Hey, wasn’t Stephen Chow supposed to be in this movie? Regardless of a lack of Chow, CJ7 channels Stephen Chow goodness and has the humor and heart to entertain the youngor those with young minds. You can decide which camp you belong to.
Featuring the trademark Chow slapstick humor, CJ7 is a comedy about a poor laborer father, Ti, played by Stephen Chow, and his young son, Dicky. When a fascinating and strange new pet enters their lives, Dicky, an elementary school student, sees a chance to overcome his poor background and shabby clothes and impress his fellow students for the first time in his life. The “pet” however has other ideas and when Dicky brings it to class, comedic chaos erupts including a showdown with the terrifying school bully, Storm Dragon!
The film’s difficulty in shifting between these tonal registers is the primary obstacle to its success. Chow seems unsure how to bridge low comedy and high melodrama, utilizing two wildly distinct formal approaches that often resonate atonally. One early comic sequence in which Dicky witnesses schoolmates playing with an expensive toy is quickly followed by a scene in which Ti spanks Dicky in a toy store for misbehavior. The extraordinarily loud, crisp sound work makes the sequence deeply upsetting, bringing to mind of all things that painful, awful slap in Bicycle Thieves (a comparison Chow would likely invite, given the film’s interest in class cleavages).
Star(s) to watch : Stephen Chow (”Kung Fu Hustle”, “Shaolin Soccer”) as Ti, & Kitty Zhang Yuqi as Miss Yuen.
Genre : Comedy, Sci-Fi, Drama.
Release date : January 31, 2008
Rating : 8/10
Official website : http://www.sonypictures.net/movies/cj7/
Poster : http://movies-update.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/cj7-202𝗬.jpg
Trailer :
