EXCLUSIVE: This year’s New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) will close with the North American premiere of Chinese breakout smash hit Dear You, directed by Lan Hongchun.
Well Go USA will co-present the film after acquiring North America rights and scheduling a wide theatrical release in September.
Lan and cast of the film will attend the festival’s Closing Night Gala, scheduled for Sunday, July 26, 2026, at 8:30PM at the SVA Theatre.
A small family drama filmed in the Chaoshan dialect, known across much of Southeast Asia as Teochew, Dear You is built around qiaopi, the letters sent home by overseas Chinese families that connected loved ones across generations.
Made without big stars or blockbuster aspirations, the film has become the second biggest release of the year at the Chinese box office, mostly due to word-of-mouth, grossing $265M (RMB1.8BN). It has also turned newcomers Li Sitong and Wang Yantong into this year’s biggest acting discoveries in China.
Director Lan Hongchun, himself from Chaoshan, spent years traveling through Thailand and Malaysia collecting oral histories from overseas Chinese communities before making the film. Influenced by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, Dear You follows a young man who travels to Thailand in search of his long lost grandfather, only to uncover a family secret that was buried for decades.
NYAFF, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, opens on July 10 with the North American premiere of Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony, which is currently a big hit on release in South Korea.
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