CJ7
(2006/Sony Blu-ray + DVD-Video)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B+/B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
I give
Steven Chow credit for being able to deal with the poor, socio-economic class
and find comedy, drama and melodrama in it, especially since he is always doing
mixed genre pieces. This time, he tries
an odd mix of comedy, drama and a child’s tale in CJ7, where he plays a poor, hard-working father making great
sacrifices to send his son to school, where he is picked on for being poor and
has some behavioral problems.
He also
wants to get a new robot dog toy called “CJ1” but his father cannot afford it,
working hard at a construction job and trying to find anything that will work
in trash heaps. You would never see that
in a Hollywood children’s film since the early 1980s and that is a plus
here. Suddenly, he misses a flying
saucer when looking for anything that can be recycled, but a strange creature
has been left behind and finds his son.
Looking
like translucent green rubber with a furry head, the thing even has an antenna
on top and when they do find it, they dub it by the title as if it were a
better version of what they cannot buy, and they are correct. Instead of a straight-forward “more human
than human” E.T.-styled boy &
his dog story, the film is sidetracked by sudden toilet humor, exaggerated
martial arts moments and the son’s abuse of the creature in bizarre ways before
occasionally returning to the main storyline.
The risks are interesting, but it is just Chow trying to do too much and
this does not hold together.
An early
fantasy sequence is fun and almost seems to mock the Hollywood type of film
this is playing against, but since this does not hold together well and is
uneven, rendering its Spielbergian feel-good moments false, empty and oddly
sudden, the 88 minutes ends with a funny joke but also proves Chow simply could
not juggle everything he took on here.
The result is an interesting failure that may even have some kind of
cult status, but he takes on too much and for someone who can juggle genres
when he tries, this sure shows his limits.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 image is no match for the great transfer on Kung-Fu Hustle in both cases as the image is on the soft side
throughout, no matter the amount of digital effects used. The Dolby Digital 5.1 in both formats have
passable mixes with fair soundfields from the dated codec, but the Blu-ray has
no less than three Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes, with the native Chinese/Mandarin mix
outdoing the English and French versions in detail and range. The bass on the English mix can sound a tad
muddy. Points to Chow for his funny use
of Boney M’s Disco remake Bobby Hebb’s 1966 hit classic Sunny. You can read more
about Boney M at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2207/Boney+M+-+Special+Edition+EP
Extras in
both formats include a children’s game, scene breakdown, TV special, three
featurettes and audio commentary by the cast and crew in Chinese/Mandarin led
by Chow. For more on Chow’s Kung-Fu
Hustle, see our Blu-ray review:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4698/Kung+Fu+Hustle+(Blu-ray)
- Nicholas Sheffo
