Movie review: CJ7

by Alex Bentley

CJ7 (Cheung gong 7 hou)

Ti is a poor father who works all day, everyday at a construction site to make sure his son Dicky Chow can attend an elite private school. Despite his father's good intentions to give his son the opportunities he never had, Dicky, with his dirty and tattered clothes and none of the "cool" toys stands out from his schoolmates like a sore thumb. Ti can't afford to buy Dicky any expensive toys and goes to the best place he knows to get new stuff for Dicky--the junk yard! While out "shopping" for a new toy for his son, Ti finds a mysterious orb and brings it home for Dicky to play with. To his surprise and disbelief, the orb reveals itself to Dicky as a bizarre "pet" with extraordinary powers. Armed with his "CJ7" Dicky seizes this chance to overcome his poor background and shabby clothes and impress his fellow schoolmates for the first time in his life. But CJ7 has other ideas, and when Dicky brings it to class, chaos ensues.

Source: Cinema Source

Showtimes and more on CJ7 (Cheung gong 7 hou)

Strangeness abounds in CJ7, the new film from writer/director/star Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle), and that’s not a good thing. CJ7 is really just a series of contradictions – a movie aimed at kids that showcases profanity, a comedy with no real funny moments, and a heartwarming movie that never touches your heart.

Of course, you could chalk this up to the cultural differences between American and Hong King cinema, but there’s still something odd about any film that is as heavy-handed when it comes to stereotypes as CJ7 is. Chow drives this home from the very first scene, juxtaposing Dicky (played by, strangely, 8-year-old actress Xu Jiao) sewing up his school shoes with shots of Mercedes Benzes and Rolls Royces driving by. You’re instantly made to feel sorry for this poor kid surrounded by all this opulence that he doesn’t have.

Chow then proceeds to beat that theme into the ground, as every single person of privilege (minus one notable exception) is portrayed as evil and as someone who wants to hold Dicky and his father (played by Chow) down. It’s all supposed to be in good fun, of course, but the portrayals of the mean teacher, pushy boss, and especially the schoolyard bully are all way too over-the-top to have any kind of entertainment value.

The typical overacting found in <em>CJ7</em>.

The typical overacting found in CJ7.

A possible upturn in that department comes when the father, wanting to give his son something good for once, finds what appears to be a green rubber ball at the dump, his preferred source of presents. That ball turns out to be an alien left behind by its mothership (yes, Chow was “inspired by” E.T.). The alien transforms into a cute fuzzball with what appears to be green goo for legs. Dicky dubs it CJ7, making it six times better than the CJ1 robotic toy that the bully had showed off earlier in the film.

Dicky immediately believes CJ7 will bring him magic and tries to use it to fix many of the ills in his life. While it may bring some “hilarious” slapstick to the film, this series of events actually serves more to depress than amuse. Rather than having a sense of wonder about the alien, Dicky tries to exploit him for his own gain. In short, he wastes any of the goodwill he had built up earlier in the film and comes off just as bad as the bully is supposed to be.

Piling fuzz on top of green goo does not make instant fun, Stephen Chow.

The end of the film tries to pluck at your heartstrings, but by that point it has alienated its viewers. CJ7 doesn’t earn the right to make you feel sad when bad things happen (especially when they happen in a slapsticky way) or happy when those sad things are reversed. Chow, who is surprisingly subdued in his role as the father, needs to study Spielberg a little more to truly understand what it takes to make a film that both entertains and touches your emotions. CJ7 does neither.