Asadullah Khan "We may be poor, but we don't lie, we don't steal, and we don't swear...We must study hard so that in the future we can become someone that is useful to the society".The movie is about a very poor father working very hard to to just survive day by day and to keep his son in School, when they suddenly get an alien creature who the boy names CJ7. Well that is the main plot of it anyway.This movie tries to do a lot of things, and succeeds in almost everything. I had no idea that it was a sad, lesson giving drama but with some really awesome comedy thrown in. This movie touches poverty, school bullying, rejection, acceptance etc etc all the while being a comedy sci-fi ish flick. I don't know how Stephen Chow does it. Great Actor and Director. Having watched his previous two famous movies, Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, this certainly felt different from his usual style, but was pretty good nonetheless.The CGI character CJ7 itself was great. It has got to be one of the cutest CGI creatures I have seen in a long time. The CGI wasn't of Hollywood level, but it was decent. There were a lot of Stephen Chow weirdness in the movie too, some good, some not so much but it ain't a Stephen chow experience if it ain't weird. Overall, I had much fun watching this movie, was completely surprised to see how much more it was from what I expected. 7.8/10

Victor YC Ong What happens when the worlds of an alien race that looks like cute little soft toys and a troubled human family collide? Out-of-the box movie magic, of course....we expect no less from film maestro Stephen Chow.Contemporary socio-economic themes, classroom bullying and the challenges of single parenthood are examined and explored, with poignant moments thoughtfully crafted into the storyline.Despite having watched this movie once in the cinema, and five times on blu-ray, tears still never fail to roll. Truly, this is an excellent movie for families with kids to watch together. And we have not even touched on the superb, A-class CGI visuals, and the crazy humour that are sprinkled liberally in the show.Another wholesome, honest-to-goodness movie in this genre to catch would be The Dragon Pearl, starring Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Hunt for Red October, The Piano etc.), Jordan Chan (famous Hong Kong actor) and an equally awesome CGI oriental celestial dragon (Naga) that looks photographically real.

RainDogJr Years ago my cousin showed to me that Stephen Chow movie Shaolin Soccer, I quickly became a big fan (it was the first and until this day only movie that I own on UMD), truly a great film, both Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu are favourites of mine but even with that fact I never knew about the existence of this 2008 Stephen Chow movie, CJ7, and last weekend I found its R1 DVD and since it is from Chow I had to add it to my collection, glad I did it since CJ7 is simply another winner from Chow.This time we don't see Chow that much, here he is Ti, father of Dicky (Xu Jiao) who will be our dude. Basically CJ7 is a film for/about the family, we have the strong father and son union but certainly kids are kids then our little man will be mad as hell if his father can't buy for him the new toy that is the damn sensation between Dicky's school partners, and Dicky's school is not a public one actually, Ti works really hard just for his son and they do see hard times but Dicky has a great chance by going to that school yet the school is not a very pleasant place for Dicky and not because of the work and stuff but also and basically because of the bullies and his teacher (you will hate Dicky's teacher, no doubt about it). So we have this poor good fella in big school full of rich f**** stuff in CJ7 and certainly we have the father and son story, sort of The Kid (Charles Chaplin, 1921), and with Dicky we will see at one point the typical stuff since he will be not very nice with his father and he will not have a chance to say to his father that he was wrong, is going to be too late for that. The character of the title, CJ7, is actually at first time nameless, after all it was just something that Ti found in a junkyard but that something result to be actually something more than cool, something unique, something from outer space and not precisely an Ed Wood's plan, it is more like a dog, a puppy, weird puppy that will be just about the solution to all of Dicky's problem. Now Dicky will make a perfect test, will finally be allowed to attend the sports class, he has all, the bad ones will get what they deserve and the movie ends…not! Is actually the funniest part of the film, at least is my favourite part when Dicky finally awakes from a long and wonderful dream just to see that the puppy is actually real yet is more just like a normal dog, that defecates and stuff (!). At some points this is just crazy fun, great fun for sure but we also get some sad moments, kind of very sad moments actually, and no one but us will know how in the hell came the happy ending, how in the hell Dicky will actually have a chance to see again his father. CJ7 ends when the runtime marks less than 90 minutes, it is a fast-paced delight, Chow I'm your fan, big fan and with CJ7 I can only say that we have another winner movie from Chow. Enjoy! DVD: I had to watch "The Story of CJ7" to realize about the fact that who plays Dicky is actually not a boy but a girl! Anyway, some of the special features are the cast and crew commentary, "How to bully a bully" and some previews.

Fritz_Gerlich If this movie provides any insight into the Chinese psyche, I'm worried. First off this is a kids movie with a cute little alien creature that a boy befriends. EXCEPT the boy doesn't befriend him. He tries use him at first to get stuff, like good grades, and when the alien fails the alien is tortured, beaten, and thrown in the trash. For some reason, the alien returns to the boys home where he is further beaten and hit and thrown around. The alien decides to stay again. I am going to reveal the ending...The movie ends with the father being killed at an accident at work and the cute fuzzy alien thing sacrificing himself to resurrect the father. The only sense of the story I can make is that the creature was so despondent at being left in such a cruel miserable country he decided to kill himself by resurrecting the father. He resurrected the father because he wanted to punish him for being such a jerk by making him live longer at his sucky life as a poverty stricken coolie. And don't worry, the boy gets beaten too. Great kids movie. Want to know why China is one of the worst offenders when it comes to animal cruelty? Here's one reason why.Now I am no huge fan of Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks, but at least the messages in their movies have a beautiful sentiment behind them. You know, friendship is important, love is important, etc etc. The message in this movie seems to be you can treat non-human living beings as horrible as you want, use them, dispose of them, and you will still be their master. If this is what passes for children's entertainment in China, then that is one messed up country.I should also mention, this movie is painfully unfunny. Most American kids movies have a lot of clever things to keep adults entertained along with the young ones. Like, for example, the use of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song in Shriek III. There is none of that in this movie. It is extremely dumbed down. But it won't work for kids either, as it can be upsetting to sensitive children.So, unless you are interested in a sociological examination of what constitutes a kid's movie from China, stay far away from this one. Shaolin Soccer isn't too bad though. I don't know where all the positive reviews came from either. I think it must be astroturfing by people who work for the studio.