Photo：Courtesy of the Weibo account of Dear You

The breakout Chaoshan-dialect hit film Dear You, inspired by the UNESCO-recognized "qiaopi" letter-and-remittance tradition of overseas Chinese, announced its global theatrical rollout on Friday. 

The film's first wave of overseas releases will hit screens across China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Macao SAR, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei on June 18, with further expansion planned for the US, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and other markets in subsequent phases.

Since opening on the Chinese mainland on April 30, Dear You has pulled off one of the most remarkable word-of-mouth turnarounds in recent memory. 

The story follows elderly Chaoshan grandmother Ye Shurou, whose quiet later years are upended when her debt-burdened grandson travels to Thailand chasing rumors of a long-lost, wealthy grandfather, only to uncover a half-century-old secret: the person she exchanged qiaopi with all those years was not who she thought.

Made on a modest budget, featuring largely non-professional local actors speaking Chaoshan dialect and telling an intimate story rooted in Chaoshan migrant memory and the qiaopi correspondence tradition, the film has climbed to a score of 9.2 out of 10 on the rating site Douban. Its cumulative box office has surpassed 1.5 billion yuan ($221.7 million) on Saturday morning, ranking second on the 2026 annual box office chart, according to data from China’s ticketing platform Maoyan.

Global Times