This Is Not What I Expected (2017) — AI Story Visualization

Plot Analysis Summary

A controlled businessman discovers that food, intimacy, and companionship matter more than efficient commercial success.

Story Structure — 5 Plot Phases

A Dish Changes Everything

Lu Jin evaluates a hotel and initially rejects its dishes. One special meal changes his decision and keeps the hotel operating.

Key Events

• Car Vandalism Misunderstanding — Lu Jin discovers his car has been vandalized after the chef mistakes it for another vehicle. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Outside a business meeting
• Hotel Buyout Plan — Lu Jin arrives at a hotel to evaluate a planned acquisition. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel
• Chef Tasting Challenge — Several chefs prepare dishes to persuade Lu Jin to maintain the hotel. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel dining area
• A Dish Wins Approval — Lu Jin reacts positively to one special dish and agrees to keep the hotel operating. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel dining area
• Rooftop Encounter — Lu Jin finds the chef drunk on the roof after she falls onto his balcony. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel rooftop and balcony

Meals And Misunderstandings

Lu Jin repeatedly encounters the chef and discovers her identity as the source of his favored meals. Their unusual relationship develops through dinners at her apartment.

Key Events

• Rooftop Encounter — Lu Jin finds the chef drunk on the roof after she falls onto his balcony. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel rooftop and balcony
• Repeated Encounters — Lu Jin repeatedly encounters the chef and assumes she holds a personal grudge against him. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel
• Secret Chef Discovery — Lu Jin realizes that the chef he keeps encountering is the person preparing his favored meals. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel
• Apartment Dinner Request — Lu Jin locates the chef's home and asks her to cook for him. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Chef's apartment
• Daily Couch Routine — Lu Jin turns eating dinner and sleeping on the couch into a daily routine. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Chef's apartment
• Puffer Fish Dinner — Lu Jin and the chef eat puffer fish obtained through a wealthy business contact. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Chef's apartment

Hallucination In Shanghai

A spoiled puffer fish causes a night of hallucinations and wandering. The aftermath exposes the existence of Lu Jin's personal chef and creates emotional distance.

Key Events

• Puffer Fish Dinner — Lu Jin and the chef eat puffer fish obtained through a wealthy business contact. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Chef's apartment
• Toxin Hallucinations — The spoiled fish causes hallucinations, and Lu Jin roams through the city with the chef. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Shanghai streets
• Bus Ride Home — The toxins wear off for Lu Jin while the chef continues hallucinating, so he takes her home. Characters: Lu Jin Location: City bus
• Personal Chef Revelation — The chef discovers that Lu Jin has a separate personal chef, creating a painful misunderstanding. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Lu Jin's house
• Hotel Closure Decision — Lu Jin's company declares the hotel inadequate and plans to convert it into another business. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel

The Cost Of Success

The hotel is closed and its workers are dismissed. Lu Jin defends the decision by revealing the harsh lesson that shaped his career.

Key Events

• Hotel Closure Decision — Lu Jin's company declares the hotel inadequate and plans to convert it into another business. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel
• Workers Lose Their Jobs — The hotel workers are dismissed as part of the company's decision. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel
• Hard Lesson Explained — Lu Jin explains that success once required him to fire a long-serving worker when he was nineteen. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Hotel
• Lonely London Dinner — In London, Lu Jin asks his personal chef to eat with him, but she says she cooks only for one. Characters: Lu Jin Location: London office

Choosing Companionship

In London, Lu Jin learns that his personal chef understands his deeper need for companionship. He returns to Shanghai to find the chef he truly wants beside him.

Key Events

• Chef Resigns — His personal chef resigns, saying Lu Jin wants companionship rather than only good food. Characters: Lu Jin Location: London office
• Return To Shanghai — Lu Jin returns to Shanghai and uses an old alarm system to locate the chef. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Shanghai
• Sunset And Sunrise Promise — Lu Jin finds the chef, offers her a place beside him, and watches the sunset before suggesting sunrise. Characters: Lu Jin Location: Balcony

Story Breakdown

• Hotel Acquisition — Lu Jin arrives to assess a hotel and initially treats it as a business transaction.
  • Car Misunderstanding — A mistaken act of vandalism creates Lu Jin's first encounter with the chef.
  • Tasting Challenge — A special dish persuades Lu Jin to preserve the hotel.
• Unexpected Encounters — Lu Jin repeatedly crosses paths with the chef without understanding their connection.
  • Rooftop Collision — A drunken rooftop incident brings the chef onto Lu Jin's balcony.
  • Secret Chef — Lu Jin realizes that the recurring chef prepared the meal he valued.
• Apartment Routine — Lu Jin turns private meals into a regular pattern of eating and sleeping at the chef's home.
  • Dinner Request — Lu Jin asks the chef to cook for him at her apartment.
  • Couch Ritual — He repeatedly eats dinner and sleeps on the couch.
• Toxic Night — A dangerous meal temporarily transforms the pair's ordinary routine into a surreal city adventure.
  • Puffer Fish — The spoiled fish causes both diners to become intoxicated by toxins.
  • City Hallucinations — They roam through Shanghai before Lu Jin recovers on a bus.
• Business Collapse — Lu Jin's commercial decision destroys the hotel community and exposes his harsh professional philosophy.
  • Hotel Closure — The company decides that the hotel is inadequate and changes its business purpose.
  • Workers Dismissed — All hotel workers lose their jobs, prompting a confrontation with Lu Jin.
• Emotional Recognition — Distance and loneliness force Lu Jin to recognize that his need is personal rather than culinary.
  • London Loneliness — His personal chef refuses to share dinner and later resigns.
  • Companionship Choice — Lu Jin returns to Shanghai and offers the chef a place beside him.
• Balcony Resolution — The story closes with quiet mutual companionship rather than another business decision.
  • Sunset Watching — Lu Jin and the chef watch the sunset together from a balcony.
  • Sunrise Suggestion — After hunger returns, Lu Jin offers to cook and suggests watching the sunrise.

Directed by

Derek Hui Wang-Yu

Key Cast

• Takeshi Kaneshiro — Lu Jin
• Zhou Dongyu — Gu Shengnan
• Xi Mengyao — Xu Zhaodi
• Tony Yang — Cheng Ziqian
• Sun Yizhou — Meng Xinjie