This Is Not What I Expected (2017)

An obsessive CEO of a company meets a ragged chef by chance. They are drawn closer together because of their love for delicacies, yet their personalities clash big time.

Director:

Derek Hui

Writers:

Joyce Chan, Yuan Li

Stars:

Takeshi Kaneshiro, Dongyu Zhou, Yi-zhou Sun

2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Takeshi Kaneshiro	...	Lu Jin
Dongyu Zhou	...	Gu Sheng-Nan
Yi-zhou Sun	...	Meng Xin-Jie
Ming Xi	...	Xu Zhao-Di
Kuo-Chu Chang	...	Jin's Father
Tony Yo-ning Yang	...	Cheng Zi-Qian
Chiling Lin	...	Lu Jin's Personal Chef
Xiaosong Gao	...	Gao Fu-Shuai
Yingjun Zhao	...	Policeman
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hai Tong

Storyline

An obsessive CEO of a company meets a ragged chef by chance. They are drawn closer together because of their love for delicacies, yet their personalities clash big time.

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Plot Keywords:

restaurant kitchen | adaptation | based on novel | adapted from short novel | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

China

Release Date:

5 May 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Я не этого ожидал

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$135,252, 5 May 2017, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$334,985, 9 June 2017

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie is adapted from the novel "Finally I Get You" written by Lan Bai Se.

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Soundtracks

When I Love You
Composed by Kwong Wing Chan
Lyrics by Han Han
Performed by Cheer Chen

User Reviews

an unapologetically old-fashioned, overly chaste, roundly castle-in-the-air fluff, and it is exactly what I expected

A Chinese chick flick smartly welds a cookie-cutter template of meet-cute with blatant gastronomical seduction and eye-pleasing cityscape which one might infer it might be clandestinely sponsored by Shanghai travel bureau.

The glob-trotting CEO Lu Jin (Kaneshiro), arrives in Shanghai to assess the buy-out of a boutique hotel nestling in the city center, a choosy gourmet, he is overtaken by the dishes prepared by a young chef of the hotel, Gu Shengnan (Zhou Dongyu), with whom he develops a mutual attraction through the food-ordering-and-preparing contest and consecutively a preposterous co-habitation (sans physical contact though) in the latter's center-located oldish apartment, until a hiccup temporarily severs their growing romance, before a climatic confession routinely rigged up to bring them together. Yes, a synopsis can be applied to most commodities in its often derogated genre.

Lu Jin is not a nice person, obnoxious, disengaged, an insufferable obsessive-compulsive germaphobe, but since he is played by a spiffy Takeshi Kaneshiro, all can be forgiven (his repugnant personality has his upbringing to answer for), not to mention his $350 billion net worth, and all thing considered, he is just a lonesome, friendless man who is fostered to have no emotion connection with anyone because of his wealth and status, which will come undone thanks to a slightly loopy girl, who has only 5-year experience in the culinary business but inexplicably can tame his über-demanding stomach.

It goes without saying that the film's success is predominantly hinged on the performance from the two leads and their chemistry, and the outcome is moderately propitious. Having an 18-year age gap to paper over, a 43-year-old Takeshi Kaneshiro manages to hold court with his impeccable youthful mien, and brings both exigency and absurdity to the fore if he strives to without winking at the facile script. For Zhou Dongyu, who was discovered by Zhang Yimou in UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE (2010), has now magnificently matured into a young, bankable leading actress of her generation, she is the heroine who precludes the film from sinking into an abysmal vanity project through her vaguely cutesy but visceral outpourings when the movie needs them the most. No room is left for its sidelined peripheral roles though, Chiling Lin is vouchsafed with a glamorized cameo and a much cherished reunion with Takeshi since her screen debut in John Woo's RED CLIFF diptych (2008, 2009).

First-time Hong Kong directer Derek Hui does input a few ingenious brainwaves into the cliché-ridden plot, a trippy folie-à-deux occasioned by consuming poisonous pufferfish has serves both as visual novelty and romantic nectar; choosing a local food market when the crunch arrives hews to the tenet of prioritizing Shanghai's vernacular loci over modernized anonymity; and the setting-sun watching finale is an opportune legerdemain to this unapologetically old-fashioned, overly chaste, roundly castle-in-the-air fluff, and this is exactly what I expected!