On DVD: CJ7 Not Chow's Best

It's always disappointing when a favorite filmmaker of yours attempts something different from what you're accustomed to and just gets it wrong. When he makes something that just doesn't live up to what you've come to expect. Such is the case with CJ7, the new science-fiction comedy from Hong Kong writer/director/actor/megastar Stephen Chow. Now I've been a fan of Chow's for a long time, having been given his films on old, bootlegged VHS tapes back during a time when that was the only way to see them in the States. Since then he wowed the world with his action comedies (the films you are most likely to know him for) Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Sadly, CJ7 is only like these in the worst, and not the best, of ways.

Unlike the kung-fu films, which you're the most likely to be familiar with, CJ7 is like the ones you probably aren't -- his straight comedies like King of Comedy and From Beijing with Love. Unfortunately, unlike both of these previous efforts, this is his first foray into children's filmmaking, and the script is incredibly weak, inconsistent, and, at times, downright confusing. Once again, Chow plays the poorest man in the world, a down-on-his-luck construction worker with a young son he spends every last dime on in order to send him to the best school in town. Trouble is, as a poor boy at a rich school his son is constantly ridiculed. When his son, longing to fit in, demands the new hot toy CJ1, Chow spends a night at the city dump trying to find a suitable stand-in. Instead he finds an alien toy dropped by a spaceship -- a dancing, malleable wonder toy that can seemingly do anything, up to and including repairing and restructuring matter. Chow names it CJ7 and gives it to his son.

Sound familiar? It should. CJ7 is clearly inspired by/rips off E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (right down to the very John Williams-like score) and a number of a-boy-and-his-dog movies, while mixing it with Chow's trademark humblest-man-in-the-world routine. There's nothing wrong with that, at least there wouldn't be if this film had a coherent narrative. But it doesn't. It's all over the place. Here, Chow falls prey to telling jokes when he should be filling out the story. You get this feeling that even Chow is acknowledging that we've seen it all before and instead he wants to do the bits we haven't seen in those movies he's playing with. And so he veers off on wild tangents that never pan out. When it comes time to wrap things up, we're treated to a massively disappointing ending that doesn't remotely feel earned by its characters.

That said, the CJ7 creature is pretty damned adorable and there are a number of fun scenes with him once the film gets going. And some of the scenes with the other characters in the movie are either cute or fun. They just never gel as a whole. It's not a total waste of a film, but it is far from the near-perfection he achieves with his other comedies.

There are a number of strange features on the DVD, ranging from your standard (but sadly subtitled) making-of documentaries to a handful of things for your kids to watch and play around with. There are two quick shorts on how to make a prop lollipop (like the one that appears in the film) and a truly strange short about how to beat a bully. I say strange because they take what could be a great little PSA-style short and just get WEIRD with it. Some of the advice is gonna get your kid creamed ... I was left scratching my head afterwards wondering if this was an assignment piece that someone kind of slapped together.

Then there's a quick little flash game that will bore adults within the first 10 seconds of play, but might entertain your kids for five minutes or so. It involves launching CJ7 off in a rocket and lets you pick the trajectory and fuel load. All in all it's a nice package of little things to keep your kids busy for an extra half-hour after the movie -- an especially nice package considering most of the Asian titles we get imported are pretty bare bones. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of bringing many of Chow's other, much more brilliant films, over to the States with good presentation.

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