MovieChat Forums > Xích lô (1996) Discussion > A bit unfocused

A bit unfocused

posted 17 years ago by robi1138-1
4 replies | jump to latest

I'm a big fan of Asian film (from Kurosawa, Zhang Yimou, Beat Takeshi, Chan-Wook Park, Min-Liang Tsai, etc) but I found this movie to be a bit unfocused. The pacing was fine (I enjoy slow narratives like What Time Is It There?) but this movie focused too much on the cigarette-smoking guy without expanding upon his character and way too little on the sisters (especially the youngest one). Also, the grandfather was virtually ignored after his introduction. There doesn't seem to be enough insight into the main character's thoughts either and too much screen time (and little character development) of the cigarette smoking guy. I see and appreciate what Anh Hung Tran was trying to convey, but ultimately I don't feel he was entirely successful.

thoughts?

[–] aolbilln 17 years ago

I agree: This is a a gorgeous film - akin to visual poetry - but it lacks the emotional connection needed for you to really care about the characters.

[–] Ramuna 16 years ago

That cigarette smoking guy is the main reason I ever want to take a glance of this film. That guy is Tony Leung for god sake. I don't know that Tony took part in this indie and just happen to find out recently. Well, I think this film try to be a bit like Chen Kaige and Wong Kar Wai mixing together but fail in the end. Yeah some scenes do need more explanation, not like Wong Kar Wai's style where vision and body gesture explains everything.

[–] txvo 16 years ago

I didn't know Tony Leung spoke Vietnamese but he certainly pulled it off!

[–] Ramuna 16 years ago

I don't know but the version I saw already been dubbed into Chinese, so I don't really had a chance to know whether Tony really is speaking Vietnamese in the movie. But even if he really did, I guess he didn't have to sweat out a lot speaking it for most of his scene he just remain quiet and only did a lot of smoking.