Five Blind Dates is forgettable fun from Oz
Amazon may have abandoned us for the greener pastures of the United Kingdom when it comes to its multi-million-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series, but it appears it hasn’t completely given up on Australasian production.
Witness the arrival this week of its first locally-produced feature film from across the ditch – one that showcases the Macau-born, Kiwi-raised Yoson An (Mulan, Creamerie).
He plays Richard, the main character’s childhood sweetheart, who, for better or worse, comes back into Lia Ling’s (The Family Law’s Shuang Hu) life at a critical time, in the rom-com Five Blind Dates.
“He was my best friend... Who turned into my first let down,” she laments, recalling how he broke his promise to relocate with her from Townsville to Sydney to open her dream tea shop.
It’s a heartbreak she hasn’t forgotten, especially now that the business, financed by her beloved grandmother’s financial legacy, is struggling – and her younger sister Alice (Tiffany Wong) is about to get married.
Not that Lia has any plans to reveal her feelings of failure – or jealousy – to her family as the months-long countdown to Alice’s big day begins.
That though does mean she has to “endure” her “proud” mother’s (Renee Lim) insistence that she have her fortune told by the renowned Mrs Li (Gabrielle Chan).
The results are most definitely not what she wanted to hear.
Convinced that Lia’s love and career lines are intertwined, Mrs Li insists that she will find her soulmate in one of her five next dates. However, they must take place within the two months before the wedding.
Eager to assist, Alice, and Lia’s mother and father (Mulan’s Tzi Ma) all put forward their best suggestions, while Lia’s workmate Mason (100% Wolf’s Ilai Swindells) steps up to provide emotional and satrorial support during what proves to be a testing and tumultuous time.
“I think my Dad set me up to have my organs harvested,” she confides to Mason upon arriving at the less-than-salubrious location for her first “organised” encounter.
While the set-pieces and vignettes that follow, as Lia searches for “Mr Right”, deliver some mirth-filled entertainment, there’s a certain predictability to the process that means Five Blind Dates won’t be for everyone.
Yes, it’s refreshing to see an Asian-Australasian rom-com, but this feels like an undemanding riff on the hundred other cookie-cutter Netflix and Hallmark romcoms involving a business-owning woman in dire need of rediscovering her “passion for life” after a past “trauma”.
While certainly not without its charms and offering yet more evidence (after acting as co-pilot on last year’s Gerard Butler-actioner Plane) of An’s versatility and potential leading-man status, if you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day treat that reflects contemporary Australasian-Asian life, then you’d be far better off bingeing on ThreeNow’s brilliant 2023 sitcom Homebound 3.0.
Five Blind Dates debuts on Prime Video on Tuesday, February 13.