Cyclo (film)

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.

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

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

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, the Lady, 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. When the cyclo driver wants to join the gang, the Poet brings him 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 takes revenge and blinds one eye of the leader of the gang who stole his cyclo. He visits the Lady 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 the 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, on New Year’s Eve.

The Lady's son is fatally hit by a fire truck that is en route to the fire. The cyclo driver gets drunk and takes two of the pills. He becomes hallucinatory in the flat where he has been forced to stay. Unable to carry out the job of killing the man, he covers himself with blue paint, and mistakenly shoots himself twice. The next morning, on Vietnamese New Year’s Day, two gang members find him badly injured. The Lady spares his life despite his failure because he reminds her of her deceased son, who used to cover himself in paint too, and releases him from the gang. The film ends with the cyclo driver, contemplating the memory of his father, driving his cyclo with his grandfather and sisters down a crowded road.

Cast

• Lê Văn Lộc as the cyclo driver
• Tony Leung Chiu Wai as the Poet
• Trần Nữ Yên Khê as the elder sister of the cyclo driver
• Nguyen Nhu Quynh as the lady of the cyclo business

Soundtrack

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

Critical response

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

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

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