I was well on my way to loving this film - and there are a lot of things that I do love about it, but for a reason which I'll mention in a spoiler below, I have to knock it back a few pegs.
But first - a love fest - Stephen Chow is amazing when it comes to playful action. Some of the stuff in his films feels like it comes out of old Warner Brother's cartoons with their slapstick ways. This film has a fairytale quality to it, almost like a post-modern E.T. There is a great sequence near the beginning that gets turned on it's head that I think all will enjoy. I don't want to ruin anything about it. Keep in mind that when and if you do see this film that Dicky is actually played by a female. It'll amaze you.
Now, you ask yourselves, is this a movie for children. My answer, below in the spoilers...
*SPOILER ALERT*
Towards the end of this film there is a sequence in which tragedy strikes and something horrible happens to our hero's father. It was done extremely well, to the point where I found myself crying. Since having become a father I'm a sucker for shit like this, where kids are forced to deal with hardship like this - all I could do was picture my own son having to go through this and it broke my heart.
And then, the magical character in the film - fixes it (not without their own wonderful sacrifice). So now my problem isn't with the child not having to lose their father, my problem is that it doesn't seem like Chow is taking into consideration is those children who see this film, who have lost parents. It's just not fair to them - they don't have a CJ7 to bring them back. And that bothers me a lot. Kids are smart, they can deal with big emotions, just don't start going there and then pull back.
*END SPOILER*
So all in all, if you're a Chow fan, check this out for sure. I can't give a super-strong recommend because of the issues mentioned in the spoiler, but I will say this - no one makes a film like Chow (except perhaps Tex Avery.
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