Cyclo

Date

1995

Description

Creator of the image: Tr?n Anh Hùng (director)
Date of the image creation: 1995
Medium of the image: Film
Person depicted: Gang boss played by Nguyen Nhu Quynh

Context: This still-frame is taken from the subtle and stunning 1995 Vietnamese film Cyclo by director, Tran Anh Hung. One of the films protagonists, Cyclo is a pedicab driver who has been forced by debt into a criminal underworld. Near the end of the film, he is ordered to kill a man, yet rather than following these orders he gets very drunk and eats several pills of an unknown substance, which cause him to hallucinate. In a most surreal and shocking scene, the cyclo driver coats himself in thick blue paint and attempts suicide by self-asphyxiation with a plastic bag, but fails, only to then accidentally injure himself with a gun. The next morning, the other gang members find him injured and wretched, but alive. The woman (played by Nguyen Nhu Quynh) depicted in this still-frame is contemplating whether or not to let the cyclo driver live after his total failure. She decides to spare his life and releases him from the gang because he reminds her of her own deceased son.

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