Tetsuya Mariko is a filmmaker who has always pushed boundaries, but not in the way you might expect. His 2016 breakthrough, Destruction Babies, showcased a brutal look at violence in Japanese society. With Dear Stranger, he’s turning his focus inward, exploring a quiet but equally devastating violence—the kind that happens behind closed doors.
The film follows Kenji (Nishijima), a Japanese architecture professor, and his Taiwanese-American wife, Jane (Gwei Lun-Mei), a puppeteer. They live in New York, a city that’s a world unto itself, and seem to have a normal life. But underneath the surface, they’re both struggling with their own private demons and a shared past they’ve never addressed. When their young son goes missing, the fragile structure of their life together begins to fall apart.
“In my earlier works, violence often appeared in physical and graphic forms,” Mariko said in a recent interview. “With Dear Stranger, I wanted to explore a different kind of violence—the silence, distance, and unspoken cruelty that emerge inside intimate relationships. This ‘cold violence’ may not draw blood, but it leaves deep scars.”
A Ruin of One’s Own
Mariko’s fascination with ruins and decay is an idea that gives the film a rich layer of symbolism. He uses Kenji’s research into how buildings eventually crumble as a mirror for the couple’s disintegrating relationship. The idea came to him after seeing abandoned structures in America. “Kenji’s research delves into the question: ‘Can we find hope or value in ruins, knowing that all buildings eventually decay?'” Mariko explained.
This is a film that was truly born from a cross-cultural experience. Mariko, a Japanese director, spent a year as a visiting researcher at Harvard University. He was in America just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold, and the feeling of being an outsider in a new country gave him a fresh perspective on the complexities of human connection. The film’s use of English as its main language, spoken by both Kenji and Jane, becomes another character in the story, highlighting the struggle to connect even when you share a language.
A Collision of Acting Titans
Bringing two of Asia’s biggest stars together was a huge feat. Mariko said he’s wanted to work with Hidetoshi Nishijima ever since seeing him in Nobuhiro Suwa’s 1997 film 2/Duo. He says Nishijima exudes a unique blend of “arrogance and kindness” that felt perfect for the role of Kenji. For the part of Jane, Mariko was captivated by Gwei Lun-Mei’s work in Diao Yinan’s films, including The Wild Goose Lake. He was also surprised to discover she had starred in Yee Chih-Yen’s Blue Gate Crossing, a movie that couldn’t be more different from her femme fatale roles.
Their dedication to the project was obvious from the beginning. Mariko said both actors made time for online table readings despite their busy schedules, contributing their own ideas to shape their characters and their relationship. “Based on their feedback, we revised the script multiple times up to the eve of shooting,” he said. “Their adaptability and insights enriched the film beyond our initial vision.”
A Different Kind of Love Story
Dear Stranger is a film that will challenge you to think about what love and marriage really mean. It’s not a heroic story. It’s about how two people navigate their imperfections and their own self-interest, sometimes clumsily, sometimes selfishly, but always with a desire to understand one another. It’s a film about the messiness of life.
Mariko hopes the audience will “stay with them until the end, as their fate unfolds under the weight of the choices they’ve made.” He believes that while Kenji and Jane may be awkward and even foolish at times, they are earnest in their desire to care for each other. You can see Dear Stranger at the Busan International Film Festival on September 18th, 20th, and 24th, 2025. It’s a screening you won’t want to miss.
