This Is Not What I Expected (Movie)

posted by Anne J on March 31, 2017 7 comments

This Is Not What I Expected 喜欢你 is a Chinese romance that tells the story between an unlikely couple. If unlikely is the theme for the day, then I have to say that pairing the 43-year-old Takeshi Kaneshiro with an extremely youthful Zhou Dongyu certainly seems to fit the bill.

He plays Lu Jin, an international economist who is harsh and critical and has made a hobby out of being a food connoisseur. She plays Gu Sheng Nan, a chef whose creativity comes from the heart. A chance encounter leads him to fall in love with her food, yet he despises her as a person.

Their appearances drive the point as far as stereotypes go. He is a well-dressed big shot while she is an easygoing lady with tattoos and a badass dog. Producer Chen Ke Xin said, "In this world there are no so-called compatible or incompatible, you cannot predict your lover, once you like the other person you no longer care who that person is. This is the outlook on love that the movie tries to convey."

To be honest, Chinese movies have been mostly misses for me these days regardless of who's in it. In fact, Takeshi Kaneshiro's See You Tomorrow earned horrible reviews. Nevertheless, this movie already has a leg up in my book because it's literally taking the foodie thing seriously and playing up the food porn.

Even so, a better reason to watch this is because it is helmed by the team behind Soulmate except with a different Director and we know Zhou Dongyu won a Golden Horse Award for that last year. The movie also stars Sean Sun Yizhou (General and I), Ming Xi and Tony Yo-ning Yang.

Release Date: April 28, 2017