As a big Asian film geek, one of the movies I am hotly anticipating is the new Stephen Chow movie CJ7. The HK superstar’s new project is doubly interesting for me since it is going to be science fiction-comedy. The movie’s plot is something that western moviegoers would instantly recognize from other Hollywood movies — Chow, who plays a poor single dad, discovers a weird toy for his son in a junkyard. The toy, as they soon discover, is an alien creature that befriends them and protects the boy from bullies at school. Chow admits that he was influenced by such movies as ET as well as his own childhood memories, having grown up poor.

One of Chow’s quirky decisions as director and producer of CJ7 was in the decision to cast newcomer Xu Jiao as his Dicky Chow. You see, Xu Jiao is actually a girl. The precocious girl has been a big hit though and proves that Chow really has a keen eye for discovering female talent — having discovered some of the biggest actresses in HK today like Cecilia Cheung and Zhao Wei.

I’m pretty sure Chow is going to deliver another spectacular movie in CJ7. His quirky brand of humor and vision deserves a bigger audience and I’m hoping CJ7 will bring him the worldwide popularity he deserves.