Cyclo

The director of the gentle, lyrical The Scent of Green Papaya shifts gears for his second film, depicting the lurid, violent urban nightmare that envelops a nameless Ho Chi Minh City cyclo (sort of a cab driver...except that the cab has no engine, so he's really more like a pack horse) when the vehicle upon which he depends for his livelihood is stolen. Visually, the film is dazzling and hypnotic; trouble is, it's also so unremittingly, self-consciously bleak that it becomes something of an ordeal to watch. (The film's theme can be neatly summarized as "Life sucks, but in a moodily gorgeous way.") The characters suffer and suffer and suffer, and then they suffer some more; eventually, when they grow weary of suffering, they give up altogether-by film's end, all three of the principal characters have individually either attempted or committed suicide. There's a limit to how much elegant pain most of us can digest in a couple of hours, and Cyclo comfortably exceeds it. Those with stronger stomachs, and a yen for stunning cinematic imagery, may be more impressed. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)[DVD Review--Mar. 9, 2004--New Yorker, 123 min., in Vietnamese w/English subtitles. not rated, $29.95--Making its debut on DVD, the 1995 foreign film Cyclo features a sharp, handsome transfer, but no extras. Bottom line: although extra-less, this is worth considering for larger foreign collections.]