Cyclo Reviews

What ever happened to Anh Hung Tran?!? Back in the 1993, he burst into the film world with ‘The Scent of Green Papaya’ which was a massive critical success, at least in France, following its release at the Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately, during the last 15 years, he has made only 2 movies, the Japanase ‘Noruwei no mori’ which got some rather weak ratings and the really obscure ‘I Come with the Rain’ starring Josh Hartnett. Anyway, following his promising debut, he came up with this flick, also taking place in Vietnam but, this time, the scale was much bigger and the whole project was really ambitious. Eventually, I really liked it and it was once again a critical success (at the time, it managed to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival) but, to be honest, I thought it was not as successful as his previous flick. Indeed, ‘The Scent of Green Papaya’ displayed an unique and mesmerizing vibe, while this movie was solid crime drama but it was not really a game changer in any way. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it remains a very well and interesting flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.