Movie Review CJ7

Tweet

Spoiler alerts – 2008 Written, directed by and starring Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer & Kung Fu Hustle fame this may be one of the most delightful children’s movies ever, featuring an alien that might well be even more cute than ET. Chow play impoverished father Ti, working grueling shifts on a construction site to pay his son, Dicky into education at a school for rich kids. Dicky is alienated for wearing second hand clothes, and trainers scavenged from the city dump. Dicky walks to school when the other kids get dropped off by Roll Royce. The depiction of the divide is very cartoon-like, rather than realistic, almost like that in Roald Dahl’s stories like Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. Bullied and jeered, except for gaining support by a few other misfits, Dicky seems pretty miserable. He doesn’t even have the latest must have toy, a CJ1, a sort of robot dog the other kids have. One night, at the dump, his dad finds what appears to be a bendy toy. It is actually an alien, that changes into a cute hedgehog faced creature and reveals itself to Dicky, who now imagines it having magical powers that will sort out the bullies and help him excel at school. When his CJ7 as he calls it, fails to do any of that when really put to the test, Dicky finds he can succeed on his own merits as the alien, now recognized by all the kids who see Dicky as the coolest, turns its attention to the father’s needs with unexpected results and one of the most joyful uplifting final screen images ever. Most of this year’s Preston based Worldwise Learning Centre International Movie Festival screenings were great films but with an overall downbeat pessimistic conclusion. This was the ultimate feel-good film of the festival, highly inventive, energetic and warm hearted with a fabulous alien as its centre-piece. Youtube – Trailer For CJ7 Arthur Chappell