CJ7 movie

Chow Ti (Stephen Chow) is a poor laborer working at construction sites. He lives in a half-demolished house with his son, Dicky (Xu Jiao). Chow is eager to save up money to send his son to private school to ensure that his future will be better and brighter than life is now for them. However, Dicky is often bullied by other children and his teacher (mainly because of his lowly stature), and he usually finds comfort with a young tutor, Ms. Yuen.

One day, while at a department store watching television, Dicky begs his father to buy him a popular robotic toy. Because of empty pockets, Chow cannot buy it, and the situation ends badly after Chow spanks the stubborn Dicky in front of other people. Once again, Dicky finds comfort in Ms. Yuen, who was passing. That night, Chow visits a junkyard (where he usually picks up clothes and other home appliances for Dicky) and brings home a strange green orb; he tells Dicky it is a new toy better than the robot they saw earlier. Dicky is hesitant at first, but agrees to keep it. A night later, it turns out to be a cuddly alien that befriends Dicky. After playing, Dicky falls asleep and dreams the alien, whom he names CJ7, will help him gain popularity and high grades at school (references to Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle are made in the dream sequence.) Positive, Dicky brings CJ7 to school the next morning, but it turns out his dream was only a dream; he ends up receiving a zero on his exam and getting humiliated at physical education. Dicky tries to dispose of the alien, but realizes his mistake and reconciles with it at home. Over the next day, because of CJ7, Dicky finds new friends at school. However, because his schoolwork grades have been declining, Chow takes CJ7 away, claiming his son will never pass school if there are distractions. The father and son have a falling out, and, predictably, Dicky sticks close to Ms. Yuen, who promises she will look after the boy. This cheers Chow up somewhat, who is fearing he might lose his son's love.

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• Love HK Film, by Kozo
  http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews_2/cj7.html
  And anyway, despite not delivering anything truly new or surprising in CJ7, Chow does manage to engage the audience's emotions. The man knows what he's doing.


• IGN, by Todd Gilchrist
  http://movies.ign.com/articles/856/856162p1.html
  Indeed, CJ7 is a little weird, and maybe doesn't always make narrative sense -- but in a world this filled with fun ideas, those issues seem to matter much less.


• Twitch, by Grady Hendrix
  http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/cj7-review1/
  It feels like the best toy advertisement you've ever seen, and I mean that completely unironically. There's nothing at all wrong with it, but I expected a little bit more from Stephen Chow.


• TVGuide, by Maitland McDonagh
  http://www.tvguide.com/movies/cj7/review/292687
  CJ7 is as bracingly clear-eyed as Disney classics like OLD YELLER (1957) in its understanding that innocent fantasy and painful reality are both integral parts of childhood.


• Time Out New York, by Joshua Rothkopf
  http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/85223/cj7.html
  Is this a bad thing? Hardly. But what CJ7 ultimately reveals about global tastes is not just the triumph of Spielberg's brand of blockbuster imagineering, but of the Hollywood director's influence as a planter of undercurrents of class rage and incipient maturation.


• Variety, by RICHARD KUIPERS
  http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936047.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&query=CJ7
  In an attempt to create the Chinese equivalent of a franchiseable Hollywood family blockbuster, Chow's fifth helming effort has none of his nonsensical verbal humor and far fewer cartoonishly violent f/x setpieces.

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