echo梒☁️🌸 @echowshn - Tumblr Blog

Dear You - 给阿嬷写的情书 - a Teochew film set in the Nanyang era.

Sorry to go out of theme/topic - I needed to have an output after watching a good film that I know wont get much recognition elsewhere from the region. It's such a wonderful and heartfelt story. It is about a young married couple from Swatow (Shantou, China), who had to separate by travelling southwards to Southeast Asia in order to avoid mandatory conscription for the Civil War (~1949 era), and also to earn money to send back home.

Throughout the years, they exchanged correspondence through Remittance Letters, updating about their lives while yearning for the day they reunite.

The husband first travelled to Malaysia then to Bangkok Thailand where he met the landlord's daughter, whom he treats like a friend/sister. Through the husband's pushing and encouragement, the landlord's daughter and the children growing up in the area got education by learning Chinese through the letter writers/ghost writers (Think irl Violet Evergarden).

At that time, there were government restrictions so those lessons were held illegally at the rental home. It was also during these lessons, the ghostwriter cheekily taught the class what love and yearning looks like through letters the husband wrote/received from the wife.

At the same time there were business owners that wants to take over the land but were unable to get consent from the landlord, hence they set fire to tear the place down. The husband caught them escaping in the back alley and fought them in a fury. However, that got him in prison.

So in his stead, the landlord's daughter wanted to give back by helping him correspond with his wife. To update them, send money back to them for their children's wedding, etc. In the meantime, she also started her own business and started teaching kids Chinese, becoming a teacher. All because the husband pushed her to get an education, to learn reading and writing and hence she got more opportunities in life.

He got out of prison, and started his own business, wanting to earn more money so he can one day reunite with his family. However, tragedy happened and he passed in 1960 without being able to do so. The landlord's daughter was heartbroken losing a dear friend that gave so much to her life. She thought of the wife and kids that she has grown familial feelings for, continued to send money, gifts and food to Swatow, in his stead.

After 18 years, she finally wrote the letter she was supposed to send, explaining what happened to the husband, attaching a class photo of the kids with the rental house, but the letter got lost in transit during a bad storm. Only the photo was recovered. However, this caused a misunderstanding as the wife thought that it is a family photo of her husband taking up a 2nd wife and having loads of kids together.

The misunderstanding was only uncovered 40 years later, when the grandson flew to Bangkok wanting to find his long-lost grandpa, albeit for not so good reasons, only to realise his grandpa died before the supposed last remittance letter from "him" in 1978.

The whole movie was sweet, funny, and full of love and yearning between two lands. It also showed sisterhood between the two ladies. The selflessness and love to give back from the landlord's daughter, and the pure, true love between the husband and wife. \(T~T)

Btw, this show is very popular in SG right now because it is a rare movie that is in dialect. Even after 2 weeks, after SG Govt added 100+ more screenings in dialect, the cinemas showing this movie are still at full house. It brings nostalgia to our older generation, and encourages dialect to us younger generation as it is slowly getting lost in the region (SG MY TH, etc)

The funny thing to me is, even tho I grew up understanding Teochew, the teochew spoken in the movie is of a different region, hence it wasnt familar to me (fun fact from my dad today, I understood Jieyang Teochew, the dialogue was Chaoshan Teochew) but the Thai dialogue spoken I can understand hahahah cos of all the Thai content i'm consuming these few years. 😆🤣

And I love that ahma made an appearance in the show too <3 Oh and Bambam's 2025 Redmi's ad showed up at the end of the film in the Yaowarat scene! I'm the only one that was like omg BAM!

#DearYou #给阿嬷写的情书 #BamBam‌

#Dear You #給阿嬤寫的情書 #movie review

lostmysanitee

so fucking domestic I can't take it

madam-kyoubin

I read somewhere online that a machine that's been working too hard needs to be unplugged from time to time. Same goes for you.

Wu 巫; Easter Eggs/Deep Dives from #WUTheSeriesEP8

Okie, don’t think there’s much Easter eggs I need to explain for this episode hehe, I’ll get into the characters for Li Bo, and Niran+Ahgong this time~

Li Bo has always felt like a misguided person to me, and today's episode explained so much. That power will have a way to keep people safe, but through fear. But he cherishes his own life more; hence, he would sacrifice others to keep himself and the people he serves happy, safe, and in power. Li Bo always reminds me a little of Bellatrix - His trauma wasn’t resolved, and down the road, he got misguided through the dark arts.

His friends mistreated him, bullied him, along the way they got k!lled and while those people were hunting him, he had to save himself by k!lling, losing himself in the process. K!ll or get k!lled trauma.

Krist’s acting throughout as the villain to the last part where he got Niran to sympathise with him - love it!!

Easter Egg: Li Bo’s birth details

The part where they were talking abt getting Li Bo’s birth time and date, in Chinese we call it Sheng Cheng Ba Zi (生辰八字) - cos usually it’s used for fortune telling etc.

In dark magic or voodooism, it’s also used to curse someone HAHAHHAA technically. So having Li Bo’s birth details would give Niran an upper hand, incase Li Bo tries to do something against them or Niran again.

The fact that Niran says he met AhGong in the subconscious many times to me meant that Niran was on his way to be in tuned with the path of Wu.

And that when he can finally meet AhGong for real, means he’s happy and in tune with himself, being at ease with himself and a Wu, and he also made peace with his issues and guilt regarding his relationship with his grandfather. This part is so heartwarming for me, it ties up their story very well.

BONUS // Behind the scenes from Sky~

Talisman to open third eye Tiktok: #skywongravee

天賜福官 (Tian Ci Fu Guan) - May Heavens bless the officials

Not sure if it should be read in this manner, its what made sense to me: 雷令 (Lei Ling): Lightning order 開天眼 (Kai Tian Yan): Open third eye 開神道 (Kai Shen Dao): Open Heavens Path

---

I don't think I'm ready for the final EP \\(T~T)

#wu the series #skywongravee #hirunkit_#สกายนานิ #skynani #nanihirunkit

srnileforme

“Hello. How is Niran doing? Niran is awake now.”

WU (2026) | EPISODE 7

janployshompoos

#the one time niran didn't get to hug pete back and the one time he did 😭😭😭

WU | EPISODE 6 // EPISODE 7

lostmysanitee

my mainslayers 🫶

miss0atae

Hope: see the bright side through the dark time when there ain't one.

hughungrybear

It's the not-so-silent plea: "PLEASE, STAY." 😭😭😭😭

hughungrybear

I want to sue GMMTV for all the tears I cried during the previous scenes 😭😭😭

At least, Pete's husband is awake now (yes, to me they are soul bound and married. Leave me alone 😄)

janployshompoos

Actually I think… I might go back to college. I’ve always wanted to do that, but never had the courage to. But I realized now that if I don’t do it, my life wouldn’t mean a thing. That’s nice. I still don’t know what I want to do, though. There’s gotta be something. I’m sure you’ll know soon. A guy like you wasn’t born to just coast through life. How about this? Why don’t you help me think what kind of thing a guy like me should do? Sure thing. I’m not as smart as you. But I’ll do my best to help you.

WU | EP7

lostmysanitee

okay okay so we saw three versions of niran there. kid niran, grown up niran, knows pete niran

grown up niran is still stuck in the prejudiced world of his own. he himself knows that something is out of place with him and he is trying hard to capture that yao

he is afraid to go against the norm and the traditions. in real world this is another thing that bugs him everytime he is questioned about himself. his rift with the other Wus and sira that left a deep mark in him. even though he knows he is definitely an outcast, he never really overcame this yao. a part of him stays there

the grown up niran who knows pete is depressed and lonely to the point he doesn't want to get out of it. he has made peace with his loneliness. he is always so so tired and that realm must feel like a place where he can finally sit for a while without Doing anything

but this niran? this is the strongest one among them. he has hope and pete made him understand earlier that he isn't what others tell he is, rather he is what he chooses for himself. that definitely gave him a boost. he has what it takes to get out of this hopeless place so this is the one which came back to pete to go to the real world, this saving all versions of himself

janployshompoos

You need to come back with me right now. I don’t care if you come back and do nothing if you don’t want to. You don’t want to defeat Qi Rong? Fine. Let’s not do that. You don’t want to be Wu anymore? Okay! You don’t have to. I don’t know where the last place that made you happy was. But it can’t be here, don’t you get it? You need to come back with me! I can’t leave you here.

WU | EP7

qlforlovers

Wu is really playing in our faces haha. First the soul binding ritual and now Pete's mother's ring on Niran's left ring finger?

I was really planning on avoiding jumping into any SkyNani or Wu discourse, but they are making it hard for me to avoid.

I don't know exactly what to call what this show is doing, but I don't think it's queerbaiting. If it were an American show I might see it that way, but I think the context of this being a GMMTV series flips the idea of queerbaiting on its head.

I understand queerbaiting to be about using queer subtext as a commercial strategy in order to gain queer viewership without assuming the risks of telling explicitly queer stories.

The "baiting" part of queerbaiting is the bait and switch where it feels like we've been promised queerness that never materializes. Queerbaiting is particularly an issue when there is little queer representation in the media landscape. In the context of scarcity, viewers invest heavily in the possibility of seeing queer romance on screen and then are disappointed (or even angry) when we don't get the payoff that was implied.

GMMTV has produced over a hundred BLs, several GLs, and has queer people and relationships depicted in much of their non-QL content. They have assumed the risks and gathered the rewards of portraying queer romance more than any other mainstream media company I can think of. They are promising and delivering queerness in abundance, and they are not promising explicitly queer romance with their bromance shows.

The trailers and pilots to SkyNani series have never promised us gay romance. It's not queerbaiting because there is no bait and switch. Wu is playfully exploring the blurry lines between platonic and romantic love, which I think is fun and even kind of beautiful.

Is there queer subtext? Yes. Is it queerbaiting? I don't think so.

Wu 巫; Easter Eggs from #WUTheSeriesEP7

Zhuangzi (莊子) - A Chinese Taoist philosopher (as famous as Kongzi/Confucius). He once dreamt a butterfly dream, which questions the boundaries of perception, reality, and identity.

So does Niran know that his Ethereal Soul is in the void, or if the Soul is now living in the void as his present?

It's easy to get lost in the void as it sets a scenario where the present cannot.

// we see the butterfly as a recurring theme here! Niran's Grandpa, Spirit, Reality, Identity..

Regarding the ritual to get Pete into the Void Realm: Hmm I quite like this scene, it explains how fengshui and rituals can be used tgt.

Windows and Doors are known to be the Entry and Exits of Energy into the room. With the mirror in place, and the dolls that were used to link Niran and Pete's souls together, it blocks the window energy from exiting through the door, and reflects the energy back towards to the Big Window, Altar and Pete.

Now, onto the logistics of the ritual:

Burning the talisman and drinking the talisman water are actual Taoist and folk religious traditions for spiritual protection, purifying energy, and healing.

Believe it or not, similar rituals were performed in the past by parents who got their kids to drink the talisman water before exams to bless them to pass and do well in their grades.

When Pete was experiencing his life when his parents were still around, the what would have happened if his parents hadn't died.. I feel sad for Pete. It was part of his dream to turn pro in Judo.

Winning the Gold at SEA Games (Southeast Asia Regional Sports Games similar to Olympics). It's full of what-ifs in the void.

Now, talking about the Void:

太虛 (Tài Xū) - Translates to The Great Void; 虛 comes from 空虛 (Empty/Hollow).

In Zhuangzi's Taoist text, Taixu represents the infinite universe and boundless nature of Dao (or, the Way/path). It does not state nothingness entirely, but a state of pure unlimited potential from which the physical world is born.

Character on the Jade Ring was the same character on the Jade Pendant that Niran gave Pete:

緣 (yuán) - Fate

// and omg Niran without thinking place it on his ring finger~~

Lastly, I just want to give a quick shout out how wonderful and heartfelt this episode was.

I freaking cried with today's episode. What a heartfelt one. Nani really put in his all for this episode for real. The different types of crying (>_<)