Filmmaker Stephen Chow – the Bugs Bunny of Hong Kong action cinema – brings his mischievous, cartoon style to the family genre with CJ7, a less dreamlike and more manic take on E.T. Chow plays Ti, a single father who scraps together dangerous construction-site jobs in order to send his son Dicky (Jiao Xu) to an elite private school. Of course, being the poor kid doesn’t make Dicky very popular – until he becomes the owner of a bizarre pet from outer space. Though it’s awfully violent at times for a kids’ flick, CJ7 nicely spoofs the Asian techno-toy trend (the creature looks like a combination of Hello Kitty and a Chia Pet). In between the harsh sight gags, there also is some softer humor. Xu, as Dicky, is a sly young comedian, and his scenes with Chow even have some moments of gentleness. At its best, CJ7 brings to mind the hardscrabble humanism of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times and Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief. Not bad company for a kiddie comedy to keep.
