When Stephen Chow decided that he loves E.T. so much that he's going to rip it off, one can imagine that the result would be fairly interesting—a Spielbergian magical story seen through the eyes of the cheeky comedian. Chow transports the suburban setting to a ridiculously poor Chinese family. Ti (Stephen Chow) is a construction worker determined for his son Dicky (Xu Jiao) to become an educated person, so he enrolls Dicky in a prestigious private school. To no one's surprise, Dicky is picked on and looked down upon at school. Unable to afford buying him toys, Ti scours the junkyard and finds a rubber ball. He gives it to his son, not knowing that it's an alien life form.
For the most part, one can easily know what to expect from a Stephen Chow film. Rather than obviously spoofing the genre they're in, they usually pull influences from the most unexpected of genres, blending them together into a very rowdy package. Take, for example, the casual insertion of references to The Shining and The Untouchables in Kung Fu Hustle. They appear unexpectedly, hitting the funny bone by catching you completely off-guard, but always within the logic of what's going on with the characters (Chow's character imagined The Shining's river of blood because he was scared). CJ7 has a few of those moments. Most memorably, the introduction of the alien dog CJ7 is a parody of a scene from The Sixth Sense (but not the obvious one you're thinking of), and Chow presents it in a way that makes sense: our kid hero Dicky is scared to death of this strange creature, and his immediate conclusion is that it must be a ghost, prompting the Sixth Sense spoof.
Chow\'s preference to champion the underclass, though, is always interesting to watch. Ti breaks his back night and day and spends all his salary for his son's tuition, forcing them to live in a junkyard eating scraps and rotten fruits. The alienation of the poor (not even by the rich) is a theme that's been running strong in Chow's past films, and here it's no different. It provides a far more interesting situation for an alien to interfere with than Elliot getting picked on by his brother.
In essence, this is still recognizable as a Stephen Chow film, but watching it, it's pretty apparent that it's a very neutered version of Chow's usual brand of comedy. Whenever you're starting to think that it's progressing towards something unexpected, CJ7 shies away and goes the predictable route, almost as if Chow was following a "kids movie" manual.
CJ7 is Stephen Chow's attempt to make a film for children, with loads of special effects and cartoonish fun. While in Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle he used CGI to bring to life the extravagant action scenes, here he's basically crafting a live action cartoon. Think the Road Runner chase scene in Kung Fu Hustle, made even more playful with children and a Flubber-like animated character.
Problem is, it's just not that funny. The funniest thing about Stephen Chow movies is, well, Stephen Chow. Here he takes a back seat, and most of the time when we see Ti, he's either in a bad situation or he's lecturing Dicky. While Xu Jiao—charming little actress that she is (playing a boy)—carries her stuff remarkably as Dicky, the humor doesn't transfer as well. CJ7 is at its most comfortable and naturally funny when it has Chow doing his usual slapstick farce. The rest looks more like a bad Disney Channel original movie, although one filled with some inspired fantasy sequences and a really charming child performance. That may be enough to give the film a look-see, but to Stephen Chow fans, it\'s just too restricted to reach the full potential we all know Chow's capable of.
"CJ7" opens March 7, 2008 and is rated PG. Children & Family, Comedy, Foreign. Written and directed by Stephen Chow. Starring Stephen Chow, Xu Jiao, Kitty Zhang, Lam Chi Chung.
