Decreed by Fate (2022) - Final Review

Final review/rating: Decreed by Fate (2022) - A fun romcom with eye candy and laugh-out-loud comedy aplenty!

This is 7.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:         7.5 Stars Plot:                       7 Stars Acting/cast:            7 Stars Couple chemistry:   8 stars Music:                    7 Stars Re-watch value:      7 Stars Enjoyment factor:   8 Stars

I really liked this one! Decreed by Fate (2022) has a fun premise, with plenty of twists and turns, and some serious eye candy in that there is not one, but two gorgeous male leads vying for the heroine's affections.  Be still my beating heart! The sparkling chemistry between the three leads was also top notch.  

At 16 episodes that are 30 minutes each, Decreed by Fate is the perfect length for a fluffy romcom binge of the guilty pleasure variety, in that you will likely be ogling both of the leading men along with the heroine, who does so rather shamelessly😍😆 

Episode 16 ends with a happily-ever-after, but also a cliffhanger, and I for one will be keen to see a Season 2 if one eventuates.  

SPOILERS AHEADS

Eye-candy heaven 

Rong Er's first view of Li Jiu Lin's Yin Si Shen / Lu Ting Xiao

My stars! The two male leads in Decreed by Fate are both swoon-worthy, so it is completely understandable that the heroine spends a lot of time ogling both.  

Li Jiu Lin plays the outwardly aloof but inwardly warm Yin Si Shen aka Lu Ting Xiao who falls for Rong Er at first sight.  I have previously seen Li Jiu Lin as the second male lead in Your Sensibility My Destiny (2021), where he played Du Rou, the nicest-guy-ever-to-not-get-the-girl (see my final review of that drama and my take on his dreamy Du Rou 👉here).  

In Decreed by Fate he steps up as the male lead, and oh my does he deliver in terms of smoldering looks, heartfelt declarations, and passionate kisses.  There is also a bath scene or two, and countless times where for some reason (*cough) the director considers that he needs to be shirtless.  No complaints here 😆

Wu Cheng Xu as Fang Xian Xun/Lin Xie

I have also seen second male lead Wu Cheng Xu, who plays the charming Fang Xian Xun aka Lin Xie in this drama, previously as a side character (Xu Feng in The Long Ballad (2021)).   

 Here, he gets lots more screen time (yay!) and to be honest, I was not sure who would end up as the male lead for at least half the drama because Wu Cheng Xu was an absolute scene stealer. With a roguish twinkle in his eyes and a whole-hearted devotion to Rong Er, whom he calls his shifu jokingly, this 'student' really tugs on the heartstrings ... 

Fang Xian Xun is also a more colourful character than the more staid Yin Si Shen as his outwardly happy-go-lucky roguishness masks some darker hidden currents, lest of which is his hidden identity.  And when a guy can rock white robes with pink boots and kick some serious butt while doing so? *Sigh.  

Besides, the director also decided that we could do with some shots of Fang Xian Xun having a bath, and a few others with his shirt off for whatever reason. Again, absolutely no complaints here on that score 😆

When three is not a crowd?

The cutest💓triangle ever

So the plot is borderline ridiculous, but it is lots of fun. For a largely spoiler-free synopsis see mine 👉 here.  Basically, it's one Lady and two very hot guys (not 1 but 2 gorgeous generals disguised as matchmakers of all things), with hidden identities, love, mayhem and angst thrown into the mix. 

Yes, there is a love triangle.  But this may be one of the rare times in Chinese historical drama land where it does not make me want to throw a hammer at the screen, because the chemistry between our three leads is so hilariously good (and also because the second male lead accepts the heroine's choice with commendable grace and a complete lack of toxicity). 

This is Chinese historical drama, so we do not get anything quite as risqué as a ménage à trois.  But let's just say that our heroine Rong Er (played with a deft comic touch by Chen Fan Tong) certainly flirts with the idea of having two gorgeous husbands at her beck and call AND she has a very overactive imagination 😆 

Rong Er's overactive imagination

Very much indebted to Rong Er's overactive imagination though, because it gives us an imaginary three-way wedding and an imaginary three-way bath, complete with rose petals 😂

But the drama also knows how to poke fun at itself.  When the trio are tied together by a mysterious vine in episode 7, they soon realise the practical difficulties of literally being tied together for hours on end, such as the inability of each to use the bathroom. No amount of imagining wedding two hot grooms or bathing with them in rose petals will distract from the serious need (of each) to use the bathroom (!)

Another reason why the triangle is such fun watching is the bickering and petty jealousy of the male leads.  An endless source of comedy - it is nothing new or novel, but it is always very funny when there are two bickering boys in the house.   

Strange bedfellows 😅

Besides, deep down, both rather like each other and know that the other will protect Rong Er with their life.  At a pinch, they will even protect each other.    

And in this comedy of errors, life can sometimes give you strange bedfellows (literally)😂  

Final Thoughts

Decreed by Fate: A very FUN romcom!

🐼: Decreed by Fate (2022) is so much fun - a crowd pleaser!

I liked the twists and turns in the plot, which gives us double identities, deadly poison, as well as a memorable fake death to satisfy the demands of respective emperors whilst staying true to the close bond of friendship of the trio.  And there is a happily ever after, complete with another wedding scene, as well as a cliffhanger ending that (hopefully🤞) means we get season 2. 

For a small budget short romcom, the acting in Decreed by Fate is surprisingly good and the chemistry between the three main leads is outstanding.  This is way better, in my view, than other recent cheap and cheerful dramas, such as Ms Cupid in Love (2022) or Oh my Lord (2022), because the com part of romcom was definitely here in spades.    

True, there was some shoddy editing which affected the flow of the drama and added to confusion, but much can be forgiven given the limitations of a short 16 episode drama and the low budget.  

Bring on Season 2 please, with hopefully even more Wu Cheng Xu!