A “cyclo” is a bicycle-drawn taxi similar to a rickshaw, and, in this story, the nickname of an 18-year-old boy trying to scrape together a living in the desperate poverty of Ho Chi Mihn City. Cyclo lives with his grandfather and two sisters, and drives his taxi for a bitter woman who devotes most of her time to her mentally unstable son. When the pedal-cab is stolen, Cyclo is forced into a life of crime to repay the debt and falls in with a group of petty thugs led by a self-styled poet. What Cyclo doesn’t know at first is that the poet is also a pimp, and he’s been using his romantic wiles to lure Cyclo’s older sister into a career as a prostitute.
Tag: VIETNAM
In 1954, escorted by a sergeant, a French nun travels through Tonkin, spreading the good Catholic word as she goes. A mute child leads her to a remote village. Installed at a carpenter, the travelers prepare the projection material indispensable to their propaganda. At nightfall, in a storm, a group of maquisards surrounded the house. Fortunately, the carpenter is a respected man. The attackers withdraw. After a sudden rise in water, the mute child loses the precious message that had been entrusted to him by a wounded maquis…