“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.
In China, the film has since accumulated a local box office of more than RMB1.5 billion ($221.6 million), placing it second on the 2026 annual chart after “Pegasus 3.” Its 9.2 rating on review platform Douban, drawn from more than 700,000 user ratings, represents one of the the highest marks for a local Chinese release in over a decade.
The qiaopi tradition – the historic letter-and-remittance correspondence maintained by overseas Chinese communities – is recognized as part of the UNESCO World Memory Register. “Dear You” is Lan’s third feature set within the Chaoshan cultural world, following “I Am Sure I Can” and “Take Me to See My Mom.”
Damai Entertainment, which rebranded from Alibaba Pictures in 2025 and operates ticketing platforms Tao Piao Piao and Damai alongside the Beacon AI promotion and distribution platform, has participated in the production and distribution of more than 300 films. The international expansion of “Dear You” positions the company to bring Teochew and wider Chinese diaspora cinema to audiences across Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America.
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