Cyclo (1996)

Cyclo (Vietnamese: Xích Lô) is a 1995 film by Tran Anh Hung (who had made The Scent of Green Papaya). It stars Lê Văn Lộc, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Trần Nữ Yên Khê.

The film won the Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival. It is about the hard lives of the labor force in 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 abstracts and wordless communications. However, in a review, Janet Maslin (1995) asserted that this style, which is typical of the film director, makes the movie more memorable and successful.

Synopsis

The movie is about an 18-year-old boy who has been orphaned after his father died from a truck crash while he was in his usual work. The father was a cyclo driver, and his desire was the son would have a better life than he had. However, after the father’s death, because of the family hardship, the boy has to take over the father’s job, pedaling a rental cyclo around busy streets of Sai Gon city to earn a living. Living with the boy in a small house, there are his old grandfather, who repairs tires despite of his failing health, his little sister, who shines shoes for restaurant customers in the neighborhood, and his older sister, who carries water at a local market.

Actors