I just viewed this on DVD, not even knowing he had a new movie out, and after wiping away the tears I came back to the conclusion that Stephen Chow is one of the world's greatest cinematic artists. This is a 'kids of all ages' movie for the whole family. Funny, touching and tightly -paced, with an adorable 'creature' that all ET lovers can relate to, CJ7 is the best picture Chow has made in a long time.
I first became aware of Chow when I lived in Hong Kong in the 90's and a friend kept raving about his pictures. I finally rented the God of Cookery and was blown away. Being a westerner there were some obstacles to overcome as I needed to read the variable English subtitles while the visual insanity was going on. Admittedly, it took more than one viewing to take it all in. His scripts had a lot of HK Chinese jokes both verbal and visual that came fast and furious. What was apparent was that his sense of humor transcended the local to the universal. I watched all his films and though they did vary in quality, there was no getting around the fact that Chow is an ORIGINAL.
I confess to not liking some aspects of his work, like the scatological humor and a certain meanness of spirit that permeates his films (very, very little of which is in CJ7) but that is my personal view. None of the above takes away from his comedic greatness.
The films he has made in the last ten years did not strike me as being an the same level as his earlier HK works such as Cookery, Forbidden City Cop, Hail the Judge, the two Monkey King (Chinese Odyssey) films, but all have his brand of zany humor and all are worth searching out. His big international successes, Shaolin Soccer and Kug Fu Hustle did not strike me as anything out of the ordinary from him but they did garner a bigger audience and made him more widely known.
So it was that I approached CJ7 with some trepidation. Another film by a brilliant artist loaded down with money and fame playing it safe and re-hoeing well plowed fields was a disappointment I didn't want to face. I'm happy to say (despite misgivings from other reviewers) that Stephen Chow came through. CJ7 is more emotional and less zany, but in some ways more real than anything he has done before. The fact that Chow took the supporting role puts his achievement on a whole other level (in an interview on the DVD he said that he looked for another actor for his part but they wanted too much money so he decided he could do it cheaper - thank you).
I expect this is a one-of-a-kind film from Stephen Chow, so he deserves all praise for it. My faith in him is restored.
I first became aware of Chow when I lived in Hong Kong in the 90's and a friend kept raving about his pictures. I finally rented the God of Cookery and was blown away. Being a westerner there were some obstacles to overcome as I needed to read the variable English subtitles while the visual insanity was going on. Admittedly, it took more than one viewing to take it all in. His scripts had a lot of HK Chinese jokes both verbal and visual that came fast and furious. What was apparent was that his sense of humor transcended the local to the universal. I watched all his films and though they did vary in quality, there was no getting around the fact that Chow is an ORIGINAL.
I confess to not liking some aspects of his work, like the scatological humor and a certain meanness of spirit that permeates his films (very, very little of which is in CJ7) but that is my personal view. None of the above takes away from his comedic greatness.
The films he has made in the last ten years did not strike me as being an the same level as his earlier HK works such as Cookery, Forbidden City Cop, Hail the Judge, the two Monkey King (Chinese Odyssey) films, but all have his brand of zany humor and all are worth searching out. His big international successes, Shaolin Soccer and Kug Fu Hustle did not strike me as anything out of the ordinary from him but they did garner a bigger audience and made him more widely known.
So it was that I approached CJ7 with some trepidation. Another film by a brilliant artist loaded down with money and fame playing it safe and re-hoeing well plowed fields was a disappointment I didn't want to face. I'm happy to say (despite misgivings from other reviewers) that Stephen Chow came through. CJ7 is more emotional and less zany, but in some ways more real than anything he has done before. The fact that Chow took the supporting role puts his achievement on a whole other level (in an interview on the DVD he said that he looked for another actor for his part but they wanted too much money so he decided he could do it cheaper - thank you).
I expect this is a one-of-a-kind film from Stephen Chow, so he deserves all praise for it. My faith in him is restored.