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 a lively picture about hard lives of labor force in Saigon in early 1990s when the poor are struggling to find ways to survive in an unsafe and crowded city. There are some places in the movie hard to understand because it has full of abstracts, contrasts, and wordless communications. However, in a movie review, Maslin (1995) has asserted that such unusual complication which is a typical style of the film director makes the movie more memorable and successful.
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.
Clasificación [ CM DVD 00826 ] Disponible en DVD, 4 Piso BJB)