Dear Stranger

Dear Stranger (2025)

Dear Stranger／ディア・ストレンジャー

A Japanese man and his Chinese-American wife struggle with work, parenting, and caregiving in NYC. Their strained life spirals when their son is kidnapped, leading to murder. Unspoken truths and secrets surface, deepening their rift. Can they rebuild their shattered vision of a "happy family"?

Date of release
2025-09-12
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (12)
Runtime
2h 18m
Genres
Drama
Director
Tetsuya Mariko

Casting

Interesting facts

Dear Stranger is a 2025 film directed by Tetsuya Mariko starring Hidetoshi Nishijima and Gwei Lun-mei. It explores themes of trust and grief in the American immigrant experience and multi-cultural marriage between a Japanese man and his Taiwanese-American wife.

Production

The film is the first English production from Japan's Toei Company. It was shot entirely on location in New York City and edited in Taiwan.

Aside from Toei, the film is backed by Roji Inc. and has support from JLOX+ and the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).

Mariko was inspired to make the film upon his return to Japan from the U.S. after the COVID pandemic, pivoting from his previous focus on "absurd violence" towards an emotional drifting apart.

For Jane's puppeteer work, Mariko collaborated with Blair Thomas to choreograph puppetry that would express Jane's passion for the art form and her struggle balancing it with her family life.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended