In Five Blind Dates, Lia Ling is told that she will meet her soulmate in the next five dates, and this fortune turns her life upside down. The film is streaming on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Lia Ling grew up in Townsville learning everything about traditional Chinese tea culture along with her grandmother, Po Po, and her best friend Richard.
When her grandmother passed away, she left Lia money to open a tea shop in Sydney. She hoped to open it with Richard but he stayed behind and let her down.
She runs the shop with her best friend Mason, but it isn’t doing too well. Lia returns to Townsville for her younger sister Alice’s engagement party.
As per Chinese tradition, Alice has her fortune read before the big day, and the family encourages Lia to get a reading as well.
The fortune teller says that Lia’s love life and professional life are intertwined and to save the business, she must find her soulmate.
Luckily for her, the fortune also claims that she will meet the love of her life within the next five dates before Alice’s wedding in two months.
Lia’s family is excited and wants to set up dates for her, but she pushes back. She also finds out that Richard is going to be the Best Man at Alice’s wedding.
Lia relents and agrees to go on the dates so that she can save her shop, and the first date is set up by her father.
He makes a profile in a bougie dating app for rich people and matches with an affluent Chinese billionaire named Apollo.
Apollo wishes to have a very transactional relationship and while the monetary benefits are wonderful, Lia wishes that it were slightly more traditional and involved love.
Her mother sets up the second date with Ezra, a teacher at her school. Lia and Ezra knew each other as children and the date went fine until he choked on an allergen.
She grabs his Epipen and stabs him in time, and they go back to the date. However, while making out, Ezra says Lia’s mother’s name out loud.
Lia realizes that he’s in love with Jane, her mother. Richard shows up at the tea shop because he and Lia are in charge of the wedding gifts for the attendees.
They talk for a bit and it eventually turns into a passive-aggressive disagreement so Richard leaves.
Next up is Alice’s pick. She introduces Lia to Curtis, a meditation guru with a well-built body.
Lia gets along with Curtis and this makes Richard jealous, even though he’s there with one of the bridesmaids as his date.
Curtis helps Lia overcome her fear of water, and when she rides back home with Richard and his date, she gets into an argument with him.
She brings up the past and how they were supposed to open the tea shop together, but he backed out at the final moment.
Richard says that he had to think about his family and not follow some fantasy they thought up when they were fifteen.
He says some harsh words and Lia gets off the car to get home on her own.
Ending explained:
An intense fitting
Lia joins her parents and Alice for Alice’s dress fitting, and when they want to see different options, they ask Lia to wear one next to Alice.
Lia reluctantly tries on the dress and gets some underhanded comments from her mother. Her father also pesters her about Apollo and the fact that he’s the best choice.
It all gets a little too much for Lia and she has an outburst of her own. She tells her mother that because she had an unhappy marriage, she made life difficult for her daughters.
She also tells Alice that she tries too hard to be perfect but it’s all just a shield to avoid getting hurt.
With such hurtful words being said, Alice tells Lia to leave and not bother attending the wedding while she consoles her mother.
A turn of fortune
Lia returns home in the ripped dress from the boutique and Mason tries to comfort her. A customer walks in and asks for bubble tea while recording for social media.
When she refuses, he gets on her nerves by asking silly questions. Lia once again has a manic outburst and the entire thing is recorded online.
She spends the next couple of days in her room, ignoring everyone’s calls. Mason finally visits her and sets up a picnic date for the two of them.
They have a wonderful time and Lia’s spirits are raised significantly. The next day, Lia completely rearranges everything in her shop to bring in new energy.
She lets Mason handle things while she goes back to her room, but Mason asks her to rush back because they have a sudden rush of customers.
Her outburst about tea culture in a wedding dress went viral and brought in a huge crowd. They have a great business day and Richard stops by for a moment too.
Lia decides to go to Alice’s wedding and apologize for her mistakes.
Fulfilling her destiny
Lia reaches the venue on time and first apologizes to Alice. Alice agrees with what was said and the two sisters make peace.
She then looks for her mother and finds her fooling around with Ezra. She and her mother bury the hatchet as the wedding goes on without a hitch.
At the wedding, Lia discovers that the reason Richard stayed behind in Townsville is because his mother had fallen ill.
He also arranged the wedding gifts and gave her equal credit even though she didn’t contribute.
Lia realizes that Richard has always been the one for her, and expresses her feelings for him.
She asks him if she can take him out on a date first, and then pursue a relationship that will only be beneficial for them both.
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