Cyclo
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Movie Reviews of Cyclo
Movie Review: A love poem to the city
Summary: 5 Stars
In Vietnam, a cyclo is both the driver of a bicycle taxi and a name given to the taxi itself. In Tran Anh Hung's 1995 film Cyclo, the cyclo driver is a naïve 18-year old (Le Van Loc) whose innocence is corrupted by the choices he is compelled to make to escape the circle of grinding poverty. Cyclo is far removed from the director's introspective and contemplative dramas (Scent of Green Papaya, Vertical Ray of the Sun) that preceded and followed it. In Cyclo, Tran assaults our senses with the churning swirl of colors and sounds of Ho Chi Minh City, capturing the vibrations of the city with its street markets, pavement cafes, sidewalk vendors, and choking traffic. He also shows the underbelly of the city: its violence, flesh for hire, and atmosphere of poverty, dirt, and decay. While the violence is graphic and unsettling, it is not exploitative and without the glamour associated with gangster films. Cyclo has little dialogue, mostly gestures and silences, and cinematographer Benoit Delhomme's focus on the underlying beauty of the city gives the film a lyricism that renders the violence ambiguous.
Cyclo has lost both parents and lives in near poverty with his grandfather (Le Kinh Huy), who continues to work fixing bicycle tires despite his failing health. His younger sister (Phan Ngoc Lieu) earns a living by shining shoes outside of restaurants and the older sister (Tran Nu Yen-Khe) works as a cook and delivery person. Cyclo's father was also a pedicab driver but was killed when he was hit by a truck. Cyclo's boss (Nguyen Nhu) is known only as the Boss Lady (none of the characters in the film are named) who leads a criminal operation while taking care of her retarded son (Bjuhoang Huy). When Cyclo's bicycle is stolen by a rival gang, the young man is recruited by the Boss lady and her associate, The Poet (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), a small-time hoodlum and pimp, to work off his debt.
The Poet is involved with robberies, sabotage, drug trafficking, and prostitution and is no stranger to homicide. He is strangely sympathetic to Cyclo, however, and seems to share with him the common longing for an absent father as revealed in the poetry he reads to him. Cyclo asks to join his gang but, in response, is forced to witness a mobster singing lullabies while he knifes a victim who is bound and gagged. Unknown to Cyclo, the Poet recruits his older sister into prostitution, making her available to men interested in various fetishes while preserving her virginity, presumably out of his own love for her. When her virginity is finally violated, The Poet tracks down and brutally murders the offending patron. Cyclo is forced to stay in an apartment away from his family and told to perform errands for the gang such as smuggling dope hidden in slaughtered cattle and throwing a gasoline firebomb into the building of the rival gang that stole his pedicab.
Tran's vision is hallucinatory and unnerving and I often found myself unable to distinguish between what is real and what is a dream. The story is told from Cyclo's perspective and we enter his mind to witness his steady descent into confusion and fear, culminating in a memorable sequence where he combines pills and liquor and drenches himself in blue paint. Cyclo is disturbing and raw but it is an original work of art, both a brutal and often bizarre look at Saigon's mean streets, and a searing love poem to the city and a young man who finally steps outside the vicious circle to discover himself beyond the chaos.
Movie Review: Her Wrists will Heal
Summary: 5 Stars
Around five years ago or so a friend and I were channel surfing until we came across a film in which several pigs were tied up by their hind legs and soon had their throats slit. Wondering what we had come across we checked the local listings and soon learned that the film was a Vietnamese film and that it was titled Cyclo. Not wanting to ruin the film by starting to watch it at the midpoint, we decided that we would later rent it. Well, we never did, so the name Cyclo and the scene in which the pigs have their throats slit remained deeply seeded in my brain. I've finally watched the film and I must say that it was a truly visceral experience.
The film opens with the grandfather of three telling of the hardships of his family especially that of his grandson. In order to makes ends meet the grandson, only known as "the cyclo" peddles people around on his bicycle/taxi. To aid their brother, the elder sister delivers water and the younger polishes shoes. The grandfather also pitches in by repairing tires. If this poverty-level existence was not bad enough, the grandson also owes 200, 000 dongs to a mafia Madame.
Things go from bad to worse when the cyclo is stolen and the grandson is imprisoned in a nearby apartment by the Madame's man, played by Tony Leung, who is simply known as the Poet. A quiet man who is prone to nosebleeds, the Poet orders the grandson to carry out the Madame's orders, including lobbing Molotov cocktails and smuggling drugs in pork carcasses.
Unbeknownst to the grandson, the poet has connections with the young man's older sister. Although a virgin, the beautiful girl, played by the enchanting Tran Nu Yên-Khê, becomes a prostitute. However, she does not become an average prostitute. Instead of becoming a common prostitute, she instead fills the fantasies of fetishists, including those who enjoy watching women urinate. The Poet guards the Sister making sure she remains a virgin and affection grows between the couple. Therefore on one end the Poet is making the grandson murder while on the other he makes the sister embody the fantasies of perverts.
Cyclo has to be one of the most violent films that I have ever seen. While there are not many scenes of violence, scenes such as the torture scene with the terrifying Mr. Lullaby are truly horrific. The grandson's self-destructiveness is also quite difficult to watch. Also the depictions of poverty are also quite eye opening and the gap between the haves and the have-nots is quite immense. However, these scenes are also quite beautiful. One can literally feel the humidity of Vietnam, smell the rotting starfruit, and experience the frustration and hopelessness of the grandson when his cyclo is stolen.
While I cannot recommend this film to everyone, I do recommend it to those who are interested in Asian film and especially those who have yet to watch films outside of East Asia.
Movie Review: If You Liked "City of God," You'll Love Cyclo!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie should come with a warning cause it's simply dynamite! However, it's not for beginners. If you want to see some romanticized view of exotic beauty in foreign lands, grab some wine and your honey, and see Tran Ahn Hung's other movies, like "The Scent of Green Papaya". That movie, although dealing with serious issues, is like 'Reality Lite'. You can ignore aspects of the human experience that plague the mind of your inner insomniac. But "Cyclo" is no joke! This here is some powerful stuff. Not for beginners, this! And, what could be better than Cyclo on DVD?! I can see my favorite parts anytime and instantly transport myself to my own private VietNam. Cool.If you are familiar with popular cinema from Asia, you know the system's are not like American movies. Often certain popular actors are routinely coupled. I find this habit refreshing, especially here. In some ways, the more films you see the more shades there are to an actors ability in the big picture. On a small scale, the film makers bank on the public seeing more films since certain famous pairings generate the feeling that the actors are like your old friends. If you don't feel manipulated by this tactic, it can be the cinematic equivalent of a fun time at an amusement park, when you're with your way-out-of-town friends, always taking different rides.
Furthermore, as far as East Asian Cinema goes, in my experience, as with all world cinema, you don't know what's it's all about until it's over. This film, like much of world cinema, is not trying to spoonfeed you. This movie gets 'heavy'. But if you stay with it, the whole of the film and the story within are very gratifying.
As far as my criteria for a good flick goes, this one meets my standard for world cinema, and far surpasses American commercial films. The editing is seemless. The actors are fluid and charismatic as always (Remember, old friends are we). The cinematography is stunning. The script has a definite feeling of realism. These characters say what they really would say (and maintain appropriate silences too), not that I know what a struggling Vietnamese escort or cabbie would say. But, dig this, a good story like this feels real, draws you in, shows you things you never saw woven into a story that holds you 'til the credits, and stays with you after, spinning in your mind in true 'twist-a plot' fashion, ya? If you let yourself into the world of these characters, alternate possibilities will come to mind when it's through.
Aside: Those of you who love Hong Kong film will enjoy seeing Tony Leung here - very believable and adorable! Secondly, and most important, DON'T EAT PORK BEFORE YOU SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! Nuff said.
I won't ruin the story by divulging any specific special parts or attributes of the film. My (somewhat pompous) point is, I saw the movie... The movie was good.
Movie Review: CYCLO
Summary: 5 Stars
Most Americans understand and regard American Cinema as the definition of cinema because we can all relate to it, and quite frankly we understand American culture more so than any other culture. It is our nature. Cyclo is an example of of what defines cinema in Vietnam...because it translates Vietnamese culture to screen. Yes it is dark, yes circumstances are very depressing. These conditions are extreme to the point that many Americans don't believe they are real and therefore don't care to make the effort to understand. If you understand Vietnamese culture at all, then you will understand this film. The film will make sense and will not be a scattered senseless conglomerate of troubling scenes and character revelation. There is indeed a very strong, seamless plot. Now if you don't understand Vietnamese culture, or the cultures of most third world countries in general, all of the above might apply. American culture is not the only culture, and certainly not the only truth. The story in cyclo is indeed very true to life for Vietnamese people. This film is raw, brutally honest all the while presenting this truth with a refreshingly original, edgy style. The presentation does not dilute the depth of the story or the characters' circumstances. The story certainly doesn't romanticize and glorify the culture and certainly is not fodder for attracting tourists, but it is however very true to the culture and reflects many lives of Vietnamese people. This is a movie from someone who understands and feels what it is like to be Vietnamese and live in these conditions. Watching this movie takes you on that trip, lets you feel like you've been to Vietnam not as a tourist, but as a poor Vietnamese person struggling to make ends meet in a mediocre existence. Life there is simple, being able to eat and have family around is enough to make many happy and content as it is hard enough with the poverty to be able to feed a family. It is rare that movies can take viewers on such a trip and let them feel conent with simple needs and desires. If you are willing to open your mind and learn about Vietnamese culture through this movie, then I beleive you will be taken on such a trip.Movie Review: Haunting, gripping, mesmerizing, honest
Summary: 5 Stars
The protagonist's father from beyond his grave wishes his son a better life than what he'd had. But can his son escape his fate? Life as a gangster seems to offer that chance -- the money seems easy, and there's no lack of work. But his son almost loses his life the same way his father did, and it's a jolt -- to the viewer, to the cyclo.
What is this movie about? Can we ever escape our fates? Are we always victims to our screwed-up childhoods? Is there redemption in death? Does capitalism suck? Does this shade of blue look good on my skin? I can't say definitively what the movie is trying to express, but I know that I have been mesmerized by the film every time I've seen it.
If you are curious about the world, this movie will grab you and stay with you, urging you to see it again, making you wonder about your own life, filling you with a sense of thankfulness about the world that you inhabit. Let it draw you in with its lush cinematography: you will feel that you are with them in the summertime dusk, you will feel that you are right there just before the sun rises.
A magnificent work; one of my all-time favorites.