CJ7

Movie review: CJ7.

Synopsis:
Construction worker Ti (Stephen Chow) is a poor man who works very hard. Ti struggles daily in order to survive. Despite the fact that he is very poor, it doesn't stop him from sending his son Dicky (Xu Jiao) to an expensive private school. Ti repeatedly tells Dicky important things. He hopes that his son will grow up as an educated person who will be useful to the society.

At school, Dicky is often bullied by other children due to his poor background. To make things worse, his teacher also looks down on him. A young teacher named Miss Yuen (Kitty Zhang) often tries to comfort Dicky. When one of the children shows up with a new toy, a robot called CJ1, Dicky secretly wants one too.

On one day, Ti and Dicky are watching TV outside a department store. The TV show suddenly gets interrupted by a news report, it seems an UFO has been spotted by some people. In the meantime Dicky went into a toy store to look for CJ1. Ti finds his son, but Dicky doesn't want to leave the store without the robot toy. Dicky begs his father for the toy, but Ti can't afford it. Dicky walks away after he gets spanked by his father.

Ti regularly looks for usable things at a trash dump as he is too poor to buy new things. That night he goes to that trash dump, there he finds a green ball and takes it home with him. He quickly goes home and tells Dicky that he has found something better than CJ1. Dicky is still mad, he ignores his father and the toy. But soon he gets curious and plays with the ball. The following night the ball turns out to be an alien dog. Dicky befriends the alien and names him CJ7.

With CJ7, Dicky is more interested in playing than studying. He dreams about CJ7 and his special abilities, but forgets to learn for his test. Dicky will soon learn important lessons when he wakes up.

My thoughts:
Stephen Chow directed CJ7, he also co-produced and co-written it together with Vincent Kwok. The Chinese title for CJ7 is Chang Jiang Qi Hao. The movie had it's first premiere in January and the first DVD appeared earlier this year in April. CJ7 has yet to be released in some countries. The movie has comedy elements, which is Chow's signature. To make some things possible, Chow has used CGI and several special effects. Besides comedy, the movie has also been marked as a science fiction and drama movie.

Main characters are Ti and son Dicky, although Ti seems to be more like a supporting character in the shadow of his son Dicky. Xu Jiao, who is actually a girl, plays Dicky. Ti is played by Stephen Chow. Computer animated CJ7 plays a big role too. There's a minor role for newcomer Kitty Zhang as Ms. Yuen.
Xu Jiao plays Dicky, a boy who is more interested in playing than studying. Dicky has a poor background and his father can't buy him many things. But Dicky has a rich imagination, this is made clear after his father finds CJ7. Little girl Xu Jiao is quite convincing as a boy and as an imaginative kid. Not only is she convincing, she offers more for the viewers. She's funny, almost like a little comedian. CJ7 is Xu's first film, but she shows that she already has many facial expressions suiting particular scenes.
Then we have Ti, Dicky's father played by Chow. Unlike in his previous movies, Chow definitely has less jokes in CJ7. Chow is also less funny, but this may be his intention as the story of CJ7 isn't comedy only. Chow can be amusing at certain moments, not necessarily funny. The reason why Chow is amusing is because some viewers hold on to Chow's earlier funnier appearances such as in Kung Fu Hustle. For some it's hard to let go of Chow's appearance as a comedian, as he has always been a comedian.
Just like Xu Jiao, Kitty Zhang is also a newcomer. Unlike Xu, Zhang only has a minor role and we don't see much of her. She doesn't impress much though in the moments that she does appear. It's a waste of the character Miss Yuen as they could have used that character more.
Young star Xu Jiao did an excellent job, considering it's her first role. Stephen Chow's character is a little bit disappointing, I expected a little more jokes coming from Ti. It seems Ti intentionally made space for Dicky.

Ti is so poor that he can't afford a normal house, instead he lives in a broken house with Dicky. In this house, Ti tries to learn his son important things such as no stealing. The house indeed looks semi-demolished, both from the inside and outside. They even added broken furniture and many other things that make Ti look poor. Other locations are the private school and a construction site where Ti works. To be honest, the private school looks more like a normal school. Dicky plays with CJ7 in his house and even takes him to school. A little side note, the movie got shot in Zhejiang, China. The Chinese title for CJ7 is Chang Jiang Qi Hao, this is literally translated as Yangtze River 7 or Long River 7 (an existing river in China).

CJ7's story is simple to understand, it mainly focuses on Dicky and his pet CJ7. The story has place for drama and comedy, but it's certainly less funny than Chow's previous movies. There are several scenes referring to previous movies Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. It seems Chow's main intention is to bring some certain messages instead of making the audience laugh. The movie is somewhat heartwarming because of the messages.
But besides entertaining, CJ7 can also be disappointing. There are several reasons contributing to the disappointment. Many people mainly watched CJ7 because Stephen Chow has attached his name to the movie. Fans were eagerly awaiting Chow's movie and then Chow doesn't appear a lot in the movie. As an excuse they use Ti's extra hours at work. Then we have the alien CJ7. With the many toys, DVD editions and other items, the movie can be misunderstood as an advertisement for the alien itself. Like I mentioned before, when people think about Stephen Chow, they think about comedy, jokes and laughs. The movie doesn't provide much of these elements for the viewer. Let's not forget CJ7's other genres, the movie is still amusing and entertaining.

CJ7 is not your usual Stephen Chow comedy, instead it's more like a family drama. If you are expecting something like Kung Fu Hustle, then be prepared that you might feel disappointed after seeing this movie. But CJ7 can provide entertainment for some people with its heartwarming but simple story. Others like other Chow movies so much, that they forget that CJ7 is whole different movie. It sure took Stephen Chow a lot of years to make CJ7, just forget Chow's previous movies for a little while and try to enjoy CJ7.

Written by Mialee L. aka Sukachu.

Links:

• HK dvd edition available here.
• Taiwan dvd edition available here.
• US edition available here.


• Order the special HK edition here.
• Order the special Taiwan edition here.

For other editions, check out: