Chow Ti (writer-director Stephen Chow) is a poor, widowed construction worker who inhabits a partially demolished house with his nine-year-old son, Dicky (Xu Jiao). Ti wishes to earn and save money to continue sending Dicky to private school, but there Dicky experiences daily bullying because of his poverty and weathered clothes. Then while shopping one day, Dicky begs Ti to buy him a whiz-bang new toy robot named CJ1, but Ti cannot afford it and this leads to Ti smacking the stubborn Dicky in front of many other shoppers. But then that night, while searching through a junkyard where he has found numerous appliances and clothes for Dicky, Ti finds a strange green orb which he takes home for his son. When it then transforms into a pint-sized green alien, their lives are turned upside down.
A departure from the martial arts slapstick comedies Chow made his name with, 2001's Shaolin Soccer and 2004's Kung Fu Hustle, this Chinese family science fiction comedy tickled me pink. It's a gloriously weird, unashamedly ridiculous and sometimes even touching romp with a wisely subtle message about socio-economic inequality in China mixed in, and very convincing visual effects for its $20 000 000 budget. Chow plots and paces it all with a firm grip and makes an amiable paternal hero but perhaps unsurprisingly the true star here is Xu Jiao, who I was stunned to discover is actually a girl! She cross-dressed for the role and makes Dicky a young hero who's neither too cute nor too mischievous.
Raymond Wong Ying-Wah's musical stylings complement the narrative and visuals effectively also, and the editing and sound design bring more flavour still. CJ7 is a prime slice of Dadaist, Eastern family filmmaking for all ages.
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