Cyclo (1995)

A young orphan living in Ho Chi Minh is drawn into the city's criminal underworld after his cyclo is stolen, putting him in debt to the woman he rents it from.

CYCLO was a real eye-opener when it came out on DVD, a visually stunning tale of a place where life is cheap and principles are expensive. The stylish cinematography is reminiscent of Wong Kar-Wai and Christopher Doyle's collaborations, perhaps because it often captures Tony Leung Chiu-Wai looking forlorn with a cigarette stylishly hanging from hist mouth.

The story-telling is similarly oblique, but with much less reliance on voice-overs to let us know what the characters are thinking (though there are a few). The vibe is quite different though, with the film offering a much less romantic view of the world than Wong Kar-Wai usually presents.

The film simmers with a sense of injustice, of the dehumanising effect of poverty and economic exploitation. The characters' fates are dictated by the whims of those with wealth and power, their opportunities to exercise control over their own lives rare and fleeting.

The film doesn't rub your face in it though - people make the best of their situation and rarely complain. It's mainly communicated by absence, though occasional glimpses of others whose lives are not so constrained by poverty make that absence conspicuous. It is sympathetic without being condescending.

The story unfolds gradually, as punctuation in long sentences of mood and mundanity, the camera lovingly capturing scenes of decrepit beauty, and Tony Leung smoking enough cigarettes to kill a lesser actor, perhaps soundtracked by a softly sung folk song or - only once, but memorably - Radiohead.

Tran Anh Hung achieved something quite special here, a film that artfully juxtaposes violence and tragedy with beauty and mundanity to mesmerising effect.