An Asian couple living in New York have to face the fragility of their marriage when their young son goes missing. Dear Stranger has its International Premiere at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival.
Dear Stranger, the latest from writer/director Mariko Tetsuya, tries to do an awful lot in the space of 2 ¼ hours. One major event, which would normally be plenty for one film, brings another issue to the surface, and so although parts of the film move slowly, there’s a lot going on.
Japanese professor of architecture Kenji (Nishijima Hidetoshi – Drive My Car) and his Taiwanese-American wife Jane (Gwei Lun-Mei – The Wild Goose Lake) live in New York with their four-year-old son Kai (Everest Talde). Among the day-to-day problems that the couple encounter – including a robbery at Jane’s parents’ corner shop, and their car being graffitied – it’s the disappearance of their son that really challenges their relationship.
Already feeling culturally outside their chosen living environment, they are both quietly struggling professionally too. Kenji is desperate to achieve tenure at his university before time is up, and Jane is trying to keep some connection to her puppeteering career while maintaining the home and looking after Kai at the same time. The veneer of being a happy family unit is thin, and Kai’s disappearance changes everything.
Dear Stranger is imbued with tension throughout; sometimes in anticipation of violence, or the dread of something terrible happening, other times it’s a feeling of emotional helplessness when you just know that two people are hiding secrets from each other, either for fear of facing the truth or because they don’t want to hurt each other. Each partner wants to make their immigrant dream come true and live a peaceful, ordinary life – but events intervene.
Even though it is their lingua franca, neither of the main characters has English as their first language, although we get the impression that Jane has lived longer in the US and switches more easily between English and Chinese when she’s communicating with her elderly parents. Kenji, who has to work harder in English, even comments “This language we use – it’s not ours”; every time they speak to each other, there’s already a barrier in their communication.
And so while half of the film is an Asian couple trying to face up to the truth of their relationship, the catalyst for this is the disappearance of their son, and the violence which ensues in the search for him. The darkness of Kai’s experience and the long takes of Kenji sitting alone staring into space almost seem to be from two different films, until we begin to understand Kenji’s thoughts. At the same time, Jane is tapping into her emotions by way of her puppets. I’m not sure how long Gwei Lun-Mei worked with puppeteer Blair Thomas to gain the skills required to handle them, but the scenes are absolutely beautiful – and silent. Her choreography is extremely moving, and gives us a new perspective into Jane’s creativity and what she is trying to cling on to.
How the couple will move forward after events is probably the driving force of the narrative, but it is somewhat derailed now and again when they are both absent from events at the same time. A stand out performance from Gwei Lun-Mei saves the film from becoming too drawn out though.
Dear Stranger has its International Premiere at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival.
An Asian couple living in New York have to face the fragility of their marriage when their young son goes missing. Dear Stranger has its International Premiere at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival.
Dear Stranger, the latest from writer/director Mariko Tetsuya, tries to do an awful lot in the space of 2 ¼ hours. One major event, which would normally be plenty for one film, brings another issue to the surface, and so although parts of the film move slowly, there’s a lot going on.
Japanese professor of architecture Kenji (Nishijima Hidetoshi – Drive My Car) and his Taiwanese-American wife Jane (Gwei Lun-Mei – The Wild Goose Lake) live in New York with their four-year-old son Kai (Everest Talde). Among the day-to-day problems that the couple encounter – including a robbery at Jane’s parents’ corner shop, and their car being graffitied – it’s the disappearance of their son that really challenges their relationship.
Already feeling culturally outside their chosen living environment, they are both quietly struggling professionally too. Kenji is desperate to achieve tenure at his university before time is up, and Jane is trying to keep some connection to her puppeteering career while maintaining the home and looking after Kai at the same time. The veneer of being a happy family unit is thin, and Kai’s disappearance changes everything.
Dear Stranger is imbued with tension throughout; sometimes in anticipation of violence, or the dread of something terrible happening, other times it’s a feeling of emotional helplessness when you just know that two people are hiding secrets from each other, either for fear of facing the truth or because they don’t want to hurt each other. Each partner wants to make their immigrant dream come true and live a peaceful, ordinary life – but events intervene.
Even though it is their lingua franca, neither of the main characters has English as their first language, although we get the impression that Jane has lived longer in the US and switches more easily between English and Chinese when she’s communicating with her elderly parents. Kenji, who has to work harder in English, even comments “This language we use – it’s not ours”; every time they speak to each other, there’s already a barrier in their communication.
And so while half of the film is an Asian couple trying to face up to the truth of their relationship, the catalyst for this is the disappearance of their son, and the violence which ensues in the search for him. The darkness of Kai’s experience and the long takes of Kenji sitting alone staring into space almost seem to be from two different films, until we begin to understand Kenji’s thoughts. At the same time, Jane is tapping into her emotions by way of her puppets. I’m not sure how long Gwei Lun-Mei worked with puppeteer Blair Thomas to gain the skills required to handle them, but the scenes are absolutely beautiful – and silent. Her choreography is extremely moving, and gives us a new perspective into Jane’s creativity and what she is trying to cling on to.
How the couple will move forward after events is probably the driving force of the narrative, but it is somewhat derailed now and again when they are both absent from events at the same time. A stand out performance from Gwei Lun-Mei saves the film from becoming too drawn out though.
Dear Stranger has its International Premiere at the 2025 Busan International Film Festival.
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