Cyclo [VHS] [1996]

This film manages to be fantasticly calm, despite the depection of corruption in Vietnam. The film tells the stroy of a boy and his sister, living secret lives in order to financially support their remaining family. These secret lives are linked to the same gang, as organised crime is rife in the city of Hanoi. The film is slow moving yet not dull, we see murder, prostitution and madness, at a reflective pace. Set to enchanting music, even a surprise visit from Radiohead`s `creep`. Despite it`s content this is not an action film, nor is it too slow, though it is advised you do not watch it if you are too sleepy! Well worth a relaxing look, if only to experiecnce the culture shock.

Sit back, relax, and be swept into a world that is as powerful as any pyscadelic drug. The coulour and imagery allone is worth whatching the film for. There are segments which stand independently off the film and would not look out of place in Tate Modern.

The cover of my version of "Cyclo" bandies comparisons with Tarantino and Scorsese. Anyone expecting Tarantino levels of action and suspense will be disappointed. Anyone who likes "Mean Streets" will know exactly where this film is coming from. This Vietnamese movie explores the relationship between crime and poverty, as a brother (Le Van Loc) and sister (Tran Nu Yen-Khe) are drawn respectively into gang crime and prostitution. The boy's story, gradually getting deeper and deeper into violence and drugs, is the more conventional, and it's difficult to escape the feeling we have seen it all before. The girl's situation is more interesting, in that her pimp (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) is also a poet, withdrawn and mournful, who gradually becomes more and more involved with her. Eventually, consumed by guilt when the girl is severely mutilated by a client into sado-masochism, he kills himself by setting fire to his house. The boy, off his head on drugs, tries to shoot himself but bungles it.

The other quirky aspect of the movie is that the Big Boss of the criminal organisation which ultimately controls both siblings, is a woman (Nhu Qhynh Nguyen) with a disabled son whom she looks after devotedly. When he dies, her distraught grief leads her to let Cyclo off the hook, and hence we have a rather artificial happy ending.

The main protagonist of the film is the city of Hanoi itself - teeming, insanitary, uncaring. And the director films it in much the same way as Scorsese films New York - mainly at night, in glaring, almost surreal colours.

Despite the successful elements, and some resonant images (Cyclo painted blue with a goldfish in his drug-addled mouth springs to mind) the film doesn't work overall because of the clichés of the script; the unanswered questions (what happens to the other members of the family when Cyclo and his sister disappear?) and the uneven quality of the acting (the Madame is particularly histrionic, and Le Van Loc, despite being very fetching, is rather inexpressive).

This film illustrates one of my golden rules of film, which is, Always be suspicious of a movie where the characters don't have names. While aiming for significance, the movie-maker usually ends up with lack of particularity, and pretention. The awards that this film has garnered seem to have come out of political sympathy - this was a brave project in government-controlled Vietnam - rather than artistic merit.