57-464: CJ7 ( Chinese : 長江七號 ; Cantonese Yale : Cheung gong chat hou ; lit. ' Yangtze 7') is a 2008 Hong Kong–Chinese science fiction comedy-drama film co-written, co-produced, starring, and directed by Stephen Chow in his final film acting performance, before he became a fulltime filmmaker. The film was released theatrically in Hong Kong on January 31, 2008. In August 2007,
114-428: A bad cheque and hired those who broke his leg. While drinking his sorrows in the streets, Fung comes across Sing, a Shaolin kung fu master who wants to promote the practical benefits of the martial art to the world. No one takes kung fu classes from Sing, however, as he is dirty and poor. He steals mantou from Mui, a woman with severe acne who uses Tai chi to make the food. At first disdainful, Fung soon discovers
171-425: A bonus. Ti falls from a great height during work and is sent to the hospital. Ms. Yuen tells Dicky of Ti's accident just after he passed a test without cheating. At the hospital, Ms. Yuen informs Dicky that Ti has died. Unwilling to believe this, Dicky runs home. CJ7 uses up all of his power to heal Ti. The next day, Dicky finds Ti sleeping beside him, but CJ7 exhausts its energy and turns into a doll. Dicky wears CJ7 as
228-488: A budget of US$ 20 million, and heavily uses CG effects. Xu Jiao , the child who plays Dicky, is in fact female. She had to cross-dress to be in the film. Music tracks featured in CJ7 include "Masterpiece" and "I Like Chopin" by Gazebo and " Sunny " by Boney M. References to Chow's other films are made during some scenes, particularly during Dicky's dream sequence. These references include Dicky using his super sneakers to kick
285-503: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
342-421: A decidedly negative review of the film: 'We go to see a Stephen Chow movie for its great entertainment value and, occasionally, its terrific cinematic panache. We don't need to be told that we are morally superior because we don't have much money.' Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,
399-649: A laughingstock at school. After school, Dicky throws CJ7 into a garbage bin, but soon realizes that he was the one at fault. He rushes back to try and recover CJ7 from the bin, but it has been emptied by a garbage truck to his dismay. Going home, Dicky finds CJ7 sitting with Ti. The two reconcile. At school, Dicky shares CJ7's tricks with other students. Meanwhile, Ti loses his job when he gets into an argument with his boss, who accuses Dicky of cheating on his test. He returns home, only to find out that Dicky did cheat. He angrily confiscates CJ7 from him until his grades improve. The next day, Ti's boss apologizes and rehires him with
456-508: A martial arts action film. According to an interview with Premiere Magazine , Chow stated, Actually the 'over the top' CG and kinetic soccer moves were an inspiration that came from the classic Japanese manga series Captain Tsubasa . The animation was very big in Hong Kong over ten years ago when it swept kids of all ages and even adults loved it. It has a cult following in Europe as well. But it
513-558: A neck pendant. In the end, Dicky sees a UFO descending onto the bridge before him. Many other alien dogs like CJ7 of various colors and patterns emerge, running towards him, led by one that looks exactly like CJ7. As with the title CJ7 , the earlier working title, A Hope , referred to the Chinese crewed space program. The mission of Shenzhou 6 was completed in 2006 and the real Shenzhou 7 successfully launched in September 2008. The film had
570-506: A soccer ball into the goal, which subsequently collapses (referencing Shaolin Soccer ) and Dicky flying into the sky with his sneakers, jumping from the head of an eagle, seeing CJ7's shape as a cloud and using the Buddha's Palm, (referencing Kung Fu Hustle ). The scene where Dicky tosses away his glasses while they self-destruct is a reference to John Woo 's Mission: Impossible 2 . On one of
627-553: A young wanna-be Triad member in Chow's preceding movie, King of Comedy . Cecilia Cheung and Karen Mok , who briefly appear as Team Dragon Players 7 & 11 in Shaolin Soccer , had major roles in King of Comedy. Chow defends his decision to hire non-actors, saying, "In terms of finding talent, I try to bring out the funniest thing I notice about them during casting, if it made us laugh at
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#1732851860534684-798: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
741-416: Is about to lose by default, Mui, who has shaved her head, reappears to be their goalkeeper. When Team Evil's striker kicks the ball with flaming force towards Mui, she stops it with tai chi. She and Sing combine their skills and rocket the ball downfield. The ball blows through Team Evil's goal while hurling along all its players, scoring the sole and winning goal. Later, Hung is imprisoned for doping, while
798-411: Is charming, but too strangely and slackly plotted to work as a whole." The percentage is much lower than Stephen Chow's previous films Shaolin Soccer (90%) and Kung Fu Hustle (90%). Metacritic reported the film has a weighted average score of 46 out of 100 based on 18 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film fared no better with local Hong Kong critics. Perry Lam of Muse gave
855-524: Is eager to save money so he can continue sending his son to private school. Dicky is often bullied by other children, particularly by a boy named Johnny. He is also chided by his teachers at school for his shabby clothes. One day, while at a department store, Dicky begs his father to buy him a popular robotic toy called CJ1. Ti cannot afford it, and the situation ends badly when Ti smacks the stubborn Dicky in front of other customers. Dicky finds comfort in Ms. Yuen, who
912-401: Is passing by. That night, Ti visits the junkyard, where he often picks up home appliances and clothes for Dicky. He finds a strange green orb left by a space saucer and takes it home, telling Dicky it is a new toy. He is hesitant at first, but later accepts it. On the following evening, the green orb transforms into a cute and cuddly dog-like alien creature that befriends Dicky. After playing with
969-466: Is utterly ridiculous, and the soccer in the movie is unlike any ever played anywhere on Earth, but watching Shaolin Soccer , you will probably find it impossible to care." On Metacritic , the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Chow disagreed with the Chinese Communist Party 's National Radio and Television Administration , which
1026-483: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
1083-514: The Kensiu language . Shaolin Soccer Shaolin Soccer ( Chinese : 少林足球 ) is a 2001 Hong Kong sports comedy film directed by Stephen Chow , who also stars in the lead role. The film revolves around a former Shaolin monk who reunites his five brothers, years after their master's death, to apply their superhuman martial arts skills to play soccer and bring Shaolin kung fu to
1140-622: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
1197-646: The "Axe Gang"; Tin Kai-man (Iron Shirt) portrayed the loud-mouthed advisor of Brother Sum; and Lam Chi-chung (Light Weight) portrayed Bone , Chow's sidekick and partner in petty crime. Fung Min-hun (Team Rebellion Captain) briefly appeared as Cecilia Cheung's abusive boyfriend in King of Comedy and the Four Eyes Clerk who beats up both Sing and Bone when they make fun of him on the bus in Kung Fu Hustle . In Hong Kong,
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#17328518605341254-625: The DVD featurettes, Chow cites E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Doraemon as an influence on the film. a Retelling to the film, titled CJ7: The Cartoon , Was released on July 6, 2010. During its North American limited release , CJ7 received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 49% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Eccentric and sweet, Stephen Chow's latest
1311-457: The Hong Kong box office, Shaolin Soccer grossed HK$ 60,739,847, making it the highest-grossing film in the region's history at the time. It held the record until 2004 when it was topped by Stephen Chow's next feature Kung Fu Hustle . Shaolin Soccer earned a worldwide gross of US$ 42,776,760. On Rotten Tomatoes , the film has a 89% approval rating based on 95 reviews; the average rating is 7.10/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "The plot
1368-547: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
1425-469: The Team Evil players receive lifetime bans. Sing goes out for a jog and is pleased to see people around him using kung fu in their everyday lives, his lifelong dream having become a reality. A large ad on the side of a building shows that Sing and Mui, a famous couple, have won the world championship in bowling, among other things. The inspiration for Shaolin Soccer came from Chow wanting a unique premise for
1482-521: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
1539-513: The alien, he learns that it has restorative powers after it restores a rotten apple that fell to the ground. Dicky is very thrilled and names the alien "CJ7". Dicky dreams about the alien helping him gain popularity and good grades at school. In his dream, CJ7 is a genius inventor who creates various gadgets for him. Upon waking up, Dicky expects CJ7 to help him achieve his dreams, but CJ7 does not understand what Dicky asks of him and embarrasses him by repeatedly defecating on him, causing him to become
1596-435: The artists were careful to retain the likenesses of each actor who portrayed them. ComicsOne approached noted comic book artist Andy Seto with the idea of creating a two volume manhua -style graphic novel adaptation of the feature film. Seto attached himself to the project because the film was very popular and, therefore, had "a certain level of marketing value". The project was officially announced on 30 June 2003 and
1653-525: The casting, it will also do on the big screen." Zhao Wei, who played the Mandarin-speaking Mui, said it was a different step for her to star in a Hong Kong production. However, Zhao admitted that she was not impressed with her look with less makeup because she is easily recognisable for her beautiful appearance. Three of the principal cast members appeared in Chow's Kung Fu Hustle : Danny Chan Kwok-kwan (Empty Hand) portrayed Brother Sum , boss of
1710-516: The film was given the title CJ7 , a play on China's successful Shenzhou crewed space missions— Shenzhou 5 and Shenzhou 6 . It was previously known by a series of working titles including Alien and most notably A Hope . CJ7 was filmed in Ningbo , in the Zhejiang province of China. Chow Ti is a poor construction worker. He lives in a partially demolished house with his nine-year-old son, Dicky. Ti
1767-401: The film was released on DVD and Video CD on 14 September 2001. The DVD release was shortened by 10 minutes, with the option for viewers to access the deleted scenes in the middle of the film. The scenes deleted from the DVD version are the dance sequence in front of Mui's bakery, much of the conversation over Mui's makeover and the blooper reel before the end credits. Viewers can also access
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1824-409: The head with a soccer ball. The cocky players mock him and destroy a stone statue of his deceased master. Sing proceeds to use the soccer ball as a weapon. Another example is the fact the characters are visually different from the film. All of their comic book personas look to be in their twenties to thirties, with highly toned athletic physiques (with the exception of Light Weight); even Iron Head, who
1881-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
1938-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
1995-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
2052-525: The making of key special effects scenes as well. The film was also released in UMD format for the Sony PSP on 23 December 2005. The 2004 US DVD release by Miramax Films deleted 23 minutes of footage from the original cut; the omitted footage includes "Golden Leg" Fung's flashback opening sequence and Sing's interactions with Mui. This version features an English dub with Chow dubbing his own voice and Bai Ling as
2109-481: The masses. "Golden Leg" Fung, a Hong Kong soccer star, beats and berates his teammate Hung when the latter offers him a cheque to lose the game, claiming to be the middleman. Fung takes the cheque in the end and loses the game. Angry spectators beat him and break his leg. Twenty years later, Fung walks with a limp and is the mistreated lackey of Hung, now a successful businessman. When Fung asks to coach Hung's soccer team, Hung mocks him and reveals he tricked him with
2166-975: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
2223-420: The movie. For example, in the film a group of bar thugs beat up Sing and Iron Head after listening to their lounge -style tribute to Shaolin kung fu . The following day, Sing seeks out the group and uses his Shaolin skills to beat the thugs using a soccer ball. Fung sees the brawl and comes up with the idea of fusing kung fu and soccer. However, in the comic book, Sing is meditating in the park when he gets hit in
2280-665: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
2337-402: The open cup competition in Hong Kong, where they see ridiculously one-sided victories due to their powers. They only meet their match in the final against Hung's Team Evil, who have superhuman strength and speed due to an American drug . The referee has also been bought out by Hung. Team Evil badly injures two of Team Shaolin's goalkeepers; the powerless members of Team Shaolin flee. As the team
CJ7 - Misplaced Pages Continue
2394-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
2451-455: The other team. The thugs ask to join Sing's team. Sing takes Mui to try on expensive dresses at a high-end department store after hours and offers to buy her one. She gets a makeover to impress him, though the team and her boss mock her exaggerated '80s look. When Mui hints at her feelings for Sing, he tells her he only wants to be friends. She disappears after her boss fires her. Team Shaolin enters
2508-472: The power of Sing's leg and offers to coach him in soccer. Compelled by the idea of promoting kung fu through soccer, Sing asks his former Shaolin brothers to join his team. Sing's brothers eventually agree. As a test, Fung arranges a game with a team known for vicious cheating. The thug team gives the Shaolin team a beating. When all seems lost, the Shaolin team members reawaken their powers and utilize them to defeat
2565-825: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
2622-671: The release of vol. 1 was scheduled to coincide with the film's US premiere in August, but the film was pushed back. The Miramax film corporation bought the American film rights to Shaolin Soccer before its release in China, so they helped publish the comic book along with two Chinese film companies who originally produced the film. Volumes 1 ( ISBN 1-58899-318-3 ) and 2 ( ISBN 1-58899-319-1 ) were released in August and November 2003 and sold for US$ 13.95 each. Their suggested reading level
2679-509: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
2736-627: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
2793-970: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
2850-509: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
2907-707: The voice of Mui. In addition, the DVD gives viewers the option to play the original Hong Kong version. In the UK, the film was released on Blu-ray by Optimum Releasing on 26 January 2010. The Japanese version of the film was released by Pioneer LDC on 22 November 2002. It was reissued by The Clockworks Group on 21 December 2003. The Italian dub of the film features the voices of professional footballers Damiano Tommasi (as Mighty Steel Leg Sing), Vincent Candela (as Empty Hand), Marco Delvecchio (as Iron Head), Siniša Mihajlović (as Hooking Leg), Giuseppe Pancaro (as Iron Shirt) and Angelo Peruzzi (as Light Weight Vest). At
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#17328518605342964-571: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
3021-465: Was age 13 and above. Seto worked to make the novel as faithful to the film as possible but he admits that Stephen Chow's brand of Mo lei tau comedy does not translate well into illustrations. He stated in an interview that "the Shaolin Soccer comic is 80% movie adaptation with 20% new content." This new content includes a backstory about Steel Leg's training in Shaolin before the death of his master, as well as completely rewriting entire sections of
3078-421: Was concerned that the film's title would insult Buddhists. He refused to change the title to Kungfu Soccer , and the film's producer was banned from shooting in mainland China for one year. The first of a four volume Shaolin Soccer manhua was published in Hong Kong roughly nine months after the film originally premiered in 2001. The characters were drawn with large manga -like eyes and cartoonish bodies, but
3135-786: Was only possible with pen and ink back then, now with the advent of CGI, it can really be done....(the idea of combining it with Kung Fu was in my head for many years but we had to wait for the CG technology to mature) Chow had intended for this film to appeal to a global audience, stating, "I can't rely on the local market, because it's too small, so since Shaolin Soccer it's always my ambition to go international". Apart from several veteran actors, Chow stated in an interview with Premiere magazine that he cast several people in his entourage who had no prior acting experience before Shaolin Soccer . For example, Lam Chi Chung (Light Weight) had worked as Chow's screenwriter and Danny Chan Kwok-kwan (Empty Hand)
3192-442: Was the dance choreographer hired to design the " Michael Jackson dance number" that followed Sing and Mui's first meeting early in the film. Chow comments he made Chan wear Bruce Lee 's yellow-and-black tracksuit because only the goalkeeper "can wear a special uniform." Tin Kai-man (Iron Shirt) had been Chow's production manager on several movies, but had acted in numerous minor roles in previous films. For instance, he played
3249-432: Was the eldest of the six brothers, appears younger than he should. Several online reviews have criticised the American adaptation for its apparent lack of story line coherence, mixture of realistic and cartoonish drawing styles, and bad Chinese-to-English translation, among other issues. In regards to the translation, one reviewer stated, "It's almost as if the book was translated with a first-year English student referencing
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