The movie is about an 18-year-old who has been orphaned after his cyclo driver father died in collision with a truck. The father's desire was that the son would have a better life than he had but, because of family hardship, the boy has to take over his father's job, pedaling a cyclo taxi around the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. He lives in a small house, with his old grandfather, who repairs tires despite of his failing health, his little sister, who shines shoes for local restaurant customers, and his older sister, who carries water at a local market.

Their poor but peaceful lives are jeopardized when the cyclo is stolen by a gang. Having no money to pay his employer for the robbed cyclo, the boy is forced to join a criminal organization under the supervision of a brooding gang leader, who is also a poet.

His older sister also comes under the influence of the poet and becomes a prostitute. They develop feelings for each other and she visits his house where he is beaten by his father, furious about the profession he has taken. The poet brings the cyclo driver to "Mr. Lullaby," who slits a victim's throat while singing a lullaby.

Ho Chi Minh City is hit by a gang war. The cyclo driver, unseen, blinds one eye of the man who stole his cyclo. He visits his employer to pay part of his debt, but she refuses and becomes busy with her mentally disabled son who has covered himself with yellow paint.

The poet assigns the cyclo driver the job of murdering a man. His two accomplices give him a gun and teach him how to kill their intended target. They also hand him a bottle of pills to reduce his anxiety but warn him not to take too many. The poet and the cyclo driver's sister visit his childhood place. He leaves her in a nightclub with a client, who abuses her. The man offers compensation to the poet, but the poet kills him and later himself by setting fire to his room.

Meanwhile, the employer's son is fatally hit by a truck. The cyclo driver gets drunk and takes two of the pills. He becomes hallucinatory in the flat where he has been forced to stay. Failing to carry out the job of killing the man, he covers himself with blue paint and then due to the hallucinations he mistakenly shoots himself twice. The next morning, gang members find him badly injured. The lady spares his life despite his failure because he reminds her of her deceased son and releases him from the gang. The cyclo driver, still contemplating the memory of his father, drives his cyclo with his grandfather and sisters down a crowded road.

• Lê Văn Lộc as the cyclo, a cyclo driver
• Tony Leung Chiu Wai as the poet
• Trần Nữ Yên Khê as the elder sister of the cyclo
• Nguyen Nhu Quynh as the lady of the cyclo business

The film soundtrack was written by Vietnamese composer Tôn-Thât Tiêt, who also collaborated with Trần Anh Hùng on The Scent of Green Papaya. The score received a "Best Music" award at the Festival International de Flandre in 1995. The soundtrack also contains several well-known Vietnamese ca dao (folk songs) and other popular songs:

• Nắng Chiều - Sung and played by handicapped street performers.
• Ru Con (Lullaby) sung by Lullaby Man.
• Thằng Bờm (Little Bờm)- Sung by Sad Woman to Crazy Son. Transliteration and translation.
• Em ơi, Hà Nội phố - Sung by Thanh Lam (the lounge singer).
• Creep by Radiohead - Playing in dance club.

Critical response edit

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.^[4] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[5]

Awards edit

• Bicycle Thieves, 1948 Italian film about a poor working class man searching for his stolen bicycle.

• Cyclo at IMDb  
• Cyclo at AllMovie
• Cyclo at Rotten Tomatoes