Review | Amazon Prime movie review: Five Blind Dates – Australian romantic comedy starring Shuang Hu and a mostly Asian cast is no Crazy Rich Asians

Shuang Hu co-writes and stars as Lia, a young woman living in Sydney who is looking for love in this Australian romcom from Amazon Prime

With few laughs, a lack of meaningful romance, and the heavy use of genre stereotypes, Five Blind Dates fails to score on all fronts

Reading Time:2 minutes

Shuang Hu (left) as Lia Ling and Yoson An as Richard Teo in a still from Amazon Prime film Five Blind Dates. Photo: John Platt

Published: 9:00pm, 10 Feb 2024

1/5 stars

Touted as the first feature film produced locally in Australia by Prime Video, romantic comedy Five Blind Dates is intended to bring a touch of Crazy Rich Asians magic to audiences this Valentine’s Day.

Chinese-born Shuang Hu co-writes and stars as Lia, a young Asian woman living in Sydney whose traditional tea shop is failing as badly as her love life.

Faced with the reality of attending her little sister’s wedding alone, she heeds the advice of a fortune-teller, and agrees to go on a series of blind dates in the hope of putting her future back on track.

Despite its almost entirely Asian-Australian cast, and an engaging central performance from Hu, Five Blind Dates is painfully devoid of serious laughs or genuine romance. The courtship it depicts is tired and unconvincing.

What Hu’s script, co-written by Nathan Ramos-Park, may lack in broad comedic appeal, it does make up for in keenly observed cultural specificity.

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