Hey folks, Harry here - I'm so envious - I'm dying to see this film - and I hate Moriarty - cuz he's not only seen CJ7 - but spent a half hour sitting down chatting with Stephen Chow. The reason that interview isn't on the site yet is... 1) It's Moriarty. 2) He's phonetically spelling out the answers that he got from Mr Chow in his native tongue. And lastly... 3) He's Moriarty. While we wait patiently rapping our fingers upon the reload button waiting for that interview - we can check out Twin Dagger Turkey's look at the film below...
Hello, this is twindaggerturkey in LA. I saw CJ7 last night, here's a short review! CJ7 Review for AICN I was lucky enough to get into a free screening of Stephen Chow’s new sci-fi movie, CJ7, hosted by Giant Robot Magazine. I was pretty excited, being a psycho Chow fan from way back. It started when my parents tried to take me to see SPAWN on opening night. It was sold out, so we ended up watching Chow’s period martial-arts comedy FLIRTING SCHOLAR. FLIRTING SCHOLAR mixed verbal and physical humor with beautiful wirework. SPAWN, on the other hand, sucked. BUT ANYWAY…After the CJ7 screening, Chow actually showed up briefly with Xu Jiao, the little girl who is the real focus of the film. In the short Q and A, we learned that, due to copyright issues, there probably won’t be a SHAOLIN SOCCER 2. Also, if I understood him right, that his involvement in the Dragon Ball movie was restricted to some helpful suggestions in the early stages of production. So, what about the movie itself? I had gone in with somewhat lowered expectations, having read some lukewarm reviews. It’s true that Chow is more of a supporting player on camera, and that some of the gags are recycled from his earlier movies. It is also true that CJ7 takes place on a rather small scale. There aren’t any brain-fryingly awesome giant kung-fu battles. It’s a very simple story about a poor boy (Xu Jiao is perfectly convincing as a boy) and his dad trying to make it in the world—and discovering a green rubbery alien dog with a cute glowing antenna on his head. Anyone hoping for something with the scope of KUNG FU HUSTLE will be disappointed. But the movie is really pretty cool in its own right. CJ7 himself is one very weird little critter. The dad finds it (he? She?) in a junkyard in green rubber ball form and brings the thing home to his kid. It’s never quite clear whether CJ7 is biological, mechanical, or some kind of doggy cousin to the liquid Terminator, but springs pop out of its head when it gets hurt. Created by Hong Kong CG company Menfond, it never looks quite real. Instead, it seems to be a visual heir to Hello Kitty and other mutant-cute Asian characters. The kid, frustrated with his impoverished existence, naturally assumes that this magical alien can solve all his problems, help him cheat on exams and give him impossible athletic abilities to boot. MILD SPOILERS AHEAD Without going into too much detail, he is thoroughly disappointed, leading to one gross but funny gag. The alien, it seems, has all the powers of an ordinary dog, albeit a stretchy, rubbery one. The movie does have the prerequisite heartwarming ending, but it doesn’t devolve into sentimental mush. In fact, it goes by so fast that the characters aren’t quite sure what happened. Xu Jiao, I thought, did quite a good job. She didn’t ham it up too much. The actress Zhang Yuqi didn’t have much of a part as an understanding schoolteacher. She flirts with the Stephen Chow character for about thirty seconds. The whole film moves along at a brisk pace and feels rather short, overall. It’s cute and silly and doesn’t try to be more than that, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again. (And I really want a stuffed CJ7 that lights up when I hug it!)
