Nishijima Hidetoshi, Gwei Lun-Mei and Mariko Tetsuya on Busan Title ‘Dear Stranger’

Following the explosive violence of “Destruction Babies,” Japanese filmmaker Mariko Tetsuya has pivoted to explore a different kind of devastation in “Dear Stranger” — the quiet collapse of a marriage under the weight of unspoken truths and cultural displacement.

The drama, which had its international premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, stars Nishijima Hidetoshi (Oscar-winning “Drive My Car”) and Gwei Lun-Mei. Set against the backdrop of New York, the film follows Kenji (Nishijima), a Japanese professor desperately seeking tenure, and Jane (Gwei), a Taiwanese-American puppeteer struggling to balance motherhood with her artistic identity. When their young son Kai goes missing, the couple’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel.

For Mariko, whose previous work “Destruction Babies” earned him the Golden Leopard for Best Emerging Director at Locarno, the shift to emotional rather than physical violence was sparked by his return to Japan during the pandemic. “The starting point was on…