Tran Anh Hung Overview

Vietnam is a country much visited by the ghost of war. The sister specters of imperialism, political strife, and atrocity flit through the cultural psyche, incessantly whispering disturbing thoughts in people's ears. In response, the Vietnamese seem to practice a certain... [more]

Vietnam is a country much visited by the ghost of war. The sister specters of imperialism, political strife, and atrocity flit through the cultural psyche, incessantly whispering disturbing thoughts in people's ears. In response, the Vietnamese seem to practice a certain serenity, never repressing past horrors and never trying to banish the ghosts, but living with them in a tense but workable concord. Tran Anh Hung's "Cyclo" comes from this tension. The film juxtaposes intense violence and youthful innocence in a coming-of-age story full of disillusionments. The film follows the story of a pedi-cab (or cyclo) driver in Ho Chi Minh City. After losing his cyclo, the protagonist looks for help in the seedy world of underground crime. The resultant brutality mirrors Tran's vision of Vietnam's past. However, the film is not so much about history as about corruption and its ongoing effects on each new generation. Like Travis Bickle -- with whom he is often compared -- Tran's character actually longs for a restoration of lost faith, an end to social alienation. Tran's aesthetic mixes documentary-style realism with an expressionism cued to internal emotions; while the events in his films proceed chronologically, the underlying narratives unfold in slow-moving subjective time. Tran has been heavily influenced by French film (he moved to Paris in 1975 at age 13), and his first film, 1993's "The Scent of Green Papaya," is surely a beautiful nod to French lyricism. The film centers on a young servant girl who develops an enduring but secret attachment to a rich friend of her employer. More poetic in its subtleties than "Cyclo," "The Scent of Green Papaya" achieves an almost Zen-like state of quiet, lush contemplation. It remains the only Vietnamese film to have been nominated for an Academy Award. [show less]