Directed by Lan Hongchun, a native of the Chaoshan region in southern China's Guangdong Province, and reportedly produced on a budget of just over 10 million yuan, the film has been widely praised for its emotional authenticity, grounded storytelling and unusually convincing performances from little-known actors, particularly its lead performance by a 20-year-old finance student with no prior acting experience.

　　The story centers on the tradition of "qiaopi," letters and remittances sent home by earlier generations of overseas Chinese in the 19th and 20th centuries, which form the emotional thread linking the film's central characters. UNESCO added the "qiaopi" archives to its Memory of the World Register in 2013.

　　In the film, Zheng Musheng leaves his Chaoshan home for Southeast Asia during wartime in the 1940s and eventually settles in Thailand, regularly sending letters and money to his wife, Ye Shurou, who remains behind raising their children. After Zheng dies overseas, Xie Nanzhi, a woman of Chaoshan descent living in Thailand who befriends him, chooses not to immediately tell Ye, instead continuing to send letters and money in his name. Over nearly two decades, the two women, though strangers separated by the sea, become quietly connected through correspondence and care.

　　Film data platforms Maoyan and Beacon now project "Dear You" to end its theatrical run with a final box office tally of nearly 1.8 billion yuan, after revising their projections upward multiple times.