In CJ7, Hong Kong writer/director Stephen Chow (KUNG FU HUSTLE and SHAOLIN SOCCER) takes his silliness into the ET-type family fantasy genre with an alien toy dog discovered by boy, Dicky (Xiao Ju).  Only in a Stephen Chow film will a kid be sporting such a name.  Sappiness is also added in, in the form of fatherly advice like “A poor but honest man will be respected”; “Study Hard, Don’t fight”; delivered by Dicky’s poor laborer father portrayed by Chow himself in tattered clothes.  If the film is anything to go by, the son is never honest, cheating in examinations and father-and-son are always instigating fights.

Chow rips off his previous comic kung-fu films and of course, E.T.  His fat people jokes are quite disturbing, though these (and there a lot of these) always get a laugh out of the Asian audience.

As in the other Chow films, everything is over the top – from the acting, especially the kid actors, special effects (the ridiculous looking spacecraft), music (with the song Sunny by Boney M.) to the wardrobe (check the pants worn by the P.E. teacher).  All add to the film’s silliness factor, which fortunately contributes to the humor.

The title CJ7 - the name Dicky gives to his toy dog is also a play on the name of China’s successful Shenzhou manned space missions.  One must say that no matter how bad Chow’s film is (though this one is not too bad), his brand of humor always generates laughs.