Cyclo (film)

1995 Vietnamese film

Cyclo

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Trần Anh Hùng
Written by| Tran Anh Hung
Produced by| Christophe Rossignon
Starring|

* Tony Leung Chiu Wai
* Lê Văn Lộc
* Trần Nữ Yên Khê

Cinematography| Benoît Delhomme
Laurence Trémolet
Edited by| Nicole Dedieu
Claude Ronzeau
Music by| Tôn-Thât Tiêt
Distributed by| New Yorker Video (Region 1 DVD)
Gaumont (Region 2 DVD)

Release dates

* September 1995 (1995-09) (Venice)
* 22 March 1996 (1996-03-22) (UK)

Running time

| 123 minutes
Countries| Vietnam[1]
France[1]
Language| Vietnamese

Cyclo (Vietnamese: Xích Lô [sɨt̚˦˥ lo˧˧]) is a 1995 film by Tran Anh Hung. It stars Lê Văn Lộc, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Trần Nữ Yên Khê. The film is about the hard lives of the labor force in early 1990s Ho Chi Minh City, and how people come under the influence of crime.

The film is considered hard to understand because of abstract and wordless communication. However, in a review, Janet Maslin asserted that this style, which is typical of the film director, makes the movie more memorable and successful.[2] The film won the Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

The movie is about an 18-year-old who has been orphaned after his cyclo driver father died in collision with a truck. The father's desire was that the son would have a better life than he had but, because of family hardship, the boy has to take over his father's job, pedaling a cyclo taxi around the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. He lives in a small house, with his old grandfather, who repairs tires despite his failing health, his little sister, who shines shoes for local restaurant customers, and his older sister, who carries water at a local market.

Their poor but peaceful lives are jeopardized when the cyclo is stolen by a gang. Having no money to pay his employer for the robbed cyclo, the boy is forced to join a criminal organization under the supervision of a brooding gang leader, who is also a poet.

His older sister also comes under the influence of the poet and becomes a prostitute. They develop feelings for each other and she visits his house where he is beaten by his father, furious about the profession he has taken. The poet brings the cyclo driver to "Mr. Lullaby," who slits a victim's throat while singing a lullaby.

Ho Chi Minh City is hit by a gang war. The cyclo driver, unseen, blinds one eye of the man who stole his cyclo. He visits his employer to pay part of his debt, but she refuses and becomes busy with her mentally disabled son who has covered himself with yellow paint.

The poet assigns the cyclo driver the job of murdering a man. His two accomplices give him a gun and teach him how to kill their intended target. They also hand him a bottle of pills to reduce his anxiety but warn him not to take too many. The poet and the cyclo driver's sister visit his childhood place. He leaves her in a nightclub with a client, who abuses her. The man offers compensation to the poet, but the poet kills him and later himself by setting fire to his room.

Meanwhile, the employer's son is fatally hit by a truck. The cyclo driver gets drunk and takes two of the pills. He becomes hallucinatory in the flat where he has been forced to stay. Failing to carry out the job of killing the man, he covers himself with blue paint and then due to the hallucinations he mistakenly shoots himself twice. The next morning, gang members find him badly injured. The lady spares his life despite his failure because he reminds her of her deceased son and releases him from the gang. The cyclo driver, still contemplating the memory of his father, drives his cyclo with his grandfather and sisters down a crowded road.

## Cast

[edit]

* Lê Văn Lộc as the cyclo, a cyclo driver
* Tony Leung Chiu Wai as the poet
* Trần Nữ Yên Khê as the elder sister of the cyclo
* Nguyen Nhu Quynh as the lady of the cyclo business

## Soundtrack

[edit]

The film soundtrack was written by Vietnamese composer Tôn-Thât Tiêt, who also collaborated with Trần Anh Hùng on The Scent of Green Papaya. The score received a "Best Music" award at the Festival International de Flandre in 1995. The soundtrack also contains several well-known Vietnamese ca dao (folk songs) and other popular songs:

* Nắng Chiều - Sung and played by handicapped street performers.
* Ru Con (Lullaby) sung by Lullaby Man.
* Thằng Bờm (Little Bờm)- Sung by Sad Woman to Crazy Son. Transliteration and translation.
* Em ơi, Hà Nội phố \- Sung by Thanh Lam (the lounge singer).
* Creep by Radiohead \- Playing in dance club.

## Reception

[edit]

### Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[5]

### Awards

[edit]

Awards and nominations for Cyclo Award  | Date of ceremony  | Category  | Recipient(s)  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

Film Fest Gent | October 10–21, 1995  | Georges Delerue Prize  | Tôn-Thất Tiết | Won  | [6]
Grand Prix for Best Film  | Trần Anh Hùng | Won
Venice Film Festival | August 30–September 9, 1995 | Golden Lion | Won  | [7]
Fipresci Award  | Won  | [8]

## See also

[edit]

* Bicycle Thieves, 1948 Italian film about a poor working class man searching for his stolen bicycle.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "CYCLO (1995)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-07-12.
2. ^ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 2023-05-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
3. ^ Blum-Reid, Sylvie (2003). East-West Encounters: Franco-Asian Cinema and Literature. Wallflower Press. p. 166\. ISBN 978-1-903364-67-3.
4. ^ "Cyclo". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
5. ^ "Cyclo". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
6. ^ "22e Internationaal Filmfestival Van Vlaanderen-gent 1995". Film Fest Ghent. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
7. ^ "Venice Film Festival - History 1932-2022". Venice Film Festival. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
8. ^ Rooney, David (September 18, 1995). "Venice Fest Goes 'Cyclo'". Variety. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 4, 2023.

## External links

[edit]

* Cyclo at IMDb
* Cyclo at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Tran Anh Hung

* The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)
* Cyclo (1995)
* The Vertical Ray of the Sun (2000)
* I Come with the Rain (2009)
* Norwegian Wood (2010)
* Eternity (2016)
* The Taste of Things (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Venice Film Festival Golden Lion

1946–1968|

* The Southerner (1946)
* The Strike (1947)
* Hamlet (1948)
* Manon (1949)
* Justice Is Done (1950)
* Rashomon (1951)
* Forbidden Games (1952)
* Romeo and Juliet (1954)
* Ordet (1955)
* Aparajito (1957)
* Rickshaw Man (1958)
* General Della Rovere (1959)
* The Great War (1959)
* Tomorrow Is My Turn (1960)
* Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
* Family Diary (1962)
* Ivan's Childhood (1962)
* Hands over the City (1963)
* Red Desert (1964)
* Sandra (1965)
* The Battle of Algiers (1966)
* Belle de Jour (1967)
* Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968)

1980–2000|

* Atlantic City (1980)
* Gloria (1980)
* Marianne and Juliane (1981)
* The State of Things (1982)
* First Name: Carmen (1983)
* A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)
* Vagabond (1985)
* The Green Ray (1986)
* Au revoir les enfants (1987)
* The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
* A City of Sadness (1989)
* Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
* Close to Eden (1991)
* The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)
* Short Cuts (1993)
* Three Colours: Blue (1993)
* Before the Rain (1994)
* Vive l'amour (1994)
* Cyclo (1995)
* Michael Collins (1996)
* Hana-bi (1997)
* The Way We Laughed (1998)
* Not One Less (1999)
* The Circle (2000)

2001–present|

* Monsoon Wedding (2001)
* The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
* The Return (2003)
* Vera Drake (2004)
* Brokeback Mountain (2005)
* Still Life (2006)
* Lust, Caution (2007)
* The Wrestler (2008)
* Lebanon (2009)
* Somewhere (2010)
* Faust (2011)
* Pietà (2012)
* Sacro GRA (2013)
* A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
* From Afar (2015)
* The Woman Who Left (2016)
* The Shape of Water (2017)
* Roma (2018)
* Joker (2019)
* Nomadland (2020)
* Happening (2021)
* All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
* Poor Things (2023)
* The Room Next Door (2024)

*[Ref.]: Reference(s)
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template