Just cried my a** off watching 《给阿嬷的情书》 in theatres. It translates into ‘Letters to Grandma’, but the english title is ‘Dear You’
From what I’ve heard, this is an indie movie that has taken off recently, and the reviews really do speak for themselves. Throughout the entire movie, the whole theatre was audibly chuckling and sobbing together. Highly recommend!
Super quick summary: In the Chaoshan region of southern China, a grandson finds remittance letters from his estranged grandpa written to his grandma. For financial reasons, he goes to Thailand to find his grandpa who he perceived to be rich. This unveils the truth behind the letters and unravels the stories behind his grandpa, grandma, and a stranger.
I’m not completely sure if it’s available to watch internationally yet, but I will definitely be rewatching with double English/Chinese subs when I can find it! The entire movie has probably a max of four Mandarin sentences; the majority is in the Chaoshan dialect and Thai is sprinkled throughout. So, relying solely on Chinese subs was a bit challenging for me.
What’s more interesting about this movie is that I heard all (or most) of the actors have zero acting background. Rather, they’re just ordinary people raised and living in the region (so their accents are authentic) and handpicked then trained by the director. For some of them, the lack of experience shows, but it doesn’t take away from the story.
Let me know if any of y’all find where to watch it online, and remember to prepare a tissue box!