Review of CJ7 (2008) by Charmaine C — 07 Nov 2009

Stephen Chows shoe fetish and themes of poverty and wealth are apparent again in his somewhat ironic children's film. Ironic (if indeed this is ironic at all) for that fact that this is a children's film aimed at an international audience. A children's film that involves copious amounts of subtitles.

The bad things in the film pain me so. And they are too numerous to ignore. Ng Man Tat is really missing in action. The fat bastard really is no compensation at all. Comedy often relies on a bantering partnership, and fatty is far too receptive for this.

To me, the self-references and parodies of his own work fell completely flat. They had no relationship or context to the plot at all. It wasnât even clever. In fact the whole dream sequence helped to substantially derail the film. A lot of intelligence was lost in that moment, and the opportunity for being an inspirational tale was traded in for moments that would only appease the youngest of young.

I did enjoy the morality and the cruel realism that this film displayed. Slapping a child would never be seen in a mainstream Hollywood film. Nor would the cruelness that the child inflicts on the cute pet. Also some of the child actors, especially the lead and corporate guru, were excellent.

A loss of focus really harms the film though. It has the opportunity to deal with loss like Bridge to Terabithia but cops out completely. To the point where I am unsure what the alien even represents. In the final moments we are left with an awfully constructed and contrived scene on the courtyard where all the main characters get to showcase their epilogue.

It was certainly a strange departure for Stephen Chow. One that I have no problems with, only in the fact the results were mediocre.