As Panivong Norindr explains about the nature of politics in countries such as Vietnam; it was largely influenced by the West. Norindr specifically identifies the modern aspect and states that cultural expansion against people who have to contend has taken another dimension and adapted the western colonialism. From a long history, Norindr seemed to believe that the birthplace of modernity had its complex trajectory to the geopolitics of Western colonialism which, “have transformed all the aspects of life in the conquered territories” (Norindr 51). In his objective, he examines the legacy of French Revolution in Vietnam by focusing on the passage of natives into modernity. Norindr main concept that he examines deeply is modernity and he stresses that it has been an on-going manifestation of the omnipotent cultural force, an incomplete project in the West. As a result, Norindr examines the active participants in the transformation to be the ‘modern subjects’ of the emerging modern societies who are negotiating imaginative ways; their place in the postcolonial spaces in some cities such as Saigon. In his filmic vision, he identifies Tran Anh Hung Film which, although it had been shot from a Vietnamese ‘aura’, the movie is a selection of Vietnam that had lost its traditional innocence. Prostitution, capitalism and torture are what the filmmaker wants to debunk as being the clichés about Vietnam, similar to what has been conveyed in Vietnam Hollywood war movies. The film shows people living in hopes, ambitions and frustrations engraved in a culture of crime, prostitution, and uncannily no respect for humanity. In his thesis, Norindr believes that the violence, capitalism and misrepresentation of women in Tran Anh Hung Film is a manifestation of emerging modernity that has taken the shape of Western colonialism such as the crime business which is evidence in the film.

Paul Narkunas is also critical about the life of frustration that has been experienced by the Vietnamese due to the influence of the West. Narkunas is very descriptive about the 1986 market liberalization in Vietnam and directly begins his analysis by describing Tran Anh Hung Film. Narkunas examines the economic transition of an eighteen-year-old cyclo, and the camerawork emphasizes on the diagramming of flow of money and bodies. As such, Cyclo underscores an increasing social problem in Vietnam where the economic development discourse is overlooked in terms of an exercise for money and not human beings. In a statement, Narkunas says that “money and capital, can exercise more agency and power than human beings” (Narkunas 12). Despite the film disrupts chronological narration as it follows the un-linear present-past form, the film brings out capital production as the main fabric of the modern life (Narkunas 12). Narkunas uses the film to exaplin his thesis; that the capital fluid, is a form of immaterial extension that has seen the economic transition in Vietnam take the form exchange of money and bodies for capital and power. Using two scenes from the film, it is evidence that people in Vietnam faced a lot of problems due to the influence of the post-colonial modernity of the West and capital production.

The Two Scenes from the Film and their Interpretation to Narkunas and Norindr Views

The first scene is where a gang leader of a criminal organization and who is also a poet takes Cyclo boy to join the gang at a house where Mr. Lullaby, is torturing a victim. The Cyclo boy joins the gang because his rented cyclo was stolen by a gang. The scene at the private room in the neighborhood marks protagonist journey to engage in criminal activities for the sake of making a living. Also, the mis-en-scene filmed during this event depicts the nature to which violence and misrepresentation of women is evidence in this culture. The central focus at this scene if violence or torture, and how it influences the boy to join the gang members. The general composition of the film involves filtered shots of the people who are present in the room, and the cameraman integrates special effects of people walking outside in the busy market. The silence presence in the room and ringing of bicycle bells outside fills the room portrays somber mood, a solemn feeling of grave. With static frontal photography on Mr. Lullaby and the victims, the scene advances with close-ups shots of a woman on a corridor upstairs washing a child in the open. It is the Ru con lullaby song by Mr. Lullaby that breaks the silence as he intimidates the victim tied with duck tapes around the chair. It is absurd that violence takes place in a neighborhood where families lavish in poverty, but cannot do anything just as was the women bathing her child as the gang was torturing the innocent victim. The torture man eventually slits the victim’s throat while still singing his lullaby song. The cameraman angles his camera in the direction of other two boys and the protagonist who are engulfed in fear as they watch blood oozing out of the dying victim’s neck. As a result, this part has a lot of influence on the cyclo boy. A separate motion picture in another room immediate to the torture room is developed which, is interrupted by a shrilling grave sound, garnished with the grey color that illuminates around the room, producing an atmosphere of barbarism (Hung, “Cyclo”). As a result, this scene marks the transformation of cyclo boy from his innocence to adapt the Western ways that contain elements of organized crimes (Hung, “Cyclo”).

The loss of the protagonist’s innocence can be interpreted to be the influence of the Western lifestyles that are dominated by capitalism through drug market and also, the modern capitalist system that is prevalent in Western cultures. According to Narkunas (149), he explains that criminal economy in Vietnam was a Western post-colonial ideology that led to the emergence of smugglers, pimps, prostitutes and dealers and poverty as a result of destabilized economy. In the film, the presence of the gang leader torture the man represented violence. Drug economy was described to be modern capitalism of the West which had brought inflation and consequently, poverty. In the film, drug economy had led to women lavishing in poverty. Capitalism was also evident in the film. The poet who was also the gang leader had introduced the protagonist to join the criminal activities and work for money. The gang members stole his cyclo so that so that he could work for them; as a way of exploiting him to sell drugs and they get profit. As a result, this form of exploitation is what has been explained by Norindr to be the cultural force of the Western modernity- drug economy.

In the second scene, mis-en-scene was properly integrated to connect the shots to the themes of the film-capitalism and prostitution. The second scene is a pub where the protagonist is at the table with a man in a black suit and protagonist’s sister is the prostitute. The first component of mis-en-scene that was used in this scene is the camera angle where by the camera is tilted at an oblique angle, moving up and down the body of the sister as she flirtatiously dances to the tune of Creep by Radiohead which was playing in the club. The oblique camera angle suggests tension, a transition, and an impending movement. The producer also used color values to suggest the theme of prostitution. The scene is set in a club where bodies are exchanged for money; as such, the sister is dressed in yellow that matches the flashing disco lights and dim light dominant in brothel. Another element of mis-en-scene that has been used in the film is lens. The producer uses telephoto lens to draw the sister who was a prostitute closer and produce the illusion of promiscuity that had been propagated by Western post-colonialism through the drug economy. How the scene is presented in the club reflected the brothel business of the Western cultures and the form of capitalism that was perpetuated through the exchange of body for money. Furthermore, dominant contrast was used to shift the focus from the prostitute sister to the protagonist and the man in a black suit. The juxtaposition of light and dark is established by placing the prostitute sister in a sharper focus than the rest of the two characters who in the background. However, the main character is shown in a dim contrast to express his dissatisfaction. The producer also used shot and camera proxemics to enhance the expression on the prostitute sister. For instance, the producer used extreme close-up to focus unnaturally on the small portion of the sister, revealing great details and her symbolic significance in the club; being a sex worker. The focus in on her almost transparent dress and the camera is shot from a bird’s view angle to show her body and the handcuffs which reflected the Western modernism, strip clubs. The protagonist in anger moves out of the club and light a cigarette, while the music from the club continues to play. In the latter scene, we learn that the man in a black suit sleeps with the protagonist’s sister and brutally beats her up (Hung, “Cyclo”). In regard to those events, one can understand that violence against women was prevalent in the film. Capitalism is shown in terms of the sister being paid to have sex with the man in the black, a habit that is a product of western organized crime drug business which Narkunas argued that it was a form of post-colonialism.

Conclusion

Considering the interpretations by Narkunas and Norindr, Tran Anh Hung is an example of a film that shows how countries such as Vietnam had been influenced by Western ideologies. According to Narkunas, he believed that capitalism was a form of post-colonialism which was introduced in the form of drug economy in Vietnam. In addition, Norindr saw prostitution, violence against women and modernity to be the influence of the West colonial ways of life. As such, the movie ascertains Norindr and Narkunas theses in Tran Anh Hung film that modernity and capitalism were the form of post-colonialism in Vietnam.

Works Cited

Hung, Tran Anh. “Cyclo”. (1996): Golden Lion, USA. Film

Narkunas, Paul. “Streetwalking in the Cinema of the City: Capital Flows through Sagion”, Wiley

Online Library. (2008): 12-157

Norindr, Panivong. “Vietnam; Chronicles of Old and New”. Contemporary Asian Cinema:

Popular Culture in a Global Frame. (2006): 45-57.

CLICK BUTTON TO ORDER NOW