Chinese dramas and films

Actress Lu Yu Xiao ("Love Between Lines", "Perfect Match") has issued an apology to the creators of the film "Dear You" (给阿嬷的情书).

The scandal erupted and subsided with unusual speed. On May 17, 2026, the actress posted on Weibo what appeared to be a glimpse of her day off. Among the content was a short video taken inside a cinema, which included a clip from the film "Dear You". This immediately sparked heated debate. Within hours, Lu Yu Xiao edited the post, deleting the video screenshot and replacing it with a still image.

She then published the following apology:

"I have read all the criticism. I sincerely apologize to the creators of "Dear You" and to everyone involved in the film.

My actions have indeed harmed the hard work of the filmmakers and negatively affected my fans. Regardless of my original intentions, my behavior was inappropriate.

I fully realize the gravity of the issue and thank everyone for their guidance and feedback. I truly hope that more people will see this touching and heartfelt film."

The criticism stemmed from the fact that posting the short video was seen as an act of piracy.

"Dear You" was released in theaters on April 30. The plot begins as a detective story but quickly evolves into a touching family saga set against the backdrop of the "ninyana" – the mass migration of Chinese to Southeast Asian countries during the 20th century.

The grandson of the protagonist, Aima Ye Shuzhou, a young man named Xiaowei, is drowning in debt. Hearing that his grandfather, Zheng Musheng, who left for abroad many years ago, has become a wealthy man in Thailand and the owner of a network of schools, Xiaowei secretly sets out to find him. He discovers that his grandfather actually died many years ago, soon after leaving. Yet all those years, his grandmother in China continued to regularly receive letters and money signed with his grandfather's name. It turns out that the true "sender" of these "qiaopi" letters was an unknown woman from Bangkok named Xie Nanzhi. She had taken upon herself the care of her deceased friend's family to spare his wife from grief.

The film features absolute amateurs with no prior acting experience. For example, the young heroine is played by 20-year-old student Li Sitong. Their naturalness and lack of clichés lend the action a striking authenticity. All sets and props are genuine.

The film's budget is only about 14 million yuan (roughly $1.93 million USD). More than 70% of the investment came from companies in Shenzhen, and the director, Lan Hongchun, is a local filmmaker who has lived in Shenzhen for over a decade. The creators literally "grew" the film on grassroots support, often working as volunteers and paying for location shoots with local residents using nothing but gratitude. For instance, the owner of a house where scenes were shot allowed the crew to film for free, while the film's director received, instead of a fee, five kilograms of salt for pickling olives.

The creators refused to openly manipulate the audience's emotions. Scenes that in any other film would become the climax of a tearful melodrama are shot here with remarkable restraint and silence. The main heroines do not burst into tears. Their pain is conveyed through long, frozen shots: silence at the dinner table, a gaze, the reflection of rain on a cornice. It is this authenticity that makes the audience cry alongside the characters.

The film started with a paltry 1.6% of screens in its early days of release and was considered a flop. However, thanks to powerful word-of-mouth (audiences literally dragged their friends to the cinema), its screen share grew to 35%, and at the peak of its popularity, it accounted for more than 70% of China's daily box office.

In the end, the film recouped its investment hundreds of times over. By May 17, its box office had surpassed 4 billion yuan (about $553 million USD), with projections rising to 13 billion yuan. "Dear You" became the first film in the Chaoshan dialect in Chinese cinema history to gross over 100 million yuan, as well as the first full-length feature film featuring only amateur actors to cross that threshold.

On the Chinese aggregator Douban, the film holds a steady rating of 9.1 out of 10 based on more than half a million reviews, making it one of the highest-rated Chinese films in recent years. A score above 9.0 on Douban means that, in the public's view, it is an timeless masterpiece. Such works are extremely rare.

This is why the scandal over Lu Yu Xiao's screen capture has generated such a strong reaction. In the public's opinion, as a professional actress, Lu Yu Xiao publicly violated film copyright law and set a poor example as a public figure.

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4