Wonderful Fate (2021)

Makes for a pleasant watch, but could have been better

OK, first things first, what I liked:

- the cast did a pretty decent job, imho;
- I liked both leads, which is something that doesn't happen all the time;
- it had one of the funniest characters *ever*, imho (the crazily hilarious Chef Xue!)
- the music was also nice, particularly the opening credits song;
- the very last message about reading the Classics was a very nice touch.

As a matter of fact, after the first half or so I thought I was gonna give this a much higher grade, but then the second half unfortunately had several things that weren't my cup of tea, namely:

- in what had been, until then, a light, silly comedy, the sudden bouts of violence and tragedy felt totally misplaced; not poorly written nor acted, mind it...they worked very well *per se*, but they just felt horribly out of place (I don't want to spoil too much, but try to imagine going to the movies and, to your utter surprise, being shown something whose 1st half reminds a John Belushi comedy - what with all those toilet jokes, LOL - while the 2nd half has much more in common, say, with Hamlet's 5th Act...weird, huh? >__<);
- when you build up such despicable villains that kill, lie, bully and generally make everybody elses's lives hell all the time, then as a writer you just *have to* give them what they deserve at the end (one of the many things I like about Chinese culture: in their traditional crime stories, at the end there's an entire chapter depicting the culprits' punishment - sometimes including very gruesome details!); letting the afore-mentioned villains get away with some jail time or even a quick, painless death isn't sufficient to appease the viewers' natural need to see them crushed!
- being the history buff I am, seeing the writers sending out the message that the past was hell and the present times basically heaven on earth, well, as unsurprising as that was, still deeply annoyed me.

So, all in all, kind of a missed opportunity.

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