Review: Chinese rom-com ‘This Is Not What I Expected’ missing key ingredient
Despite good intentions and requisite rom-com trappings, “This Is Not What I Expected” can’t surmount the fact that the mismatched couple at its center simply don’t belong together, no matter how hard writer-director Derek Hui works to convince us otherwise.
Lu Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), a multibillionaire hotel acquisitions specialist — and stony perfectionist — swoops into Shanghai’s upscale Rosebud hotel for a potential buyout, only to find fault with everything he sees. Except, that is, for the sumptuous dishes issuing from the kitchen, which make ultra-foodie Lu rethink the property’s value.
He’s unaware, however, that the creator of these amazing meals is Gu Shengnan (Zhou Dongyu), the quirky, fever-pitched young nuisance who’s caused all sorts of first-act turmoil — largely of the contrived, slapstick kind — for the fussy businessman. Once Lu learns that Gu is the Rosebud’s inspired sous-chef, the two slowly bond, with Lu strangely moving into Gu’s chaotic apartment to better savor her cooking. Things get even less probable from there.
If we learn little about what makes Lu tick, short of being the scion of a cold-blooded tycoon (John Chang Kuo-Chu), even less is revealed about the childish, impulsive Gu. Zhou’s broad performance only increases her character’s lack of appeal.
Flights of fancy are peppered in throughout but can’t make up for this concoction’s missing ingredient: romantic chemistry.
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‘This Is Not What I Expected’
In Mandarin with English subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.
Playing: AMC Atlantic Times Square 14, Monterey Park; AMC Puente Hills 20, City of Industry; AMC Orange 30; AMC Tustin 14 at the District
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