Released during the fiercely competitive May Day holiday season, the Chaoshan-dialect Dear You achieved an impressive breakthrough, despite lacking major stars.
Driven by its solid artistic quality, audience word-of-mouth, and a carefully planned distribution strategy expanding from Guangdong to the entire country, the movie defied market headwinds and stood out.
The film held advance screenings in selected cities ahead of the May Day holiday. Officially released on April 30, it gradually expanded its run from a full release across Guangdong province to nationwide screenings.
As audience praise continued to grow, cinemas increased the number of screenings. By Thursday, cumulative admissions had reached 5.98 million.
Facing competition from big-budget action, comedy and suspense films, Dear You maintained steady box-office growth and became the season's standout emotional dark horse.
Industry observers believe the film could continue performing strongly long after the May Day holiday period ends.
Compared with more commercially driven genre films released during the same period, including suspense, action and comedy productions, Dear You takes a realistic and heartfelt approach. Through themes of hometown nostalgia, family ties and the lives of overseas Chinese, it resonates with audiences through simple and grounded storytelling, observers say.
A viewer surnamed Chen in Shantou says the film reminded her of her grandmother.
"The movie portrays the authentic daily lives of Chaoshan people in those years," she says, adding that she has seen the movie twice.
Director Lan says the story of Dear You is 90 percent authentic, and 100 percent sincere.
"In the childhood memories of the Chaoshan people, Grandma is always the warmest and most comforting presence," he says.
"The original idea was simple — I just wanted to tell audiences a pure story about grandpas and grandmas," says Lan.
Lan, a Chaoshan native, has long been deeply passionate about depicting rural stories from his hometown.
The generation portrayed in the film lived through major historical periods, including the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and the country's reform and opening-up beginning in the late 1970s.
Lan says the Chaoshan people endured hardship for generations as they left home and crossed the seas to make a living, while many overseas Chinese later returned to support their hometowns after the reform and opening-up.
He says that over 90 percent of the plot in the film is based on real events.
"For various reasons, many people could not return home decades ago. Their families and friends would hide the news of their passing, keep sending remittances, and write letters as if they were still alive," he says.
"The emotional power and dramatic tension in those real stories made me feel that these experiences had to be brought to the screen," he adds.
Zheng Runqi, who plays the grandson, says he hopes more filmmakers will create movies in the Chaoshan dialect because the region contains countless stories worth telling
