This Is not what I expected

The cuisines in this movie were so colorful and so eye-appealing. Takeshi Kaneshiro, as Lu Jin, was a good cast but too many close-ups focused on his face that inevitably showed he was already a 46 years old actor, maybe a little bit over to play this role, unless this director was heavily influenced by Hollywood's 1940s to 1960s old movies, full of middle aged, even over 50s older actors to play all the leading Alpha roles in romcom movies, such as Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Randolph Scott...those who dominated the big screen, played the big lovers to those young female actors like Audrey Hepburn....these old guys were all too old to play such roles, because to those young actresses, they looked more like fathers or even grands. So the director requested the casting agency to find a middle aged guy similar to Gary Grant to play this Lu Jin role, and likewise, signed up Dongyu Zhou to play Gu Shengnan, with an under-developed body, no figures at all, flat all over skinny and short young woman, exactly like Audrey Hepburn.

I have to say Takeshi Kaneshiro and Dongyu Zhou most of the time performed well enough, but the comic screenplay and the scenarios sometimes forced them to overact, broad acting too much. But Zhou's face and skinny body made her look too young and too small, exactly like the leek vegi. Then Kaneshiro, on the contrary, seemed to be too old to play Lu Jin, an already over 45 son who was still harshly controlled by his father.

I have to point out some of the actors in this romcom were terrible and no talent at all even this movie was a farcical comedy:

Chiling Lin, as Lu Jin's Personal Chef; terrible! Absolutely NO ACTING TALENTat all! Ming Xi, as Xu Zhaodi; terrible actor with very limited acting talent. Xiaosong Gao, as Gao Fushuai; what a joke. Tony Yo-ning Yang, as Cheng Ziqian; absolutely no acting talent at all. Yi-zhou Sun, as Meng Xinjie; limited acting talent.

So obviously, this romcom was just an okay movie; a comedy with lot of yelling, screaming, cursing and broad acting.

Naming this rom-com This is Not What I Expected is a misnomer because everything that will happen is expected. This is 1 litre screwball comedy, 2 tablespoons of "opposites attract" and 3 slices of food porn. But make no mistake, even though the odd couple seemed mismatched, they will come together like the desert miss the rain.

Lu Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is the CEO of the VN Group and he is scoping Rosebud Hotel in Shanghai for a acquisition. A food connoisseur, he is not impressed by the dishes the kitchen sends up. Sous-chef Gu Shengnan (Zhou Dongyu) is then tasked to try her hand to impress the eccentric man, but unbeknownst to both of them, they actually had a run-in earlier. Lu is impressed with the dish and proceeds to stay and try more delicacies made by her.

This rom-com is formulaic to a T but any movie buff will tell you that is not important. It is a foregone conclusion that the mismatched coupling will be a love-match made in heaven. The secret ingredient is to create hilarious situations to make them loathsome towards each other and yet give them redeeming qualities.

Lu Jin believes that the world is divided into three categories – the pork eaters, the pork butchers and the pigs. He is eccentric, rude and condescending – the world is beneath him in every scene, but OMG Takeshi Kaneshiro is so good looking and so dashing in his impeccably tailored suits. This coming from a guy, you know he is handsome from every angle and my knees got a little weak just swooning at him. Kaneshiro brings just the right amount of detestable contempt but you will excuse him because he is about to be schooled in the art of food tasting and love.

Gu Shengnan is his equal – opinionated and sure-footed. Excluding Lu's father, I think she is the only character in the whole movie (and probably all the cinema patrons) not sucked in by his good looks and powerful stature. There is a sequence where Lu challenges her to make a different egg dish which demonstrates how talented she is. Zhou Dongyu who won Best Actress at the recent Golden Horse for her excellent performance in Soul Mate is in scintillating form. She is a dork, but likable and feisty, like a delectable dish you can't have enough of. Her face feels like a sponge, soaking up everything life throws at her with the spunk of a child who knows no better.

A lot of the success of a good rom-com depends on the chemistry between the stars and the sparks here feel genuine. There is some good character development on both sides for us to buy into their budding relationship, and enough treacherous detours to make us root for them. The food porn is just extra garnishing for a love dish that is already great.

This is a great date movie but do go in with your tummy filled. It's time to check into Rosebud Hotel and do make a special request for room 1123. Oh my… my knees are becoming weak again.

Not as funny as the television series Dating in the Kitchen, but it easily could have been if it was a television series with more twists and turns, instead of a movie.

I was pleasantly surprised by this quirky and hilarious movie, I laughed a lot and found the two of them quite amusing throughout the film.

Kind of like a food porn that is carried by its two charming leads. A very pleasant and silly film that makes you smile throughout its running time. Takeshi Kaneshiro and Dongyu Zhou own the film, Kaneshiro with his sharp looks and the lovable stubborn nature and Zhou with her cuteness and innocent quirks. While the luscious variety of food items makes your mouth water, the humour goes along with it to give a good time watching this beautiful albeit silly film.

This is a Chinese romantic comedy. Hithertofor, I always thought "Chinese comedy" to be an oxymoron - I've seen a few - or tried to watch them, but they were never even close to funny. This is warm, funny, colorful, creative and a lot of fun. I'm writing this review someone will give it a try and enjoy it even 1/2 as much as I did.

This movie is both an homage to, and a satire of the great "food movies". It is in the style of the screwball comedy genre. Its not perfect, but it is really a lot of fun, and way above average. They lead actress is fabulous - on par with any great comedic actress I can think of. She just sizzles in every scene. I would love to see her in more movies. All of the cast was good, but she was really extraordinary. The movie has humor and heart.