CJ7 – Master of None

AXN is going to be airing CJ7 in January 2009. What? A Stephen Chow movie where he isn't a master at anything? Not cooking? Acting? Not Soccer? Not Kung Fu? I have to admit when it first came out at the theaters, I wasn't actually enthused to go catch it. I say this because, everyone who knows me knows that I'm a big Stephen Chow fan. To me, he's Hong Kong's comedic genius. Years from now, people will study Shaolin Soccer, translate God of Cookery into 5 of the major languages and make it required viewing for anybody who intends to be involved in humorous cinema.


His deadpan delivery still makes me cry with laugher, and I don't even speak Cantonese.

When I finally got to watching CJ7, my only regret was waiting so long. I remember thinking what a masterpiece. This is easily one of Chow's best works.

I don't like giving away detailed movie plots because I feel that it ruins the movie experience. In a nutshell however, it's about a poor single father (Chow) who has to take care of his son, Dicky (Xu Jiao) after his wife passed away. Chow works hard so he can send his son to a good school. But the school is expensive, and it leaves him and the boy with not much money for anything else. At school, the rich kids give Dicky a hard time because he's so poor. But when a "magic rubber ball" comes into their lives (I won't say how…) things begin to look up.

That's it, I've already said too much.


This movie really struck a chord with me. Some scenes were really touching. Like the scene where Chow disciplines his Dicky for throwing a tantrum, or when a kid not able to accept that his father has passed away, shoos everyone out of the house because he says that his dad will be coming home soon and he needs to go to sleep.

You'd have to be made of stone to not shed a tear at some of these scenes. Not that there are no silly gags or slapsticks in the movie, there's plenty of that and Chow's 'special' brand of humor is still alive and well.

The viewer can actually feel the connection between Father and Son and I credit this to good writing and the strong performances of Chow and the new comer Xu Jiao.

This is a good movie, funny as hell and heartwarming at the same time. I recommend you not to make my mistake. Don't wait too long. Go watch it when it comes out.

CJ7 – AXN, 26th January (Monday) at 8pm

P.S.

- Check out some interesting trivia on CJ7 here.
- Find out more about CJ7 here.

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