4 Star

The Pressure is On.

Yusheng Tian (Phanta City (TV Mini Series), The Sacrifice) brings us his fourth part of the Meng Yun (Geng Han, Transformers: Age of Extinction, So Young) and Yu Fei (Ryan Zheng, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Great Wall) show, as the best friends hit their mid-thirties, their mothers want grand children. For that, you need a wife. This series is celebrated as one of China’s most beloved romance comedy series, known for its in-depth and subtle observations of love in modern China.

Welcome to the Tome of Love.

Now thirty-six, Meng Yun is getting his health check, and the Dr is not that impressed with his results, and neither is he. Dejected, he heads home, only to have another shock, his mother siting in the dark. She is eager to be a grandmother, and after his break-up she wants to know what he plans next, especially after she put him in touch with a pretty girl. He got her a job. Doh.

Meanwhile, his best friend Yu Fei is having a meal with his long-term girlfriend Ding Dian (Mengxue Zeng, Ode to the Spring, Qian ren 3: Zai jian qian ren) who is complaining about stomach pains, and somehow Fei gets the discussion around to pregnancy and marriage, which is a shock to Ding as she is still in her twenties and that is the last thing on her mind. This turns into a challenge of a trial marriage. Two competitive people in one house, what could possibly go wrong?

Ma’s influence is strong, as at the gym Fei is also trying to set Meng up with a girl, but the penny soon drops and Meng realizes that it was Ma who got in touch with him to get him into a relationship. Eventually, Meng comes around to the idea of blind dates, and Fei is going to sort it all out, putting his profile on a posh dating site. So Fei takes Meng through the etiquette of blind dates.

You can’t win her heart at first try.

“There are studies online, which means someone must have done that.”

“You have all the merit of a bad date.”

We see the results of Meng’s many blind dates, and sometimes it’s someone you already know. Romance and comedy in equal measures will make The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan another Smash hit for our hapless duo.