CJ7

CJ7 (長江七號, 2008) is Stephen Chow's family sci-fi comedy, free to watch online on iFILM. A broke construction worker raises his son Dicky alone, scraping together every yuan to keep the boy in a good school. Digging through a junkyard for hand-me-downs, he grabs a strange green orb as a gift.

The orb is alive. It is a wide-eyed alien creature Dicky names CJ7, able to shape-shift, fix broken things and pull off small miracles. Dicky is sure his new pet will turn him into the top of the class and let him get back at the rich kids who taunt him. The magic refuses to behave on cue, and underneath the slapstick sits a tender story about a father and son who have nothing but each other. Nine-year-old Xu Jiao, a girl cast as Dicky, is the film's real special effect.

Chow, the man behind Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, traded martial-arts mayhem for a children's fable here and played the dad himself. The result is goofy, sweet and quietly sad. Stream CJ7 (2008) online on iFILM.