Back in 2005, Stephen Chow paid Singapore a visit with
his group of cast members from “Kungfu Hustle”.
Fast forward 3 years later at the newly opened 6-stars
hotel in town, St Regis, Chow together with co-stars
Kitty Zhang and Lee Sheung Ching were present at the
press conference of “CJ7”, the latest self-penned,
directorial project from the King of comedy.
Chow’s
god-daughter, Xu Jiao who played his ‘son’
in “CJ7” unfortunately fell ill prior to
the trip, her presence was substituted by newcomer Lee
who played the role of disciplinarian Mr Cao in the
movie. With his heavily-accented Mandarin, Lee left
the media members in stitches with his uncanny answers.
“CJ7”
is Chow’s first attempt in doing a family-oriented
genre. Exploring a father-and-son relationship through
an alien pup, “CJ7” took 2 years to prepare,
shoot to being finally released on the big screen. With
a budget that is shrouded in secrecy, Chow jokes that
his movies are normally not that cheap to make. Further
more, it’s not the box-office that the man is
concerned about however, it’s the ability to make
audience laugh and cry with the onscreen characters
that Chow considers an achievement.
With
increasing interest in venturing behind the screen,
Chow agrees that his focus is now on letting his co-stars
sharing the burden of the story rather than solely letting
the spotlight shining on him. For the record, the funnyman
who saw an UFO once back in HK, believes in the existence
of extra-terrestrials.
Rumours
are rife on the internet that he’s doing an adaptation
of the old Chinese classic, “Journey to the West”
for his next project, Chow never confirmed that during
the press conference although he disclosed he has several
projects in the pipeline.
Contracted
under Chow’s production company, Star Overseas,
the beautiful Kitty Zhang is schedule to shoot 2 more
feature films including one by actor/singer/director
Stephen Fung.
The
press conference ended with the traditional “lo-hei”
ceremony and there goes Stephen Chow with his cast members.
While “CJ7” didn’t perform as well
as Chow’s previous effort in HK, the box-office
of “CJ7” is flourishing in China as we speak.
Perhaps we should see Chow’s new project again
in 3 years time, hopefully earlier.
