Dearest is a 2014 drama film directed by Peter Chan on kidnapping in China, based on a true story, starring Zhao Wei, Huang Bo, Tong Dawei, and Hao Lei. A Chinese-Hong Kong co-production, it was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Following years of unrelenting search, Tian Wenjun (Huang Bo) and ex-wife Lu Xiaojuan (Hao Lei) finally locate their abducted son in a remote village. After the boy is violently taken away from the village, the abductor's widow Li Hongqin (Zhao Wei) â the boy's foster mother â also loses her foster daughter to a state-owned orphanage in Shenzhen. Heartbroken, Li goes on a lone but determined journey to get her daughter back.
Principal photography for Dearest took place in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengde. It began from January 2014 and concluded on 18 April 2014.
Portraying a rural mother, Zhao Wei spoke the Lower Yangtze Mandarin dialect (the predominant dialect in her hometown of Wuhu) rather than Standard Mandarin in the film.