You won't be disappointed!

Absolutely the worst movie.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Perhaps to emphasize the fact that these are people who would easily blend into the city's gritty atmosphere and would therefore be eventually inconspicuous, the characters of Cyclo, Tran Anh Hung's foray into Saigon's seedy underworld, have no name. Merely referred to as the cyclo driver, the poet, the sister, the madam, etc., these characters are merely the paint director and writer Tran uses to create the bigger picture, rather than the pictures themselves.As such, to linearly follow the story's plot is to somehow miss the point since the film is more interested in weaving various story lines to create a brooding picture of Saigon and its impoverished inhabitants. Set in 1995 in the busy commercial capital of Vietnam, a young man (the cyclo driver, played by Le Van Loc) is barely making ends meet pedaling passengers around the city via a pedicab (or a cyclo) all day. But when his cyclo is stolen, the cyclo driver turns to the poet (Hong Kong actor Tony Leung) who takes him under his wings, involving him initially in petty crimes and then gradually to major crimes such as murder and illegal drug trafficking. Meanwhile, the cyclo driver's sister (Tran Nu Yên-Khê) works as a prostitute for the poet, with whom she shares (or shared) a relationship with.More like a visual poetry, the narrative aspect of the film may not appeal to more conventional members of the audience but Tran's masterful creation of a graphic portrayal of the city evokes a visually stunning sense of desperation and decay. The depressing portrait of a city is shared by those who live in it, amplified by the depressing atmosphere that permeates on screen. The end result doesn't necessarily make one feel good; but in this case, that doesn't necessarily mean bad.

Another reviewer correctly pointed out this film's weakness: the script. The story starts out strong then about a third of the way through it hops the track.After that, if you can tell what is going on and above all WHY, you're pretty good--or friends with the author.The government of the People's Republic of Vietnam cooperated in making this film for, I suspect, political reasons. Specifically, to paint the Chinese and China in a bad light. The setting is Cholon, the Chinatown section of the old city of Saigon, the former capital of the Republic of (South) Vietnam. Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City of course and the Chinese are almost all gone, fled from the persecution that preceded and followed the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese border war. Even in 1994 when the picture was shot relations between China and Vietnam were tense. This movie depicts Cholon as a center of drug trafficking, vice, thievery and murder in which the U.S. dollar is the most desired currency.The camera work by Frenchman Benoit Delhomme is pure artistry. Production values are high. The leading lady Tran Nhu Yen-Khe is absolutely riveting--her exotic beauty the best thing by far about the picture. There are some interesting backgrounds, particularly a short interlude where Poet, played by Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, and Sister (Ms. Yen-Khe) escape the filthy and impoverished inner city and spend a day in the countryside. It is no accident I am sure that some of the French architecture that still stands is featured.The minor roles are convincingly played, the characters sharply defined for all their brief appearances. It is at the center that the film's weaknesses are most evident.

Tran anh Hung films have to be watched with a photographic sensitivity, for it relates to the color and shapes as a medium to express feelings and mood. As I was watching Xich Lo, with great curiosity as I lived in Ho Chi Minh city for a while, I was caught by this sense of surreality that the movie expresses to and fro. This is definitively not a movie about Vietnamese reality as a saigonese inhabitant can see it, but rather an author's view about a magic city (as I can define cities with magic, and cities without), recalling what can be seen in some footage of HK in trendy Wong Kar Wai movies (especially Fallen Angels)... The cast also focuses about this Vietnamese-Chinese mixed up story (This happens in Cholon, Saigon's Chinese district), and Tony Leung's long stances, silences, cigarettes, brings back to some HK underground ambiances... Add to this Hung's way to break plot rhythm, waving between poetic calm to harsh violence, and you get a movie rather unique in its genre, that I surely enjoyed. 8 out of 10

Sons lose their fathers, and miss their fathers. In Cyclo, the young man, who earns his living and supports his family by driving a rental cyclo (bicycle-taxi), is a child without parents. In Cyclo, the poet is a child that cannot be accepted by his father. In Cyclo, the retarded son of a widow is a symbol that by which the widow connects in spirit with his father, her dead lover. Under the tangle of missing, recollection of, and conflicting with fathers, Cyclo shows sons going through the shadow of fathers to rediscover themselves.Father is a symbol of a family, that, when amplified, becomes a nation. In an article "no longer in a future heaven," the author McClintock mentions an idea: mother represents the history of a nation. However, in Cyclo, father (male) symbolizes the history and means where a son comes from. Leaving Vietnam since childhood, the director Tran is detached from Vietnam¡¦s history. But he still is a Vietnamese, because he comes from his father, a Vietnamese. However, to some degree, he is a child without father the history and memory of the Vietnamese past. To Tran, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, and the people in there seem familiar, but are strange, actually. Maybe this can provide one reason as to why Tran uses the characters to spy on people in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City through the frames of windows or lenses. In some situations, spying means alienation-- an ambiguous mood about being eager for something but afraid to get close.In my view, the women characters in Cyclo have two meanings. First, woman as mother is the one who protects the father's heritage. The widow is an example. She does her best to take care of her son, because in her mind, the son comes from his father and is a reflection of his father, even though he is retarded. The young man's sister, a virgin, represents the sacred image of a nation, which is cannot be invaded. Therefore, when she is assaulted, her man, the poet, rages to kill the attacker.The characters in Cyclo do not have a name. However, this does not stop audiences to recognize them, or furthermore, to identify with them. Through gazing at their lives, behaviors, and psychological reactions, the young man could be you and me, and the poet could be anyone. They represent different types of people. The young man is a lost lamb. He at once identifies another father-image, the poet. But finally, he knows he is wrong. The poet represents contradictions. His present conflicts with the past (father), and his mentality clashes with his behaviors. If this film is allegorical of a collective loss of innocence of a nation, those characters reflect and depict Vietnamese situations from the director's point of view.The end of the film shows the young man carrying his grandfather, elder sister and younger sister with a cyclo in a crowded street of Ho Chi Minh City. Sunshine brightly sprinkles on them, and they look very happy. The ending scene shows that through all the chaos, the young man finally rediscovers and re-builds himself in the present. Separated from the past, a son can still live well. Maybe to the Vietnamese, past is past; what is important is the present and future. To Tran, what is important is self-identified.This is a movie that I strongly recommend.