Dear Stranger
There’s nothing subtle about Tetsuya Mariko’s “Dear Stranger.” Not in its story. Not in its themes. Not in its performances. And not in its emotions. And yet, that’s why I found myself so captivated by it. A family unraveling will always be fascinating to watch. Seeing how, and why, this one unravels is one of its most compelling surprises.
Kenji (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is a Japanese architecture instructor who’s about to publish a book. Jane (Lun-Mei Gwei) is a Chinese-American puppetry performer, who works at a local market to help out financially. They have a four-year-old son, Kai (Everest Talde), whom they often have to take to work with them because they struggle to find a caregiver. Their life together is filled with stress, and the market that Jane works at getting robbed- while she has Kai with them- doesn’t help. Neither does Kenji having to jump through hoops to get his work heard, nor does them having a slur spray painted on their beat up family car. In this cauldron of anxiety, Kai goes missing while at work with Kenji one day. They do what they’re supposed to do in terms of going to the authorities, but it raises more questions than answers, especially when evidence points to a link in their lives.
There was a precision of craft and storytelling in previous kidnapping dramas like “Ransom” and “Prisoners” that “Dear Strangers” lacks. I don’t know of a single scene I would remove from its 138-minutes running time, but Mariko’s film (which he also wrote) does feel somewhat formless in how it goes about its business. Every narrative choice exists to turn the screws on Kenji and Jane just a little bit more, and make them- and us- question whether they can put a life back together after Kai is returned to them. I feel like these characters love one another, but we understand why there feels like a disconnect to them. The performances by Nishijima and Gwei are superb in how they get to the weary souls of their characters. There’s also Christopher Mann as Detective Bixby, who is trying to help the couple with their case, but also has a case to solve, and the niceties of human interaction cannot get in the way of the job. This is a film about how stress pushes a family over the edge, and how one, more act can make someone snap. “Dear Stranger” will not be for everyone, but this film- in how it told its story- is very much for me.
