Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Jackson Booth-Millard This Vietnamese film was one of the titles I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I didn't know what to expect, but reading more about it, it wasn't what I expected, it made me even more keen to watch it. Basically in Ho Chi Mihn City, an eighteen-year-old boy (Le Van Loc), who was orphaned following the death of his father, is living in poverty, he takes over his father's job, pedaling a rental cyclo around busy streets of Sai Gon city to earn a living. The boy lives in a small house, with his grandfather (Le Kinh Huy), who repairs tires despite of his failing health, his little sister (Pham Ngoc Lieu), who shines shoes for customers of a neighbourhood restaurant, and his older sister (Tran Nu Yen Khe), who carries water at a local market. Their poor but peaceful lives are jeopardized when the cyclo is stolen by a gang, so with no other way of making money, the cyclo driver joins a criminal organisation, under the supervision of a brooding gang leader, who is also a poet (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). Meanwhile the older sister is also influenced by the poet, she becomes a prostitute, and they develop feelings for each other. The cyclo driver is brought by poet to meet Mr. Lullaby (Van Day Nguyen), who kills a victim by slitting their throat while singing a lullaby. There is unrest, as many rival gangs are fighting each other, the cyclo driver manages to find the man who stole his cyclo, he temporarily blinds him without being seen. The poet assigns the cyclo driver to murder a man, his two accomplices teach him how to use a gun to kill their intended target, they also give him pills to reduce his anxiety, but warn him not to take too many. Meanwhile the cyclo driver's sister is left in a nightclub with a client, but the man abuses her, the poet and the man realise their mistakes, the man tries to bribe the poet, but the poet kills him and then kills himself, setting fire to the room where he lives. The cyclo driver gets drunk and takes two tablets of the drug, he hallucinates, and mistakenly shoots himself twice. The next morning, the members of the gang find him badly injured but still alive, the lady of the cyclo business (Nguyen Nhu Quynh) releases him from the gang. It ends with the cyclo driver, still contemplating the memory of his father, driving his grandfather and his two sisters through a crowded road of Ho Chi Minh City. Obviously having to read subtitles, it was difficult to follow absolutely everything going on, but my attention was definitely caught by the really bloody and violent moments, and a memorable image of a young man pouring a tin of blue paint on himself, and the camerawork and long takes are interesting, overall it was a worthwhile crime drama. Good!

tyeve I loved the first part of this movie. It was beautifully shot, with generally good acting, set in a country full of stories we in the western world know little of. But then something goes awry. That something is called "the script".We're first introduced to the cyclo driver and his family, and are given a fascinating taste of life in HCM City. It's when the movie begins introducing shadowy, poorly wrought, cardboard-cutout characters that it loses me. The script moves from interesting, maybe even captivating, to confusing and ridiculous. The unbelievability of plot events becomes irritating.My two biggest gripes are the script/story (by the director, Anh Hung Tran, and Trung Binh Nguyen) and the acting by the good/bad guy ("Poet") played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai. His acting was a bad take on old Peter Lorre movies. Think of Lorre in "Casablanca" - white suit, cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I found the Poet character unsympathetic, grating, and unbelievable. I cheered when he finally buys the farm. I had been secretly hoping for a meteorite to crash to earth, destroying the whole lot of them.I have noticed that other reviewers have commented on this film being set against the background of noisy, active HCM City. Well, "background" is an understatement. There are only furtive glimpses of the city. I was longing for more views of HCM City and its life, and fewer interiors peopled with unsympathetic characters.I await a Vietnamese movie with the production values found in this film. Meanwhile, I'm launching a campaign to see that Anh Hung Tran's license is revoked.

redanit Sons lose their fathers, and miss their fathers. In Cyclo, the young man, who earns his living and supports his family by driving a rental cyclo (bicycle-taxi), is a child without parents. In Cyclo, the poet is a child that cannot be accepted by his father. In Cyclo, the retarded son of a widow is a symbol that by which the widow connects in spirit with his father, her dead lover. Under the tangle of missing, recollection of, and conflicting with fathers, Cyclo shows sons going through the shadow of fathers to rediscover themselves.Father is a symbol of a family, that, when amplified, becomes a nation. In an article "no longer in a future heaven," the author McClintock mentions an idea: mother represents the history of a nation. However, in Cyclo, father (male) symbolizes the history and means where a son comes from. Leaving Vietnam since childhood, the director Tran is detached from Vietnam¡¦s history. But he still is a Vietnamese, because he comes from his father, a Vietnamese. However, to some degree, he is a child without father the history and memory of the Vietnamese past. To Tran, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, and the people in there seem familiar, but are strange, actually. Maybe this can provide one reason as to why Tran uses the characters to spy on people in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City through the frames of windows or lenses. In some situations, spying means alienation-- an ambiguous mood about being eager for something but afraid to get close.In my view, the women characters in Cyclo have two meanings. First, woman as mother is the one who protects the father's heritage. The widow is an example. She does her best to take care of her son, because in her mind, the son comes from his father and is a reflection of his father, even though he is retarded. The young man's sister, a virgin, represents the sacred image of a nation, which is cannot be invaded. Therefore, when she is assaulted, her man, the poet, rages to kill the attacker.The characters in Cyclo do not have a name. However, this does not stop audiences to recognize them, or furthermore, to identify with them. Through gazing at their lives, behaviors, and psychological reactions, the young man could be you and me, and the poet could be anyone. They represent different types of people. The young man is a lost lamb. He at once identifies another father-image, the poet. But finally, he knows he is wrong. The poet represents contradictions. His present conflicts with the past (father), and his mentality clashes with his behaviors. If this film is allegorical of a collective loss of innocence of a nation, those characters reflect and depict Vietnamese situations from the director's point of view.The end of the film shows the young man carrying his grandfather, elder sister and younger sister with a cyclo in a crowded street of Ho Chi Minh City. Sunshine brightly sprinkles on them, and they look very happy. The ending scene shows that through all the chaos, the young man finally rediscovers and re-builds himself in the present. Separated from the past, a son can still live well. Maybe to the Vietnamese, past is past; what is important is the present and future. To Tran, what is important is self-identified.This is a movie that I strongly recommend.

HaN-hAn Xich lo is a highly disturbing movie which manages to combine aspects of many cinematic traditions to make something new. It seems that the director held European cinematic and directorial traditions very high, and that is plainly visible in this movies. But the use of colours that somehow seem to move the soul can only be asian.The humdrum of the city does not let up. The movie depicts a vicious cycle of abuse, extortion and violence. Le cyclo's attempt to get justice after his cyclo has been stolen is futile at first. Angry, he seeks help from le poete. This leads him into a spiral of violence, drugs and insanity. The fact that the actors do not have names, simply lables, such as "le cyclo," "le poete", and "le grand-pere," seem to reinforce the futileness of life in such conditions.There is a strong undercurrent of frustration in this movie. Le poete, pimping out his girlfriend to fetishists whose pleasure does not come from the sexual act. He wants to keep her virtue for himself, but of course, this is folly. And even sadder is the le grand-pere, who is old, and sick, and yet, has to perform back breaking work to get by in life. Given a chance to earn some money, he rejects it, sticking by his principles. But ultimately, this does not get him anywhere.So what is one to do? Being honest doesn't help you get anywhere. Neither does being a gangster. Or a madame. In the end, this is the question that remains unanswered...or to which there is no answer.