Dear Stranger

DEAR STRANGER centers on Kenji Saiga, a Japanese architecture professor in his forties striving to revive his academic career at a university in New York, and his wife Jane, a Taiwanese-American puppeteer clinging to the vestiges of a once-promising career. The couple struggles under the weight of parenthood, caring for Jane’s elderly parents, and financial instability.

Their already strained relationship is pushed to the breaking point when their 4-year-old son, Kai, suddenly disappears.

On the night Kai’s disappearance is unexpectedly resolved, Kenji and Jane confront each other to uncover the secrets and vulnerabilities in their deteriorating relationship. Their dialogue turns into a confession, revealing who kidnapped Kai—and why. This revelation alters their perceptions of each other, compelling them to choose whether to face or flee from the truth.

Tetsuya Mariko, born in Tokyo in 1981, attended Hosei University and took both basic and advanced courses at the Image Forum Institute of the Moving Image in 2002 and 2003. For his graduation project, he independently produced the short films The Far East Apartment (2003) and Mariko’s 30 Pirates (2004) using 8mm film.

These films received awards at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, and he won the Grand Prize for two consecutive years at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.

In 2007, Mariko joined the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, where he released his first feature film Yellow Kid (2009) as his graduation project. This film garnered several awards, including the Young Directors Grand Prix at the Takasaki Film Festival and the Best New Director Award at the Japanese Film Professional Awards. His 2016 film Destruction Babies earned the Best New Director Award at the Locarno International Film Festival, the Silver Balloon Award at the Nantes Three Continents Festival, and six awards at the Yokohama Film Festival. In 2018, Mariko wrote and directed all episodes of the TV drama From Miyamoto to You (Drama 25 version), which later became the feature film From Miyamoto to You (2019). The film won him the Best Director Award at the Nikkan Sports Film Awards, the Blue Ribbon Awards, and the Takasaki Film Festival.

From late March 2019 to mid-March 2020, Mariko was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, thanks to the Overseas Study Program for Artists provided by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. His recent works include MAYDAY (2020), a documentary capturing daily life in 22 locations across 14 countries during the global lockdown, as well as short films COYOTE (2021), filmed in Tokyo and Chicago, and Before Anyone Else (2023). Before Anyone Else has been showcased at the Chicago International Film Festival, Osaka Asian Film Festival, and Shanghai International Film Festival.