Thehibikiew
Not even bad in a good way
Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
magonzalez-15762
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.
Cameron Crawford
Dearest was a great, but depressing film which kept the viewer intrigued on what was going to happen throughout. The two main characters, the husband and wife, were constantly fighting while they had their son, but once he was kidnapped, they had to get along again in order to find him. This movie did a great job of sending the viewer on an emotional roller-coaster. A really touching and awkward scene was when they were in the missing child support group, and the wife mentioned that she saw Peng Peng running behind her car. I really sympathized for her in that moment, because I do not know the amount of guilt I would feel if I could have stopped my son from being kidnapped. Another aspect of this movie that I enjoyed was getting to know the abductor's wife. At first I hated her because she was part of the family that took Peng Peng, but as the movie progresses, you begin to realize that she is fairly innocent, and her husband was the only real bad guy in this situation. This movie left the viewer on a cliff for many of the topics which I wish were closed. The main topics that I wanted to see closed were whether the girl in the orphanage was adopted, if the main characters got remarried, and what happened to the abductor's wife's baby. Overall, I enjoyed this movie and it kept me engaged throughout.
BasicLogic
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.
Kicino
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.
