6 Comments

I love watching movies like Cyclo. Even though I would not get as much out of it as a Vietnamese like Linh does, I find it fascinating to be transported to another world.

I have always found it odd and depressing that most movie goers love seeing movies set in imaginary worlds but have no interest in ones set in real worlds they will never visit. Then again, anyone who has tried to tell Americans about experience living abroad and experienced the complete lack of interest (compared to excitement about a new local restaurant that has opened) isn't surprised.

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This sounds like a great movie, and your dissection is fascinating. Back in the '90s I was going to movies all the time, and not just the big studio hits, but films like this that usually only show at those "art house" type theaters. I can't believe I missed this one--even the name doesn't ring a bell. I really like seeing films like this that try to give you a taste of what life might be like inside places and cultures you are unlikely ever to see for real.

I know what you mean about watching movies more than once, and seeing things you didn't see the first time. How did you manage to catch this one if they don't want it shown in Vietnam?

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Hi JustPlainBill,

Here's the link to it on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEXBLlmUDUo

For a movie this complex, it's great to be able to pause to study a scene, or rewatch a scene several times.

Linh

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Thanks for the link--I was in the process of looking for it on one of my streaming sources.

Some movies I like yet would never watch a second time. Others are like the one you wrote up, where multiple viewings show you things you didn't notice or think about the first (or second?) time around. A foreign film I saw this year that bears repeated watching and which left an impression on me was the Chinese film "Return to Dust" filmed in 2023.

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One of the better movies I've watched was Vietnamese, can't remember the name

And it wasn't sub-titled, just the way it was done. Each scene was packed with

Meaning and emotion, peripheral things going on all around, so much put into it.

This was before internet, saw it on television in Aus where we have a channel for

New Australians and alternate cultures, have viewed many movies and such from

Asia and Middle East etc. far superior to anything from Hollywood.

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Kind of reminds me of the Vietnamese Cowboys in Saigon - when you were growing up.

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