Memorable, crazy movie

Just perfect...

This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie left me speechless. It is, for me, definitely on the same level as other classics like "So-Won" and "Miracle in Cell No. 7" and what it has in common with those movies is that it also explores human relationships, especially those between sons/daughters and their respective parents. The story is pretty much simple.. or at least, it seems so. A couple getting through a divorce has to deal with the disappearance of their only son. They try to find him and in the process, heal, as well. What I really liked about this movie, putting aside the amazing performances, is the way it portrays the story and it portrays it in a such way that we look at it from various perspectives. Of course, we sympathize with the birth parents and the pain they're feeling but we also cannot help but sympathize with the mother who has now, like them, lost their children. We also feel sad for this kid because it is sad enough to be taken away from your family one time but, two times, that's enough. The scene where Li runs after the parents while they try to take her son away or the scene where she is shoved away by different people when she tries to hug her son are very difficult to watch and we cannot wonder if they're doing to her what it was done also to them. Her involvement in the kidnapping of her son is not truly explained: did she know or was she just lying? We don't know and she's in a complex situation but we can't help but still sympathize with her, especially at the very last scene when it is revealed that she was also a victim, that she could in fact reproduce and was lied to by her husband. The director did a great job by switching the perspectives on the second half of the movie and the movie does not ever lose its focus, on the contrary, it makes it even more compelling. Every one of the actors is great, the way they portray their pain on screen is so real that sometimes it's like we also feel their pain but I can't help but feel completely amazed by Zhao Wei's performance. She completely blew me away. At the end, when there's pictures and videos of the original parents in which the movie was based on, we realize we're not just watching a movie, we're watching something real; we're watching the real state of China where child kidnapping is a current. This movie was a wonderful experience, one that definitely marked me and I won't ever forget it.

Dearest was a wonderful movie to watch and experience. I thought it was directly beautifully, and all of the actors did a wonderful job. I thought it was interesting how the movie changed perspective halfway through, from the view of the child's parents to the wife of the child abductor. I found both of their stories extremely compelling and I felt bad for both of them as I watched. Though, I felt like the parents were in the right as opposed to the wife. I think the wife buried her knowledge of the fact that her husband was an abductor. She certainly had feelings for the children, but I felt like in the back of her mind she knew they weren't hers. Also, the ending was very uninformative. I felt like it was a great cliffhanger, but I don't think it should have ended that way. I don't think they should have wrapped everything up neatly, but they should have at least said what happened in the credits like they did with other subjects.

Dearest's trailer is sensational, showing all kinds of crying faces and I was not looking forward to see it. But I like Peter Chan, Wei Zhao and Bo Huang. So I went anyway. Well, I cannot say I like it but I think it is worth watching as it shows how disorganized and terrible China is as a country. And I think the director has presented all the facts in quite an objective way.Based on true events, Dearest tells the heartbreaking story of a divorced couple losing their three-year old son in the coastal city of Shenzhen and the ordeal of searching for him. Yet it is not simply a child abduction story, through the story of Tian Wenjun (Bo Huang) and Li Hongqin (Zhao Wei), we realize that child abduction is widespread in China, as with woman kidnap, and the heartless scam of people tricking parents of the kidnapped kids, and the ridiculous policy of allowing parents to have a second child only after proving their first child is dead. What the movie did not show is what the abductors do to the children – be it training them to be thieves, or sedating them to be beggars, or child labors, or child prostitute, or selling them overseas or to parents who cannot have kids … More depressing truths.But what it shows is already thought-provoking and disheartening. I cried quite a number of times. For a child, it is sad enough being taken away from your family. But what is sadder is being taken away from another family again and could not recognize your birth parents. Wei Zhao is brilliant in portraying a desperate, innocent but determent mother from a remote village who descends to the southern city of Shenzhen to look for her son. Her motive is pure and noble but the complex situation, including her husband's lies has put her in some pathetic situation. It is appalling that this is based on a true stories as at the end credits, we see pictures of the original parents, the farmer, the abducted child and the support group of parents losing their children. Very impressive but sad because these abductions are still happening every single day. Another thought is, with such vast geography and disparity of wealth, the quality of the people are incredibly low. So low that they often resort to physical violence to solve problems – even outside the courthouse! We heard about these abductions in the news and on the net but this is the first time I encountered these on the big screen. Looking around us, so what if you have your kid in safety in China, you need to shop around for reliable formula milk powder that is safe. That explains why Chinese are snatching up formula milk from supermarkets all over the world from Japan to Germany, let alone Hong Kong. Life must be very tough if you were born and being raised in China. There is no system, or if/when there is, it is inhuman and unreasonable, not to mention the widespread corruption that hinders justice. Under this kind of system, it seems it would be hard to nourish caring, rational and reasonable human beings who looks beyond money and short term profit. The ripped off paralegal Gao Xia (Dawei Tung) sums it up well though awkwardly in the movie: if people would consider others' point of view this country would have been so much better. They have just forgot/ignored Confucius' Golden Rule. How ironic. A great glimpse into the terrible life in China.

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.