Calvin’s Hub

Heavy rains hit Metro Manila the whole day and we got stuck at home since by the time we’re about to leave, areas around our office were already flooded. So we decided to stay and work from home instead.

Not much work for me today so I was able to watch CJ7 on the PC. It is a movie produced, directed and co-written by Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, God of Cookery, etc.). It also stars Stephen Chow and this brilliant kid, Jiao Xu. It doesn’t focus on Chow but instead on the kid who did a very great job on this film.

The story is about a father and son relationship dealing with poverty. Chow is a construction worker and his son Dicky, is having a hard time dealing with other students from school. You see, his father enrolled him in a private school so he’s the only poor kid there.

While browsing in a junkyard for a pair of sneakers that he could give to his son, Mr. Chow came across a weird looking toy. The toy turned out to be a fuzzy alien that became Dicky’s pet and friend (Lilo and Stitch anyone?). He named it CJ7 in reference to the robot pet of the rich kid at school called CJ1. This alien seems to have powers that could help Dicky in school, or so he thought.

It’s a very family oriented film complete with values and moral lessons that any kid and parent could enjoy, not the typical Stephen Chow movies that we’re used to. Still, there are lots of funny scenes that had me laughing. You could also see some of his friends and reference to his past movies like Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s a nice movie to pass away time and I would recommend it to families with small kids. Look for the english-dubbed version by the way.

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Filed under: Movies and TV