Cyclo
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Movie Reviews of Cyclo
Movie Review: Unbelievable!
Summary: 5 Stars
Oh my, this was an unbelievable movie. I was flipping through the channels when IFC started this movie. At first I thought it was a documentary of the horrificaly poor life of Vietnamese society. Little by little this mesmerizing story came to life. I was horrified, appalled, yet completely taken aback by this tale. This movie was so well acted that I really thought it was reality. Tony Leung is an awesome actor (also a hottie) who is sad and unhappy with his miserable existance of himself and those around him. Each character takes their own dark path in order to survive the harsh life they exist in.
If you want a movie that is heartwrenching and will make you think alot about society and how lucky and unlucky circumstances of birth can be, then this movie is for you. It is not an easy movie to mentally digest, but it is superb.
Movie Review: Visually and Poetically Powerful...
Summary: 5 Stars
A young man has already lived a long life as he has lost his parents and must work as a bicycle taxi driver in Ho-Chi-Min-City where he lives with his sister and grandfather. He struggles as his bicycle is stolen by the company from which he is renting it, and now he must turn to crime in order to pay for it. The world of crime is inviting as it offers fast money, but it is a ruthless world. As he is away from home his sister turns to prostitution in order to advance in society and she is managed by the same character who is controlling his life in the criminal world. Cyclo is visually powerful with a deep socioeconomic and cinematic complexity as it depicts the tragedy of wanting.Movie Review: The Funny Side of Poverty, Despair, Prostitution and Creepy Little Kids
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie was playing at a local film festival and I almost didn't go. I mean I had heard good things about it, but the description seemed a little too much like Salaam Bombay (Widescreen Special Edition). You got the innocent kid trying to get money to go back to his village. The older sister being led into prostitution and the pimp that is both a cause of grief and a product of his society. My girlfriend at the time didn't want to see it and usually I follow her lead in terms of dreary melodramas but for some reason we went.
And it was like nothing we thought it'd be. For one thing, the pimp doesn't do much but smoke. Every scene he's in, he's smoking. Sometimes he's reciting poetry. In one scene he's obviously stabbed a guy, only you don't see the stabbing. You just see him hovering around the guy, smoking. I joked that Jet Li didn't do much in War (Widescreen Edition) beyond "Looking-Really-Cool-in-a-Suit-Fu" but Tony Leung beats Jet Li hands down in that particular martial art. Then you got the prostitute. She's the luckiest prostitute in the world as almost all of her tricks are specialty tricks. One wants to paint her toenails. Another one watches her urinate.
And then there's the kid. In Salaam Bombay, he's innocence personified. In this movie, he's creepy Damien Thorne kid. He's what Patton Oswalt wanted out of Anakin in Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) in that great comic bit "I want to go back in time and smash George Lucas over the head with a shovel." Sure, he's lost his cyclo and that's all sad, but he's also sniffing glue and painting himself blue. And when he finds the kid that stole his cyclo, it's not pretty.
It's like the director saw Salaam Bombay and found the tedious melodrama part silly and decided to make a movie about pimps and prostitutes and children where they weren't one dimensional sermons about the big bad city. They aren't any more realistic but they are definitely much more interesting.
All in all, a very creepy movie. The tag of "innocence lost" is a misnomer since there's really not much innocence involved in this movie (well maybe the pimp. He seems a trifle too starry eyed. He's even more sweet and goodly hearted than the pimp in Hustle & Flow (Widescreen Edition).
Movie Review: "Nameless Is The River, Colorless Is The Flower" ~ The Urban Jungle Of Saigon
Summary: 4 Stars
Note: Vietnamese with English subtitles.
Far from the lush tropical family gardens present in 'The Scent of Green Papaya' and the majestic landscapes seen in 'The Vertical Ray of the Sun' Anh Hung Tran's second installment in this trilogy of films explores the seamy underbelly of urban Vietnam. Street gangs, prostitution and the endless pursuit of trying to survive for one more day is definitely a departure from his other two films.
Young eighteen year old Cyclo works day and night as a bicycle taxi driver. When his cycle is stolen by a local street gang he is unable to earn a living and is eventually forced against his will to become a criminal. Meanwhile his sister is also lead astray by the quietly charming 'Poet' who leads her into the world of prostitution. The families hopelessness and desperation grows as the story unfolds and one is left to wonder if those caught in such unfortunate circumstances have any hope at all of ever escaping a world of such immense corruption and greed.
Anh Hung Tran's answer to this question is apparently found symbolically in the imagery of food, particularily fruit. In all three of Tran's films there is a scene of a mellon of some kind being meticulously cut open to reveal the moist, dormant seedlings slumbering within. I can only guess that such scenes are meant as a metaphor of new life and renewed hope always waiting to spring forth into the light of day and replace that which is forever passing away. While this may serve as an intriguing symbol to some, it hardly instills within the viewer much hope for the characters on the screen.
The incredibly beautiful Tran Nu Yen-Khe once again plays one of the principal characters (Cyclo's sister), along with the talented and immensely popular Asian superstar Tony Leung (Poet) and Le Van Loc in the starring role as Cyclo. As always, Anh Hung Tran's visual artisty is second to none and Tran Nu Yen-Khe is an absolute delight to watch.
Movie Review: Cyclo - The Vietnamese "Blue Velvet"
Summary: 4 Stars
I have watched this a couple times. I visited Vietnam a few years ago and found it beautiful, but troubling. There is a very dark side to Ho Chi Minh City because many people move there illegally (you need permission from the VN government) from rural areas to try to eek out a living. They are very poor and can be easily victimized because of their status. It is not a stretch to believe that some poor cyclo driver could end up like the young man in this movie. Cyclo drivers are usually extremely poor and often sleep overnight on their cyclo for two reasons. No place to go, and a need to protect what little livelyhood they have. Life on the mean streets of HCMC (and there are plenty really mean streets) is a real nightmare. Anyway, I found this movie to be in the same genre as Blue Velvet or Apocalypse Now as it goes from troubling in the beginning to a violent nightmare at the climax. This is not a film for the faint hearted or someone looking for positive insights into the Vietnam of today.