Chaoshan dialect film Dear You heads global after 1.5b yuan box office

A Chaoshan dialect film about the generations-long correspondence between overseas Chinese laborers and their families at home is heading for global release after crossing 1.5 billion yuan ($220.59 million) at the Chinese box office since its April 30 mainland debut.

Dear You, produced in Guangdong and set across the Chaozhou, Shantou and Jieyang regions, will open simultaneously in Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei on June 18, followed by releases in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and other markets, global distributor Damai Entertainment said on Thursday.

The film centers on Qiaopi — remittance letters sent home by Chinese laborers who left the southeastern coast to work abroad between the 19th and 20th centuries. Qiaopi was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2013 following a joint application by Guangdong and Fujian provinces.

The film carries a Douban rating of 9.2, which the distributor said places it ahead of all domestic Chinese productions released over the past decade. It currently ranks second on this year's annual mainland box office chart.

The release has drawn particular attention from overseas Chinese communities, for whom the Qiaopi correspondence at the film's core carries personal resonance.