Stephen Chow returns to the big screen again after 2 years, bringing CJ7 to us. Another collaboration with Vincent Kok (God of Cookery), this film is rumoured to have a budget of $20 mil.The movie is about a kid name Chow Siu Dik (played by actress Xu Jiao...and yes, its a SHE) who is very poor but goes to a rich kid private school. His dad, Ti (played by Stephen Chow), is a construction site worker who owes his boss (played by Lam Chi Chung) huge debt after the passing of his wife. He saves up all his money to place Dik in a rich kid private school and hence had no more money to buy Dik toys at all. Spending most of his time ransacking through the garbish site for useable items, Ti came across a greenish ball one night at the dump. The 'ball' eventually transformed into this:
You will have to watch the movie yourself to see what happens next. Overall, I notice that the film uses some past ideas that he has used before in previous movies, prompting one to think if he's running out of ideas already. For example, when Dik was fantasizing himself overpowering the PE instructor in the field (the scene where Dik jumped up high in the air and did the Buddha-Strikes-Back-palm) that was from the scene in Kung Fu Hustle. Another iminent example is when the kids from school found out about CJ7 and demands that 7 Zai mimicks different expressions. That idea came when Chow did King of Comedy alongside Cecilia Cheung.
Chow seem to have aged a lot and have played down his character in his recent movies compared to those he did in the early 90s. Those days, the main attraction of his movies are basically himself and the jokes he did throughout the movie. Nowadays, its more like moving towards the production side and aims to promote newcomers and those ever-so-popular special computer graphics.
And since China is booming so fast and is becoming so much more cost-efficient, moving production to China seem inevitable in the HK film industry now. CJ7 is filmed in Ningbo, China and hence, most of the cast are from Mainland China. You'll notice that the whole movie was actually dubbed to Cantonese and was originally in Mandarin. I always prefer the original being Cantonese and the watching dubbed versions always made me felt as if something is missing....the originality.
Credits have to be given to the kids in the movie, esp the lil girl that played Dik and the mean Egg Tart. Being a newcomer, Xu Jiao had so much facial expression and body language of a comedian. Such talent at such young age. Discipline teacher, Mr. Tso (played by Mainland actor Lee Sheung Qing) also did well in being the usual mean teacher character found in most of Stephen Chow's past movie. Its been so cliche in his movie that everytime its a scene in the school, there is always a mean discipline teacher (as seen in the series of Fight Back to School). Also cliche is everytime a character feels free and happy, there is always a scene where the character imagines himself running on the beach with silky scarf (seen in God Of Cookery, The Tricky Master)
1. When Dik accidently activates the green 'ball' and it starts to transform into an alien toy dog. Dik went totally ballistic thinking its a ghost. Notice the obliviant Chow and the-boy-who-was-not-allowed-to scream Dik. Her facial expression here is the funniest!
2. The scene where Dik fantasizes about 7 Zai having special power. Especially love the part where 7 zai built goodies for Dik in the school toilet. I love that lil cutesy acting all tough up when ransacking himself to find the best equipment. Its like Doraemon....but cuter!
3.When Ti discovers that his son is hiding 7 Zai and Dik insist that it was a borrowed toy from a friend at school. Dik keep insisting that 7 Zai is high tech stuff, causing Ti to think he's no longer educated enough to understand the current level of technology. This is like one of the only few scenes where Stephen Chow showed his humorous side....by pulling and bouncing 7 Zai around and wondering where is the battery compartment.
4. The scene where 7 zai was asked to mimicked different expressions by the kids at school. 7 Zai was mimicked all the expression one portrays in different situation, eg. striking lottery, very happy, angry, sad...etc....etc....I've seen it done before by Stephen Chow and his cast in King of Comedy but to be able to generate a computer graphic to do it so well is incredible!
Overall, superb computer graphics of 7 Zai that it is so detailed there is just so much personality and liveliness shown in every single expression it made. Not often you could see such cute graphics created in an Asian movie. And considering it's entirely done by an Asian production team, it is something to be proud of. But one thing is that the movie lacked storyline. It focused on computer graphics too much that it is actually a short story behind it. When I thought the movie is finally reaching its peak, it ended.
You'll probably scream "I want a CJ7" right when the movie ends. Overall, its never to be missed if you are a Stephen Chow fan. Go watch the movie without any expectation though....that's what I did and end up having a good time. Its nothing near his 90s movies but after all, he's venturing into different roles now. Thumbs up for Stephen Chow's success in the production of the movie esp in creating such cute character in 7 Zai. But I will definitely miss those times when he focused more on acting besides production. Good for a laugh...... but don't expect to see the jokes done by Stephen Chow like those in the 90s. Remember, he is now mainly a producer and director, not an actor anymore....
OMG....7 Zai is soooooooo cute! I want one!
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