You. It is also what makes the film’s screening in the Philippines particularly meaningful.
The Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII), in partnership with the Anvil Business Club, reaffirmed its commitment to cultural understanding and people-to-people friendship through two advance screenings of the film. FFCCCII President Victor Lim announced the screenings during the Pandesal Forum at Kamuning Bakery Café in Quezon City.
Lim emphasized the federation’s continuing mission of promoting sustainable development, education, cultural exchange and international goodwill.
“Culture has the power to unite people beyond borders,” Lim said. The film’s themes also complement FFCCCII’s long history of nation-building initiatives. Lim highlighted Operation: Barrio Schools, which has donated more than 6,500 public school buildings in underserved rural communities nationwide since 1961.
He also cited the recent Philippine visit of Chinese actress Zhang Yingfei, known as Linda Walker, whose activities promoted education, tourism, perseverance and cultural understanding. For Lim, Dear You carries particular relevance because its story of migration and sacrifice mirrors the experiences of Filipino families.
He paid tribute to the country’s “heroic OFWs,” whose annual remittances of about US$38 billion remain an important pillar of the Philippine economy.That parallel gives the film another layer of meaning for Filipino audiences.
The Chinese emigrants represented in Dear You may have lived in another era and come from another country, but the emotional reality is familiar: leaving home because you love your family enough to make sacrifices for them.
Dear You is a reminder that the things that hold families together are often simple — a letter, a message, money sent home, a promise kept, a memory preserved. And sometimes, those simple things carry an entire lifetime of love.
You may walk into the cinema expecting a story about a grandson searching for his grandfather. You will leave realizing that you have watched something much bigger. It is a story about people who spent their lives separated from the ones they loved, yet somehow found ways to remain connected.
Because love, as Dear You beautifully demonstrates, waits and can cross borders. It can survive decades.
And sometimes, it can find its way home through a letter.
Now Showing: Dear You is showing exclusively at SM Cinemas.
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