Dearest (2014)

So much average

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This film follows the story of two divorced parents searching for their abducted child. One of the most interesting aspects of this film to me was the fact that there was very little character development throughout the story. The film focused a lot more on the actual plot and extreme minutia than the characters themselves. All we really know about the father of the abducted child, PengPeng, was the fact that he worked at an internet cafe. The mother? she worked in some nice building. The wife of the abductor was a farmer who became very attached to the children. We don't even meet the abductor in the film because he supposedly died. The plot line however, gets pretty complex and deep. The foster mother of PengPeng and another girl is a farmer who thinks she is infertile, because her husband told her that she was as an excuse to go sleep with other women. PengPeng's parents find him and take him back. PengPeng, his birth parents, the farmer, and the other girl are in the police station when the decision is made to give PengPeng back to his real parents. They put the girl in an orphanage and the farmer woman is determined to get her back. She manages to find a lawyer and fights PengPeng's birth mother over custody. The end of the movie is very interesting and leaves many questions unanswered. The court decision hasn't been made because PengPeng's mother is mid divorce and the farmer is believed to not be legally able to adopt a child based on income, etc. We also find out that the farmer ends up getting pregnant after sleeping with a construction worker, proving that she was indeed fertile all along and that her husband lied to her. In general, the plot was pretty confusing and hard to follow. Also, the fact that the movie was 2h15m long didn't necessarily help

I learned a lot from watching this Chinese film. I had never really heard about child abduction in China, since we do not hear about that problem there, but not only does it happen there, but it can happen anywhere. This film was unique in that, it was about a real story and events, but some parts of the film were added. This film is about a couple who lose their child, and find out that he was abducted. Peng-Peng(the little boy ) decided to wander off on his own after playing with a few of his friends, and saw his mother in the car driving away, as soon as that happened he was taken. Once Peng-Peng's dad found out that his son was abducted he panicked, and Peng-Peng's mother felt guilty, which is later explained in the film. Both of Peng-Peng's parents decided to join a group that involved people who have gone through the same situation, and they try to help families by making them feel better about their current loss, and also find ways to find the children of the families, by disguising themselves as a tour group, but often times it did not work out. It takes a while for Peng-Peng to be found, but when he is he did not recognize his parents, since he was very little when he was abducted, therefore he wanted to go back to the woman who abducted him. The only thing I did not like about this film was the end. It seemed to be very unclear and was a bit confusing. Based on this reasoning, I would rate this film a 4/5.

I have to repeat what I said in the Summary: Wow, finally we got a well scripted Chinese Screenplay, directed by a very normal and sane Chinese director, played by a bunch of great Chinese actors, and yes, this film was largely based on the true incidents happening in China 24/7/365, and yes, some of the plots/storyline/twists were dramatically invented and inserted into the whole movie just to make it more watchable.To me, this film has saved the Chinese movie industries in many ways. It showed us that at least there are still some Chinese movie producers, writers, directors and actors who did not want to turn themselves into jerks and clowns, they really wanted to produce something not just watchable, at the same time, they really wanted to tell us something that really happened, happens and happening in China: The god-awful "KIDNAPS" that have destroyed so many families, homes, marriages, relationships and most of all, the hope.I could never imagine how many of the Chinese would become so monstrous and evil, making "kidnapping" as a business, a commercial commodity, even an enterprise. Those kidnappers are everywhere, in every Chinese city, every corner, every busy public thoroughfare. The god- awful inhumane Chinese government in order to control the population, the Communist Party released a law to force every family can only have one child, and this cruel law has also created a booming business, "kidnap". And this is the story of parents who lost their kids and tried so hard to look for their lost kids. A great story based on one of the true incidents and very fortunately, it turned out to be one of the rarest watchable films since most of the Chinese movie producers had lost their sanity and turned almost 99% of their movies into nothing but farce, turned their actors into jerks and clowns, destroyed their audiences and viewers better judgments and made them become morons.What I would like point out is, although the actress who played the kidnapper's wife had won 'The Best Actress of Hong Kong Film Festival 2014", I still think the actress who played the wife/ex-wife who lost her kid had performed even better. You have to watch carefully about how she played the wife and mother, and when her lost son finally grasped her hand to walk along with her, the reactions of her performance was just out of the world! And that wonderful moment of acting was so superb that made my eyes teary. There were so many other great performances by this great actress in this film that you really need to pay more attention to appreciate her. Because it was such a great performance, showing how a mother finally getting and salvaging her lost son, there is only one American actress, Diane Lane, in "Unfaithful 2002", when she met a handsome younger man and uncontrollably to commit an adultery and an affair, betrayed her husband (played by Richard Gere), when she sat in the train going home and thought about her possible intimate sexual desire with that young stranger, her acting of that moment, from the moment when she thought about her encounter with that young man to uncontrollably thought about making love with him, the rapid changes of her expressions in trance, her face suddenly blushed; sexual desires made her cheek, neck and her upper chest turned hot red; the subtle micro expressions on Diane Lane's face; the sexual desires were so strong and so real, like what a real woman would have responded and reacted and wet herself when uncontrollably thought of making love to a mysterious stranger and future secret lover....Wow, that....and until this superb Chinese actress showing us how a recovering mother she was, is the 2nd time that I've found myself in awe to watch such a great performance, so real, so true, so natural and, so powerfully touching. "The Best Actress Award" should be hers instead.China and the Chinese people need more movies like this "Dearest" kinda movies to put them back onto the right track sooner than later, before their whole movie industries turn every movie into nothing but SH@T, an incurable and unstoppable diarrhea! A warning to the Chinese movie investors: DO NOT USE YOUR ¥¥¥REN-MIN-BI¥¥¥ AS TOILET PAPERS, USE IT WISELY.

I had difficulty getting a friend to watch this film with me, as most expressed disinterest with reasons like, "I don't watch such kind (crying) films." But I thought Dearest is actually the Chinese version of "Taken" minus the actions and kidnapping triads. This is more realistic, given that it was based on the real documentary of how Tian and Lu found their abducted son three years later. The Ayes I did not cry as much as I thought I would, perhaps because I'm yet a parent myself. But I can definitely feel for the parents who lost their kids. This film have various characters where the different groups of audience will be able to relate with. And for me, it's more of the feeling of Lu Xiao Juan's second husband, the Yes-I-Can-Understand-But-I-Am-Not-Part-Of-It group. Most people will think that it's the typical lost-and-found-then-happily-ever-after movie, but nope. The film touches your heart first, and then make you think again. Think of questions that we will usually assume about the abductors. That how most would abduct to make the kids beg for money, that the kids will be suffering and pining for their real parents. It also make one look at the existing policies that might be erred. Like the police report allowed only after the child was missing for more than 24 hour; the rampant child abduction case in China; China's one-child policy; the guilt and repercussion on the parents who lost their child (feeling guilty having another child), all these thought-provoking questions will most probably be at the back of your mind after the film. The various actors were brilliant in their own way. Tian's desperate search for the kid, Lu's depression, followed by her breakdown and revelation on the secret she had been hiding in her heart for months. I teared, at the weirdest scenes, like when the 6-year-old newly-found son held her hand for the first time. The smile that crept onto her face was as if she had to control herself from dancing for joy . Han De Zhong, Captain of the self support group for parents whose kids were abducted and lost, was, I thought, an unimportant role and his performance was actually so-so, until the point where Tian and Lu had recovered their child, and the emotional struggle within him having to deal with a sudden pregnancy with his wife and realizing that only one couple within that support group had found their child. You could almost feel the pain in his heart when he left the celebration to cry in one corner. ... The Nays The opening scene which was the day the 3-year-old son, Pengpeng went missing, was filled with little snippets and details of a daily usual life. Wandering street cat, the massive and messy power line (tied with red ribbon and then marked with chewing gum) and fighting under-aged teenagers. It would be impressive if these details were related and linked to the end of the film (few years down the road). But they were irrelevant, hence making the opening stretch littered with insignificant scenes. This is not a typical blockbuster film that the public will look forward to watching, as it forces people to look at the evilness of humanity. Like Tian, I couldn't understand how could fellow human still try to con and rob a man who had just lost his child with fake news. With such a genre which looks depressing based on the trailer, Dearest (亲爱的) will be in for a tough fight against The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 which is opening on the same day in Singapore.