Product Details

• Actors: Le Van Loc, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Tran Nu Yên-Khê, Nhu Quynh Nguyen, Hoang Phuc Nguyen
• Directors: Anh Hung Tran
• Writers: Anh Hung Tran
• Producers: Adeline Lecallier, Alain Rocca, Christophe Rossignon
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: October 21, 1998
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1567301304
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,041 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The city was once named Saigon; it is now called Ho Chi Minh City, and in this powerful second feature by Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung (The Scent of Green Papaya) it looks like a lost circle of hell.

Cyclo is a survey of a society in decay, in which conventional plotting gives way to a series of enigmatic episodes and haunting observations. There are two main characters: Cyclo (Le Van Loc) is a poor urban teenager who scratches out a living operating a bicycle taxi in the murderous city traffic; the Poet (Hong Kong star Tony Leung) is the son of an upper-class family who has depressively drifted into pimping and fencing--wartime rackets still thriving in the new Vietnam.

Images of appalling violence are played against backgrounds of banal, everyday bustle--a buzzing flow of meaningless, insectlike activity. Hung's vision may be dispiritingly bleak, but his filmmaking is vivid and inventive. Each shot is distinguished by a particular quality of lighting, framing, or texture that lifts it out of the ordinary and into the realm of the strange, ravishing, and insinuating. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hidden gem, January 16, 2000

By 

kuroneko1 "kuroneko1" (Istanbul Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cyclo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Tran Anh Hung's follow up work to Scent of Green Papaya really excited me long before it's release. It was shot in contemporary Saigon and reflected the street life of a country which opens up it's doors to the rest of the world slowly and suspecting. Film is beatifully shot and well acted, especially camera work with all the colours that makes this film so real and in a way, looks breathing as a live thing. Story is told in a very emotional as well as stone cold real way thus melting both notions with touches of humanity, regret,innocence and lots of serious violence which for my point of view , gets as real as camera can be. Like in the most of the Asian cultural scene past and present , sadness and misery plays a great deal of importance in the lives of people circled with hopelessness and very limited choices. Film's success comes from it's poetic images which actually floats in the scene as we actually witness their actions and surroundings as real. This is a movie which actually touches peoples hearts and souls without pretending to do so. This film is a true classic of the new Asian cinema which will undeniably be the succesor of the slow dying and ever pretending euro cinema and a definite wach for all the true movie lovers.

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Liked "City of God," You'll Love Cyclo!, May 7, 2004

By 

Charles Scott Bennett "Mr. Bennett" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cyclo (DVD)

This movie should come with a warning cause it's simply dynamite! However, it's not for beginners. If you want to see some romanticized view of exotic beauty in foreign lands, grab some wine and your honey, and see Tran Ahn Hung's other movies, like "The Scent of Green Papaya". That movie, although dealing with serious issues, is like 'Reality Lite'. You can ignore aspects of the human experience that plague the mind of your inner insomniac. But "Cyclo" is no joke! This here is some powerful stuff. Not for beginners, this! And, what could be better than Cyclo on DVD?! I can see my favorite parts anytime and instantly transport myself to my own private VietNam. Cool.

If you are familiar with popular cinema from Asia, you know the system's are not like American movies. Often certain popular actors are routinely coupled. I find this habit refreshing, especially here. In some ways, the more films you see the more shades there are to an actors ability in the big picture. On a small scale, the film makers bank on the public seeing more films since certain famous pairings generate the feeling that the actors are like your old friends. If you don't feel manipulated by this tactic, it can be the cinematic equivalent of a fun time at an amusement park, when you're with your way-out-of-town friends, always taking different rides.

Furthermore, as far as East Asian Cinema goes, in my experience, as with all world cinema, you don't know what's it's all about until it's over. This film, like much of world cinema, is not trying to spoonfeed you. This movie gets 'heavy'. But if you stay with it, the whole of the film and the story within are very gratifying.

As far as my criteria for a good flick goes, this one meets my standard for world cinema, and far surpasses American commercial films. The editing is seemless. The actors are fluid and charismatic as always (Remember, old friends are we). The cinematography is stunning. The script has a definite feeling of realism. These characters say what they really would say (and maintain appropriate silences too), not that I know what a struggling Vietnamese escort or cabbie would say. But, dig this, a good story like this feels real, draws you in, shows you things you never saw woven into a story that holds you 'til the credits, and stays with you after, spinning in your mind in true 'twist-a plot' fashion, ya? If you let yourself into the world of these characters, alternate possibilities will come to mind when it's through.

Aside: Those of you who love Hong Kong film will enjoy seeing Tony Leung here - very believable and adorable! Secondly, and most important, DON'T EAT PORK BEFORE YOU SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! Nuff said.

I won't ruin the story by divulging any specific special parts or attributes of the film. My (somewhat pompous) point is, I saw the movie... The movie was good.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visually and Poetically Powerful..., April 12, 2004

By 

Kim Anehall "www.cinematica.org" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cyclo (DVD)

A young man has already lived a long life as he has lost his parents and must work as a bicycle taxi driver in Ho-Chi-Min-City where he lives with his sister and grandfather. He struggles as his bicycle is stolen by the company from which he is renting it, and now he must turn to crime in order to pay for it. The world of crime is inviting as it offers fast money, but it is a ruthless world. As he is away from home his sister turns to prostitution in order to advance in society and she is managed by the same character who is controlling his life in the criminal world. Cyclo is visually powerful with a deep socioeconomic and cinematic complexity as it depicts the tragedy of wanting.