Letters of love and money fill charming ‘Dear You’
Normally, I don’t subscribe to the sort of blatant sentimentality pushed by Hongchun Lan in his family drama, “Dear You,” but darned if the co-writer-director didn’t play me like an erhu. Much of that irresistibility must be credited to the intoxicating Sitong Li, a 22-year-old novice who proves lights-out in a stunning debut, playing the lead in an affecting tale about qiaopi, the Teochew sect’s practice of sending patriarchs to Southeast Asia to find work and mail their earnings back to their families in China.
Sitong plays Zia Lamgi, a Bangkok boarding house proprietor whose tenants are poor, yet close-knit Teochew expats working menial jobs as part of qiaopi. Most of them are illiterate and depend on good-hearted souls like the learned Di Gong (Chen Qinqin) to write and mail their correspondence. It’s a tradition, lasting from the 1860s to 1980, that I must admit I knew little about but found wrenching, with many of these men never provided the opportunity to see the wives and children left behind.
One such soul is Den Bhagseng (Yantong Wang), a Teochew from Swatow who married his childhood sweetheart, Sogriu (Wang Xiaohui), fathered three children, and then fled to what is now Thailand in 1947 to avoid being conscripted into Phase 2 of the Chinese Civil War. He landed in Bangkok, then in Malaysia, and back to Bangkok, working odd jobs, mostly as a rickshaw driver, remitting nearly all of his meager earnings to Sogriu.
Not much of a story, I know. But what Hongchun and his three co-writers do with it is intriguingly complex, framing Bhagseng’s tale within a mystery rooted in the present day. It’s the 88th birthday of Sogriu (Shaoqing Wu), and her favorite grandson, Hiou-ui (Runqi Zheng), is suddenly intrigued by Bhagseng, the grandfather he’s never known, and the legend surrounding him. He has been raised to believe that Bhagseng became a wealthy philanthropist in Bangkok, where several schools bear his name. It’s also assumed that he took a second wife and family.
It’s Hiou-ui’s plan to travel to Thailand, find his two-timing gramps, and hit him up for some much-needed cash. But when he arrives in Bangkok, no one seems to know of Bhagseng or his charity. Thus, opening the door for Hongchen to flash back to Bhagseng’s truth, which varies drastically from the myth. What Hiou-ui and we discover is heroic in nature but more than a little bit sad. Yet, it can’t begin to match the level of self-sacrifice exhibited by Lamgi.
I will say no more about the riveting plot, which introduces numerous twists and turns before reaching an emotional finale that you’ll either weep or roll your eyes. Whether or not you buy into the sappy ending, all will agree that Sitong is a real find. In many ways, her fierce but stoic Lamgi is unknowable, as are her feelings toward Bhagseng. Is she falling for him? Or is she merely in awe of his level of dedication to his distant family? Smartly, Hongchun leaves it to us to decide.
Either way, it’s a love story like few others, mostly because it celebrates the thousands of Bhagsengs who dedicated every ounce of blood and sweat they expended in service of providing for kin they rarely or never saw. The loneliness and ostracization by the native Thais must have been unbearable, and Hongchun fully conveys that emptiness and pain.
Yes, his presentation is often melodramatic, with a manipulative and intrusive score. But it’s also highly relatable, as we’re inspired to reexamine our own families and the noble yet unsung sacrifices our elders made to ensure our happiness. Most of all, what Hongchun has crafted is a crowd-pleasing (earning more than $285 million in China) throwback to the films of Douglas Sirk, blubbering sagas that produced as many groans as they did tears. Even if you say “dear me” in response to “Dear You,” I got a feeling you’re going to hop on the Sitong bandwagon. She’s a keeper, even when the film she commands strains to be her equal.
Movie review
Dear You
Rated: PG-13 for some strong violence, language, smoking and sexual situations
Cast: Yantong Wang, Sitong Li, Wang Xiaohui and Ronqi Zheng
Director: Hongchun Lan
Writers: Hongchun Lan, Leng Yang, Liyun Zhu and Xuanxuan Zheng
Runtime: 118 minutes
Where: In theaters Sept. 4
Grade: B
