Rating: 
Summary: Very Overated
Review: I saw this film in the theater when it was released in 1996. I'm a fan of the genre, and enjoyed the directors previous film, "The Scent of Green Papaya." For me, this film doesn't measure up to those standards. It comes across as a random collection of scenes and images with a storyline sprinkled in. While there can be a beauty in that, this was the only movie I've ever seen where I honestly breathed a sigh of relief when it ended.
Rating: 
Summary: i have never seen a film to compare in content or creativity
Review: i watched this film late on network television, a few nights ago. i was tired and needed sleep, but could not, as i had to watch this film to the end.this film is truely the most beautifull piece of artwork i have ever had the pleasure to view. it rebounds ugly subjects, awkward situations against beautifull scenes and angelic faces. it would be easy to take at least a dozen stills from this film and produced a fantastic photographic exhibition alone. if tran anh hung ever reads this, i have the greatest repect for you and your team, you can be proud to have brought this work to our eyes. i cannot recommend this film highly enough and only await a price change and format (dvd) change before i buy. (and i even missed the start)
Rating:
Summary: A Vietnam of the Mind
Review: I've been working with "Cyclo" the last three weeks - for my exam at University - and I think it's funny to see how different people have reacted to the movie. I'm a bit shocked by people dismissing "Cyclo" because it doesn't give a realistic view of Vietnam - and these people point out "The smell of the green Papaya" as realistic? WAKE UP! Both movies are movies of the mind, "The smell of the green Papaya" is a nostalgic, romanticed picture of Vietnam, "Cyclo" is Vietnam as Hung experienced it upon returning - but still a Vietnam of his Mind. The movie is great - the characters are great, their missing expressions are intentional, the distance between the viewer and them intentional as well. The violence is sweet and horrifying. It's surreal - and realistic in its own way. Definately see it - but don't believe it. AND DON'T BELIEVE "THE SMELL OF THE GREEN PAPAYA" either - Vietnam is so much more!
Rating:
Summary: sheer beauty
Review: if art house exists this is is without a doubt the text book definision. i've never seen such a beautifully made movie in my life and neither will you.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, it is bleak.
Review: If you appreciated Nil By Mouth, you will enjoy this. After spending time in Vietnam I believe this adequately potrays day to day life for many there.
Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece Rejected by Vietnamese
Review: If you look for the truth, and if for you the truth can not be separated from reality, then this film tells you something very wrong. If for you the truth is inside the head of the artist, if you allow him to use a certain place merely as a scene for his own imagination, dreams and nightmares, then this film is a masterpiece. I can not decide between the two, therefore I can not decide whether I like the film or not. It didn't move me, I didn't know why such a sad film didn't. Then I realized it was because I was distracted by its detachment from reality. If a film maker wants to move you he has to make you believe. Street gangs do not attack the poorest, because the loot is worthless and because, believe it or not, they have their ethics too, however different these are to the official ones. In fact, cyclo drivers in Vietnam do not chain their cyclo to their ankle to be able to turn their back and have a pee. What disturbs me most is the main actress. I swear never to see another film in which the main actress is the director's wife. She can't afford to do or be anything but to look beautiful and high-class. With her dresses, her make-up (and I bet her perfume too) shopped in Paris, our whore in the slum of slums looks like a girl working in a marble-floored, air-conditioned art gallery. I've seen real angels on the streets of Saigon, seventeen year-old, with too thick eye-liner and smeary lipstick and cheap mini skirt, they are beautiful and miserable and sad-eyed and angelic. Pick one of them Hung, and she would give more value to your film than your high-class wife whose feet do not get gnarled from fetching water and whose perspiration glands don't seem to function in the heat. Tran Van Loc is real. The photography is masterly. I would still recommend the film to my best friend.
Rating:
Summary: a modern view of life in saigon not ho chi minh
Review: In the tradition of foreign films, this movie reveals a world that is either misunderstood or ignored: the ordinary life of a young man trying to survive in a place that is unforgiving and unyielding. Our tragic hero is none other than an ordinary average guy forced to fend for himself amoung the company of thieves, prostitutes, and other ordinary average people like himself all trying to eek out a living in a city that puts new york to sleep. He is introduced into the world of cyclo drivers (dominated by s. viet vets) and later graduates into the a world of crime and finally returns to resume as an average cyclo driver. The film portrays how brutal life really is in modern day saigon for some of her inhabitants. Utilizing the most realistic urban scenery, the director shows how only the strongest survive and the weakest are ignored in urban sprawls. Saigon and its faceless inhabitants are never the same to someone who sees this movie for the first time. The movie gives its viewers a glimpse into a world that no one outside, or inside in some instances, of saigon will ever see: true life in the eyes of a nobody in a modern city.
Rating: 
Summary: Hardly a masterpiece
Review: Just browsing through some of the previous reviews makes me feel ill. Although I love the country of Vietnam and its culture, Cyclo is hardly worth viewing unless you enjoy confusion and poor filming. I can understand the art of being abstract, but this film makes me wonder just exactly "what" the story line is supposed to be about. There are many scenes that leave the audience hanging. Some might call it being artistic, I would call it poor articulation. I only continued watching the film hoping for a concrete storyline to emerge. It never emerged. Additionally, there are several scenes where I must comment on how awful the film producers applied their 'skills.' Did they really think that a flashing white television screen for nearly 2-3 full minutes was necessary?? It's a cheap effect tha's more headache inducing than "artistic"-- and caused me to avoid looking at the screen before me. After watching this movie, I would be afraid to visit Vietnam for all the depicted crime in this movie. No place is perfect or crime-free, but this movie is almost purely violence. Could somebody please explain to me whatever happened to the man who stole the main character's pedicab/cyclo? Or what happened to his sister who sold her sexual services? This movie leaves the audience guessing too much to the point that it's confusing. I hardly call it a masterpiece. For all those people who claimed it's the best movie they've seen or anything on those lines, I just want to ask: Have you been deprived? Go watch Tony Bui's "Three Seasons".. at least that movie has more of a storyline and more artistic flair. Just my two cents.
Rating:
Summary: whacked out
Review: Little more than a collection of whacked out imagery showing someone's idea of a descent into human hell. No real plot or sense to what happens. I guess that's all it takes to win a Golden Lion.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Make no mistake about it; this is an art film. An "Art film" being defined as any movie made outside of Hollywood that does not have a connect-the-dot-plot and is not characterized by a series of explosive special effects every 10 minutes. The cinematography is stunning, the plot is gritty, and the acting is absolutely exquisite. Who can say they've seen this film and not mistaken it for a documentary? The films' depiction of poverty and violence in modern day Ho Chi Minh City is both painful and heartbreaking. The characters silently scream for compassion, but receive none, instead finding themselves swept aside by an ocean of circumstance. Beyond the tragedy however, director Tran Anh Hung has found something substantial. He proves that despite the exhaustive monotony and ugliness that often characterizes urban life, a careful grace and cautious beauty exists there. Some reviewers have complained about the lack of follow-through concerning some segments of the plot. But that's the point, life is not easily compartmentalized, life's episodes do not always have neat conclusions- or any conclusions at all. This film mimics life, as uncomfortable as that may seem to the "happy ending" crowd. This is a well-executed film, a real emotional juggernaut.
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