ChFilm to DEFINITELY Watch: This Is Not What I Expected (2017)

This Is Not What I Expected (2017)

Viewing Platform: Netflix

 

Talented but young and with no credentials to her name, Gu Sheng Nan is a hotel chef, secretly dating the hotel manager. He unceremoniously dumps her, but begs for her help in pleasing the mysterious guest in room 1123, after he turns down dish after dish, even from Michelin rated chefs. The hotel manager pieces together from news reports that their mysterious guest is famous cutthroat businessman Lu Jin. If the hotel manager can convince Lu Jin, then their place will be bought out and turned into a true international, high-class, highly rated hotel, so he calls upon Gu Sheng Nan's talents. Lu Jin is intrigued by the young chef's dishes, and he spends an entire day challenging her knowledge and creativity, instead of moving on to acquire another hotel chain, as is his job. What happens when Lu Jin realizes his mystery chef is none other than the girl he found mistakenly scratching up his car in the parking lot the other day? Will Gu Sheng Nan be able to keep her job at the hotel?

*This is one of the BEST rom-coms I've seen in AGES! It was so cute and funny, with an interesting musical score and gorgeous lighting in many of the scenes, and Takeshi Kaneshiro (Lu Jin) steals the show with his fastidious and stern yet likable nature. (He even uses one of my FAVORITE acting techniques near the end, but I won't spoil it!) My only complaint is how they portrayed the scene between the two (spoiler alert) personal chefs: it was a play on a man sleeping with two women, which could be funny, but it took away some of the humor because of the hurt and betrayal that goes on in those situations in real life. Fortunately that scene doesn't last very long, and overall it's a good foil to add some tension to the will-they-won't-they aspect of the story. I will DEFINITELY watch this again!*