The sensation of falling steeply into the underside of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) is what writer and director Tran Anh Hung creates with Cyclo, which was the recipient of the Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival. It’s a movie that contains imagery that holds a mysterious and dreamlike quality that underlines Hung’s proficiency in visuals, and he crowds each frame with a disturbance of colour and sound. It lays the foundations for some unsettling eye-catching and abstract images of both its locations and characters which congregate into a creative and affecting feast for the eyes.

Beautifully shot, stylish, eccentric ... this story about a young bicycle cab driver drawn into a life of crime is sobering and real in spite of a dreamy, almost surrealistic atmosphere. I don't think Anh Hung Tran fans will be disappointed... even in the poor neighborhood where the film takes place we still have his lush visual style, not to mention his beautifully-delineated characters. I'll admit though, it is not one of my favorites ... as with "I Come With The Rain," the film is disquieting and violent in places, and mercilessly devoid of humor to the point that it can be enervating to watch. It's still worth seeing, it's just not in the same class as "The Scent of Green Papaya," or "The Vertical Ray of the Sun."

Heavily underseen piece of Vietnamese cinema.

An artistic, almost Wong Kar-wai/Christopher Doyle-esque cinematography, suspense, drama, romance, a great Tony Leung, man, even a fucking Radiohead soundtrack — no wonder this won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1995.

Maybe Vietnam is a bit too obscure for many, but this is easily recommended for fans of Asian cinema.

Cyclo felt like a collection of moments rather than a cohesive whole. Multiple threads and tones running concurrently, pushing me away. But its individual scenes are all staggeringly beautiful. And though it left me a little bewildered and certainly didn't trigger much of an emotional response, certain images from have lingered in my mind since watching it. I think this is one I'll return to when I know I'm in the right frame of mind.

These are hazy afterthoughts of perplexing moments. Expressionism through characters covered in paint, seen through strobe lights, and commiting acts of crime. A Radiohead song plays while a poet walks out of a club that he doesn't belong in. Cyclo. A small look at a life guided by everyday rituals that turn into crime activities. Observing from up high, we see that everything on-screen happens near people living normal lives. Information offered is vague, proceeding moments become more rough, and entangled than the previous. Tran Anh Hung's depiction of a change and pivotal time in a young cyclo driver's life is a dark and depressing work of art to think about.

Entre a Inocência E o Crime estreava há 25 anos no Festival de Veneza.
Todo filme que coloca Creep na trilha sonora ganha meia estrelinha a mais, mas a verdade é que não fiquei muito impressionada com esse filme, tirando dois ou três momentos.
DVDRip no MakingOff.

This is relentlessly raw and doesn’t spare you from the grit, the grime and the guts spilt on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Tran Anh Hung paints the quieter moments in between the terror with such vibrant colour. The overall film is an assault on the senses and it’s bound to leave an impression on anyone who sees it.

Wow this must be the most artistic Asian gangster film I’ve ever seen! Visually and its storytelling. It’s sad and poetic. This was surprisingly good. All the songs made me nostalgic and homesick. I am definitely going to watch all of Tran Anh Hung’s movies.

Favorite scene: Creep

陳英雄第二部長片，與《青木瓜之味》形成強烈對比，對照上一部的古典與優雅，這一次全片充斥著躁動與焦慮。雖然添加了一些較為商業的元素（犯罪、幫派），還找來大明星梁朝偉加盟，導演說故事還是那個樣子，不少地方仍含糊帶過，不過《三輪車夫》在情緒上和故事接點之間的斷裂感更為明顯。
　
《三輪車夫》在當年奪得金獅獎，應該算是陳英雄創作生崖的高峰，但我很難不把它當作一部滿足西方觀眾對東方世界的獵奇心態的作品。

《三輪車伕》
怎麼看完這部有一點《人性暴走課Rom》的感覺，可能都是東南亞，生活在社會底層、艱辛工作的人吧。

長鏡頭pan來pan去，雖說是這部的特色，有時候步調有點緩慢。
梁朝偉年輕，濃眉電眼，憂鬱小生。
男主角犧牲真大，臉上的蟲子爬來爬去，還要整臉塗滿油漆，真辛苦。

vô danh người
vô danh sông
hoa thì vô sắc
hương không thành lời

完全沒有想過在大銀幕上，當聽見Radiohead的〈Creep〉搭上梁朝偉的精湛演技，會是如何。
而這一段，居然在《三輪車伕》中看見了。只能說，看到這一幕，真的太幸福了。
《三輪車伕》看到後來，越看越覺得有趣，甚至在裡面發現許多導演的影子。畢贛的詩意、王家衛的美學、緩慢暴力節奏的北野武、加斯帕諾埃的大膽神經、庫斯杜力卡的歷史政治寓意、蔡明亮的符號、阿比查邦的魔幻怪誕，綜合那麼多導演的色彩，但陳英雄拍得很有自己的味道，影像實驗很是新鮮。
加上前陣子看的《人性大爆走》，兩部都同樣是描述越南電影，故事瞄準社會中低層人物的生活樣貌，關於那些失意、不得不，及後來的種種。

I don't care if it hurts
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
So fuckin' special
I wish I was special


《駱駝祥子》？

我覺得這部片需要一點減法的藝術....

雖然Radiohead的歌出現有點意外ｘＤ
但＜三輪車伕＞的大膽表現和明確扣合著的人物架構讓人難以忘記ㄚ．．
記得最深刻，當下也默默覺得太中毒的一句：
「你為什麼這麼喜歡玩油漆，你是從哪裡找到這個顏色的，弄了你一身。」
乾．．於是陳英雄成為我相見恨晚，決定往後人生都要關注ㄉ導演。

簡單講，這是一部90年代的梁朝偉演了一部90年代的畢贛片，然後還拿了金獅。但陳英雄想做的事可能比畢贛更玄謎，完全沒在理觀眾。這片好幾個鏡頭美學厲害到石破天驚，但背後自溺的程度也是堅若磐石。

You put together Hong Kong's heroic bloodshed and Taiwanese New Wave and you get...? Vietnamese ultra-beautiful, visual treat of social crime cinema. Some shots are so stunning, that Creep scene is so haunting, the scenes with body paint are so captivating and in general I find this film to be both socially, cinematically and personally sincere. Very heartfelt and reaching within the dominion of "transcendental" cinema, this is truly a precious gem that needs to be seen by more people.

So much information is elided that it gets to the point where as a viewer, you're watching characters you barely understand, going to unnamed places and doing things that are barely connected. This might've worked or been interesting if the plot was something other than a bog-standard 'sensitive gangster' movie.

There are some nice snippets of life in Ho Chi Minh City, but that all eventually gets drowned out by an incredibly obvious score and maudlin voiceover. The two dumbest scenes come in close succession, the first is when our mopey lead sadly smokes a cigarette after pimping out his girlfriend while Radiohead's 'Creep' plays. The second is when a mentally disabled teen is pranked by some children by putting an M80 in a toy firetruck... causing him to run off and be killed by a real firetruck.

These are hazy afterthoughts of perplexing moments. Expressionism through characters covered in paint, seen through strobe lights, and commiting acts of crime. A Radiohead song plays while a poet walks out of a club that he doesn't belong in. Cyclo. A small look at a life guided by everyday rituals that turn into crime activities. Observing from up high, we see that everything on-screen happens near people living normal lives. Information offered is vague, proceeding moments become more rough, and entangled than the previous. Tran Anh Hung's depiction of a change and pivotal time in a young cyclo driver's life is a dark and depressing work of art to think about.