Movie Review: CJ7

CJ7 (Cheung gong 7 hou) 

Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Beijing Film Studio, China Film Group, Star Overseas, Hong Kong, China, 2008. 

Dicky Chow (Jiao Xu who is girl acting as boy) is a poor kid living with his father Ti (Stephen Chow). Ti works hard to pay Dicky's education in elite school. Dicky is bullied at school by Johnny (Huang Lei) and his gang but big girl Maggie (Yong Hua Han) begins to protects him. His father teaches him to be honest and brave so that Dicky can be someday respected member of society. Their housing conditions are much like the ones in Chaplin's "The Kid" and killing cockroaches is fun leisure activity.

Dicky Chow

Ti

Dicky sees a robot dog and begins to yearn for one. They can not buy the dog because they are poor. UFO has landed in scrap yard where Ti searches for new shoes for the kid. The aliens leave behind a funny green ball. Ti thinks it is a toy and brings it home. The ball starts to act strange and Dicky is scared. The ball is space alien dog CJ7 (the name is a pun of Chinese space rocket Shenzhou 7). Dicky thinks it is sophisticated alien toy dog. CJ7 can turn rotten apples back to fresh and can repair broken things. 

Dicky wants a robot dog

CJ7

Most teachers are harsh but there is nice teacher Miss Yuen (Yuqi Zhang). Dicky tries to use CJ7:s skills to cheat on school tests. He could also be the best athlete ever. As the plot fails Dicky vents his anger on CJ7. Luckily the poor thing has the resiliency of "Flubber." However Dicky later regrets being cruel to CJ7 and they become friends again.

Miss Yuen and Mr. Cao

Chinese comedies are weird. Their mood usually swings wildly from sentimental scenes to surreal action to 'Mo lei tau' (makes no sense) wacky comedy and to tragic moments. "CJ7" alternates between semi-realistic style and cartoon style slapstick, toilet humour and sweet "E.T." style sentimentality. However there are some cultural barriers that may have prevented this from becoming a hit movie in the west. For example the methods for disciplining kids differ from what is nowadays acceptable in the west, in one scene father puts Dicky into a closet for making a racket. Still there is warmth and love between Dicky and his dad, it is just that the culture is different. The film teaches kids the importance of moral, ethics, hard work and love. Being a children's movie and being too weird for an usual family film, "CJ7" flopped in the west. In Asia the movie was a moderate success. And why not, although there are many hit or miss jokes the film is fun and also touching in the end.

Lots of CJ7s

Stephen Chow is undoubtedly one of the highest profile Hong Kong comedy actors and directors. After his films "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle" he gained popularity in the west also. Stephen Chow stays bit on the side this time and the real star is talented child actor Jiao Xu.

Rating: Good

Starring: Stephen Chow, Jiao Xu, Lei Huang, Yuqi Zhang (as Kitty Zhang), Chi Chung Lam (as Tze Chung Lam), Shing-Cheung Lee (as Sheung Ching Lee), Wen Xue Yao, Min Hun Fung, Yong Hua Han, Yu Lei, Zhong You Jin, Qian Lin Hu, Yi Ying Cheng, Yi Jia Lao, Hao Yang, Wen Hao Song, Hao Nan Zhu, Gang Hui Zhang, Qing Dong, Hao Hao Chen ,Qian Shen, Jia He Shi, Lu Yang Yu, Hang-Sang Poon, Shun-Yee Yuen 
Director: Stephen Chow