Cyclo ( Xich lo ) - DaaVeeDee

Cyclo (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Xich lo
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
Vietnamese ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 4 )

Running Time:
124 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen

Movie filmed in 1995 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Vietnam ( India, Eastern Asia )

Directed By:
Anh Hung Tran

Written By:
N.T. Binh
Anh Hung Tran

Actors:
Le Van Loc ..... Cyclo
Tony Leung Chiu Wai ..... Poet
Tran Nu Yên-Khê ..... Sister
Nhu Quynh Nguyen ..... Madam
Hoang Phuc Nguyen ..... Tooth
Ngo Vu Quang Hal ..... Knife
Tuyet Ngan Nguyen ..... Happy Woman
Doan Viet Ha ..... Sad Woman
Bjuhoang Huy ..... Crazy Son
Vo Vinh Phuc ..... Cyclo's Friend
Le Kinh Huy ..... Grandfather
Pham Ngoc Lieu ..... Little Sister
Le Tuan Anh ..... Handcuff Man
Le Cong Tuan Anh ..... Drunken Dancer
Van Day Nguyen ..... Lullaby Man

Synopsis:

After his bicycle is stolen on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, a pedicab driver reluctantly forges professional ties to a sadistic pimp in order to eventually regain his legitimate livelihood. But soon he's travelling down the inexorable path to degradation, as is his sister, who is forced into prostitution to support the family. Winner of the award for Best Picture at the 1995 Venice Film Festival.

Abandoning the gentle minimalism of his The Scent of Green Papayas, director Tran Anh Hung creates a savage, hallucinatory portrait of Vietnam's convulsive modernization seen through the eyes of a nameless 18-year-old cyclo driver. Set in the swelter and tumult of Ho Chi Minh City, the film deftly sets up the grinding poverty and mind-numbing routine endured by the protagonist, his older sister (Tran Nu Yen-Khe, the director's wife), his younger sister, and his grandfather. Tran's hand-held camera and gritty subject matter make the film's first twenty minutes feel like a documentary. When the protagonist's cyclo gets stolen, Tran is clearly nodding toward Vittorio DeSica's Italian Neo-Realist classic Bicycle Thief (1948). From there, however, the film boldly veers off into uncharted cinematic territory, unfolding as both a literal, documentary-like presentation of modern Vietnam and a harrowing, surreal depiction of its collective state of mind. Though the film makes frequent use of traditional Vietnamese poems and folk songs, they are juxtaposed with incongruous shots of the such Western icons as Evian bottles, an overturned American helicopter, and, most jarringly, a Radiohead song that blasts away during a pivotal scene. In Tran's eyes, Vietnam's spasmodic opening to capitalism and the West is rendered uncanny and threatening. Cyclo is at the same time one of a growing number of films -- such as Farewell, My Concubine (1993) and The Pillow Book (1996) -- of transnational origins. Though the director and much of the cast were from Vietnam, the crew and funding hailed from France and the film's sole name actor, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, was from Hong Kong (and reportedly did not speak Vietnamese). Stylistically, Cyclo is more informed by art house films of Europe and the Americas than by Vietnamese mainstream cinema. Tran makes constant references to such films as Bicycle Thief, Pierrot le Fou, Reservoir Dogs, and Hour of the Furnaces. At the same time, Ton That Tiet's

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 15 November, 2005.

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