Going into this blind, I was still thoroughly invested: Who doesn’t love a handsome rogue with a heart of gold after gold in a heist film where the stakes are low? This is animation and no one really dies. You don’t need to know anything about Daoism or Chinese mythology to enjoy “All Wishes Come True!” If you enjoyed the 2016 “Kung Fu Panda 3” or the 2020 “Over the Moon,” “All Wishes Come True!” has much of the same visual and comedic sensibilities because Pearl Studio was one of the coproducers.
The English title, “All Wishes Come True!” doesn’t hint at what the film is about, but Chinese title makes it clear: 八仙. In Japanese that is “hassen” or in Mandarin Chinese, that’s “bāxiān” or the Eight Immortals. Besides having the magical lucky number of eight, the Eight Immortals are a famous group from Chinese mythology and Taoism. Each immortal possesses a unique magical power and has a special object associated with them. They are:
- Lü Dongbin (呂洞賓Lǚdòngbīn): A scholar who acts as the leader of the group and has a magic sword. According to Britannica, he is credited with founding a Daoist sect.
- Li Tieguai (李鐵拐 Lǐtiěguǎi): An old beggar with an iron crutch and a medicine gourd. According to Britannica, he would leave his body behind to visit his master, but one day, a disciple allowed his earthly body to be cremated and he then “assumed a new identity by entering the deformed body of a beggar who had died of hunger.”
- Zhongli Quan (鍾離權 Zhōnglí quán): According to Britannica, he is “often depicted as a potbellied, bearded old man holding a fan with a tassel of horse hairs.” He is sometimes depicted “as a military man and is credited with unusual knowledge of alchemy.”
- He Xiangu (何仙姑 Hé xiāngū): According to Britannica, she is often depicted as a beautiful woman who carries a lotus flower.
- Lan Caihe (藍采和 Lán cǎi hé): According to Britannica, Lan Caihe has been depicted as both a young man and a young woman. Lan Caihe travels around singing ballads and is often show carrying a flute or a pair of clappers.
- Han Xiangzi (韓湘子 Hán Xiāng Zǐ): Listed as Han Xiang in Britannica, this immortal is usually shown with a bouquet or basket of flowers, a hoe and a mushroom of immortality. He was converted to Daoism by Lü Dongbin.
- Zhang Guolao (張果老 Zhāng guǒ lǎo): An old sage who rides a white donkey backward and carries a phoenix feather and the peach of immortality according to Britannica.
- Cao Guojiu (曹國舅 Cáo guó jiù): A noble man dressed in court robes who carries a tablet that shows his rank and “right to palace audiences” according to Britannica. “He was a man of exemplary character who often reminded a dissolute brother that though one can escape the laws of man, one cannot avoid the nets of heaven.” Yet there’s another story where he ended up in prison and mended his ways upon his release.
According to Britannica, a Xian is “an immortal who achieved divinity through devotion to Daoist practices and teachings.”
Writer/director Mu Zhengyang based his script on the Ming Dynasty tale “The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea.” According to PBS, “The crossing of the Bohai Sea is the story of the Eight as they traveled to visit Xi Wangmu and take part in a banquet at her palace in celebration of the ripening of the peaches.” Of course, there are many versions of the story, “but the constant is that the Immortals showed their own individual prowess with their distinct tools and characteristics when crossing the ocean.”
The Bohai Sea (渤海 Bó Hǎi) is a gulf or inland sea (and, yes, the English name is repetitive) on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea and is connected to it by the Bohai Strait. Xi Wangmu or Xīwángmǔ (西王母) literally means West Queen Mother, so Queen Mother of the West. According to Britannica, in Daoist mythology, she is the “queen of the immortals in charge of female genies (spirits) who dwell in a fairyland called Xihua (“West Flower”)…Tradition describes the queen as a former mountain spirit transformed into a beautiful woman…”
From the story, comes the Chinese proverb: 八仙過海, 各顯神通 (Bāxiānguòhǎi, gè xiǎn shéntōng) which translates as “The Eight Immortals cross the sea, each revealing divine powers.” The meaning is that everyone uses their unique talents or expertise to achieve a goal or take on a shared challenge and there may be more than one method to succeed instead of just one method for everyone.
The film is the story of their journey toward immortality and we meet them as mortals after a 2D prologue that explains the importance of a lantern.
Every age must meet
Its hour of Ruin:
The Doomsmite.
Such is its power,
Strong enough to shake the heaven and hell
And bury all that lives below.
Yet against this ruin, there is a light.
The Yu-Xu lantern of our grand master
Sun and moon poured their glow into it
And gave it power beyond measure
And a depth that nothing could fill
Whenever the Doomsmite draws near
The Celestial Court sends down a Keeper
To bear the lantern
Into the mortal realm.
It drinks the ruin in
And the Doomsmite is undone
Under the Lantern’s grace.
After the prologue, we meet Lü Dongbin (voiced by Li Shaozhe), a seemingly honest mortal traveling into Mount Penglai (蓬萊仙島 or Hōrai (ほうらい or 蓬莱 in Japanese), a place where immortals and mortals live together and where all wishes come true. Most of these wishes aren’t on the scale of the film “Aladdin,” and have more to do with intruders and theft.
During his journey into Penglai, Lü Dongbin spies a thief and as he pursues the thief, we see this slippery fellow has many disguises. When Lü Dongbin finally catches up with the thief, he recognizes him as Zhongli Quan (Chen Hoo). Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan were students at the Zhong Shah Academy for Immortals but Zhongli Quan was expelled in disgrace. Yet Lü Dongbin needs Zhongli Quan because while Lü Dongbin knows that the sacred lantern is in the vault of the Gods of Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity, Lü Dongbin doesn’t know its form. Lü Dongbin has transformed it, but can Zhongli Quan be trusted?
Zhongli Quan is a charming rogue with impressive eyebrows: Think Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert) from the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 2010 animated film “Tangled” (voiced by Zachary Levi). He’s charming. You probably can’t trust him, but he’s not inherently evil. He has issues from childhood and the same can be said for Lü Dongbin. Lü Dongbin is more of the young orphan boy on a quest, something like a Luke Skywalker or an older Hiro Hamada, from the Disney 2014 animated feature, “Big Hero Six.” There’s no Baymax, but there is a pleasantly plump guy on this team of eight.
In order to get into the vault, Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan must make a deal with Cao Guojiu (Zhang Yunqi), the unscrupulous chunky brother of the empress. Although Cao Guojiu knows Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan are not immortals, he gives them the deed to a temple, a privilege only allowed to immortals who are then tasked with granting wishes. Can Guojiu’s stipulation is that the two don’t allow people in to the temple to ask for wishes, because as the title says, all wishes come true. That blessing becomes a curse for these gang of thieves.
There’s a slight problem. Two other mortals are pretending to be immortals and have taken up residence in that temple: Zhang Guolao (Deng Xiansen) and Han Xiangzi (voiced by three actors, Dong Tianyi, Yu Pengli and Huang Yushuo). Han Xiangzi idolizes the Lord of the Dark Blade and although Lü Dongbin can answer all the questions Han Xiangzi poses, it’s Zhongli Quan who poses as the mysterious Dark Blade and wins the two other mortals to their side as this foursome now plot to dig under the residence of the Gods of Fortune (Fúxīng, 福星), Prosperity (Lùxīng, 祿星) and Longevity (Shòuxīng, 壽星), or the sānxīng (福星). Lü Dongbin wants the lantern to save humanity while the others want the gold also reportedly in there.
This foursome will be joined by Tieguai Li–a con man who pays once to enter a bathhouse and then lives there for a year with the baby Lan Caihe (Cao Zhishan) as well as someone who may or may not be the real Dark Blade, He Xiangu (Li Dong). Connections will unravel as the eight carry out their heist, but there will be a catch and a hidden enemy that may make them turn upon each other.
The main arch is between Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan and their past and how they will deal with the lessons from their academy in contrast to their own moral judgements. But along the way there will be humorous incidents and obstacles, action scenes and surprises. Despite the presence of one female on the team, this is focused on the bromance. Even without knowing about the Eight Immortals, this is an enjoyable journey, a heist film with immortals as adversaries and con men and woman as our heroes.
If all wishes come true, then we’ll have a sequel to this lively romp gives old tales a fresh twist and painlessly introduces Chinese heroes to the Western world. This film is produced by Pearl Studio (owned by CMC Capital Partners), the same production company that co-produced “Kung Fu Panda 3” with DreamWorks Animation, China Film Group Corporation and Zhong Ming You Ying Film in 2016. In 2019, Pearl Studio again teams with DreamWorks Animation and Zhong Mind You Ying Film for the 2019 “Abominable” (distributed by Universal Pictures). More recently, Pearl Studio teamed with Netflix Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Glen Keane Productions for the Netflix animated featured “Over the Moon” in 2020 and with Netflix Animation and Star Overseas for the 2023 “The Monkey King.” A slight spoiler: The Monkey King appears in “All Wishes Come True!”
“All Wishes Come True!” was released in China in July 2026 and was released in the US and Canada on 14 August 2026. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
