Rating: 
Summary: Visually and Poetically Powerful...
Review: A young man has already lived a long life as he has lost his parents and must work as a bicycle taxi driver in Ho-Chi-Min-City where he lives with his sister and grandfather. He struggles as his bicycle is stolen by the company from which he is renting it, and now he must turn to crime in order to pay for it. The world of crime is inviting as it offers fast money, but it is a ruthless world. As he is away from home his sister turns to prostitution in order to advance in society and she is managed by the same character who is controlling his life in the criminal world. Cyclo is visually powerful with a deep socioeconomic and cinematic complexity as it depicts the tragedy of wanting.
Rating:
Summary: Visually and Poetically Powerful...
Review: A young man has already lived a long life as he has lost his parents and must work as a bicycle taxi driver in Ho-Chi-Min-City where he lives with his sister and grandfather. He struggles as his bicycle is stolen by the company from which he is renting it, and now he must turn to crime in order to pay for it. The world of crime is inviting as it offers fast money, but it is a ruthless world. As he is away from home his sister turns to prostitution in order to advance in society and she is managed by the same character who is controlling his life in the criminal world. Cyclo is visually powerful with a deep socioeconomic and cinematic complexity as it depicts the tragedy of wanting.
Rating: 
Summary: You can get a better version than this!
Review: Attention!!!You don't have to settle for a lousy cropped VHS version of this magnificent (5 stars) film! There is an NTSC region free DVD available from Hong Kong that will play on any American player - and it actually costs less than this insulting VHS! The excellent transfer is non-anamorphic widescreen and there are removable subtitles in more languages than you can shake a stick at. All this and trailers too! Enterprising net users can probably find it without too much effort - or you can get off your lazy duff and explore your local Chinese gift outlet. Who knows what other treasures await? This movie is exquisite! It leaves most other films deep in the shade. There is something in its rhythms that's not quite like anything else I've seen - very fresh. It's not often you get the sense that a filmmaker is discovering new ways to use the camera. At the same time it recalls some other important moments in cinema, while holding it's own as a masterpiece. Some of the other reviews were amusing. Allow me to take a moment to express my everlasting contempt for people who hate this and any other movie because it's "depressing" or "bleak" or because it isn't nice like "Pretty Woman" or whatever. I hope one day you see a movie that disturbs and horrifies you to the point where you actually expire violently in your seat before you even have a chance to walk out. Of course, a movie can't actually hurt anyone - but I can dream, can't I? Do yourself a favor. Don't watch movies. There's plenty of harmless, mindless, worthless swill available for you to wallow in on television. Its free (sort of), and it won't upset your little mind no matter how much you deserve it. There'll be less swill in the theatres if you vermin all just stay home. Deal? You stay out of the theatres, and I won't come to your living room.
Rating: 
Summary: An Extraordinary Motion Picture
Review: Cyclo is a masterpiece. Tran Anh Hung's neo-realist style is the result of his French film education. But only he could make a film like this. Set and shot in Ho Chi Minh City, Cyclo is an unforgettable film. Visually, it is a rich film, and contains just as much beauty as violence. This is a film full of "plastic" colors and textures, and also flesh and earth tones. It is one of the most beautifully shot films I have ever seen. Although it tries to be apolitical, Cyclo still makes most viewers think about what Vietnam is like, and what it means to them. In short, this film succeeds where "Kids," did not. It is a film about desperate lives in a poor, hot city. However, it does not preach a specific message to its audience. Cyclo really is a rich film about people drawn into dangerous situations they cannot control, and somehow survive. It remains one of the best films I've seen this decade.
Rating:
Summary: Take a ride on this dangerous Cyclo
Review: Cyclo is a Vietnamese movie that features Tony Leung Chiu-wai one of my favourite Chinese actors. He appeared in Wong Kar-Wai's In the mood for love and Happy Together as well as Jackie Chan's popular film Gorgeous. In this movie Leung plans an angst-ridden gangster, and he seems to have that silent angst-ridden look down pat. Playing opposite him is Tran Nu Yen Khe, a beautiful actress who also starred in Tran Anh Hung's Scent of the Green Papaya. Whereas Papaya was sensual and moody, Cyclo is gritty and more in your face. The main story is that of a Cyclo (a bicycle rickshaw taxi) that gets stolen and the cyclo driver must work for the gangsters to pay off the debt he has from when he borrowed money to get the cyclo. When you get past the violent scenes (there is one torture scene that rivals the cop torture scene in Taratino's Reservoir Dogs) it is a captivating story. It is excellent on Video or on DVD - the zone-free DVD is available from Poker Industries which is an associated store of Amazon.com.
Rating:
Summary: Cyclo ... The Viet Nam by the Vietnamese
Review: Cyclo is not an usual movie : it's a movie about Viet Nam, Vietnamese people, about suffering, wondering, being lost and being saved, about desperation and hope, about love and frustration .. but all is perfectly mastered and controlled by Tran Anh Hung. The film is about the ordinary life in Viet Nam, about hard times, struggle, the temptation of money and corruption ... violence and tenderness. It is probably as of today the most accomplishd vision of modern Viet Nam, the most "insight journey" into the soul of Vietnamese, and as such, it's not an easy movie : for each scene, you need to wonder "what is the message", "what doe sthat mean" : behind the story, there are messages and analysis about the human being and their path. Cyclo shall be a delightful movie for those who love Viet Nam and who want to feel and to understand its destiny, at a time where it stand at a crossroad. On top of that, the movie keeps beautiful scene ful of peotry and beauty.
Rating:
Summary: one of the few modern landmarks
Review: Decades down the line when critics have more sense than it takes to rave over "groundbreaking" tripe like "Moulin Rouge" it may be time to re-evaluate "Cyclo." Tran Anh Hung has created what can be cited as one of the two or three truly visionary film of the 1990s (the case can also be made for Kiarostami's "Close Up" and Koker Trilogy, and Bae Yong-Kyun's "The People in White").
Rating:
Summary: tell your friends!
Review: Despite what a whining and tragically bland whelp of a reviewer(her review sounded the overheard reaction of some blondie snot-on-a-date after the movie "American History X"(nothing to do with my opinion of this movie), that being, "I don't get it", primed by her incessant huffing and loud gum-chewing during the movie. go watch some vomitous dancing-teenagers flick'. pure vapidity...I hope this lengthy rant recalls the kind of insipid, mush-gourd brick-humpers that are out there; and my lack of tolerance for them. I really am a happy person, though:) ) had to say about this movie, Cyclo is a EXCELLENT film. Not excellent in the "whack-over-the-head" way that the word 'excellent' in uppercase letter invokes, but rather in the way the sweltering bright weather of midday bustling Saigon juxtaposes with the cool flowing of indigo silk at dawn in the market. the kind of excellent that fills that broad abyss between those two breathing images. THAT kind of excellent. Wonderously decrepit living spaces that only reflect the lives that take place through them. This is me on late, so ignore the paltry verbiage and poetry. Let not the fire of my strike at the "ignorant-optimist" taint the placid waters of all the levels of loveliness of this film that call out to you to see it. take a drink. your good friend, miLk"!
Rating:
Summary: What's the message here?
Review: I for one did not see one. Beautiful cinematography? Give me a break. The images left with me are of squalor, filth, gore, emotional void, boredom. The story is without coherence or meaning. The scenes are dark and depressing. The actors have no soul. They don't convey anything, they don't touch you. This is not to say that their acting wasn't good, but they remain removed from the viewer. I was not able to be touched by their misery. Not even by the beautiful main actress, her shiny white silk pants always spotless despite the garbage she has to walk through every moment. Watching this deranged adult society, I had a hard time to believe that the children involved in the plot could be so joyous and clean. Actually, while watching the film I hoped everyone would die soon, and the movie be over with.
Rating:
Summary: Dark and Intense
Review: I lived in Vietnam for 4 years during the 1990's, so my impression of this film is likely to be somewhat skewed by my experiences there. The film certainly captured the darkness and intensity of the underbelly of everyday Vietnamese life. However, it's focus was on life on the other side of the law, and how even the well-intentioned can be pulled into the underside of life. Cyclo was not a film of hope, but one that allows the viewer a glimpse of the realities of life in harsh and seemingly hopeless conditions. It pained me to see it, because it is very indicative of a segment of the Vietnamese population. But, only one segment. Based on my limited observations and my Western perspective during the years I spent in Vietnam, I found the Vietnamese to be a complex and eternally optimistic nation of individuals, who find pleasure in day to day life even under the harshest of conditions. Unfortunately, those who turn to crime appear to pursue criminal activities with ruthless abandon, just as the film portrays. But I do not believe that crime in Vietnam is as pervasive as the film portrays. The film is dark, very dark, and portrays only one side of the complexities of Vietnamese life. For a more complete picture of Vietnam and the beauty of the people and their country, viewers of "Cyclo" should also see "Scent of Green Papaya" (by the same director as Cyclo, but from a polar opposite perspective) and "Three Seasons," a 1998 film shot on location in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). Three Seasons is my favorite film about Vietnam because it shows the reality of life there today, good and bad. Plus, it shows the spirit of the Vietnamese people and their ability to survive under harsh conditions. Vietnam is a beautiful country that welcomes Americans (hard to believe isn't it) and makes a wonderful "out of the way" vacation spot.
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