“Dear You,” the Teochew-dialect drama that has become one of China‘s defining box office stories of 2026, is heading to international markets starting June 18, with Damai Entertainment – the distributor formerly known as Alibaba Pictures – handling the worldwide theatrical release.
Directed by Lan Hongchun, the family drama follows Xiaowei, a young grandson who secretly travels to Thailand to find the grandfather who severed contact with the family decades earlier. What he uncovers is a story rooted in the 1950s Chinese diaspora community in Bangkok – one involving qiaopi, the system of remittance letters that overseas Chinese workers sent home, and a woman named Xie Nanzhi, whose handwritten correspondence holds the key to the past. The film moves between the contemporary storyline and a mid-century flashback.
The picture stars Li Sitong, Wang Yantong, Wu Shaoqing, Zheng Runqi and Wang Xiaohui, with Thai actor Usha Seamkhum also appearing.
The first wave of international territories takes in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. A broader rollout is to follow across more than 10 additional markets, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., France, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
