Ròm

Tran Thanh Huy's fresh and exceptional film is a testament to the blossoming of Vietnamese cinema. His off-kilter shots, handheld moves, and guerrilla camera sequences shot on Saigon's busy streets underscore the fragility of street kid existence and the tragedy of physically and emotionally-challenged "lost" youth.

In this case, 14-year old Rom -- a middleman for illegal lottery ticket sales to impoverished gamblers willing to mortgage their rickety tenement homes for a long shot at riches. It all goes down in a corrugated sheeting world of back alleys, gangsters, superstition and Rom's quest to find his parents who abandoned him as a boy.

It's a brutally competitive life for Rom (Tran Anh) and Phuk (Anh Tu) who egg on customers with claims of winning numbers. A correct guess results in big tips. A wrong one earns a pummeling. Both actors deserve kudos for their portrayals of streetwise adolescents in physically-demanding roles. Thien Kim is perfect as Mrs. Ba, a grandmotherly senior addicted to betting.

Vietnamese censors' slashing of "Rom" to 79 minutes in an act of cinematic vandalism adds to the film's mystique and earns its producers a badge of courage for having bypassed bureaucratic permission to screen it at the 24th Busan International Film Festival where it took top honors, a first for Vietnam. Hopefully, a director's cut will surface someday.

Tana Schembori and Juan Carlos Maneglia touched nicely on similar tropes in 2017's Paraguayan caper film "26 Boxes," but "Rom" now owns the genre.

It make me wish to watch it again on the big screen. You won't regret watching this movie. It has a little bit like Parasites but different in its own ways. I first watched the movie with a bad feeling thought it had been cut a lot since the Busan cut and the movie would be bad but I was really really wrong, one of the best film I have watch.

The film really took me on and off for a ride of emotions, especially for someone who had a time living with people who strived their way out of situations as bad as the characters in the movie was. I found the movie to be incredibly realist, and that angle was delivered by totally beautiful scenes. It is true that there are plots where the films get a bit confusing, which was explained to be due to necessary cuts in order to be approved by the government, which also was the reason that leads to the poor characteristic development in the characters. But in general, how the film is delivered really got me and it definitely deserves all it receives by now!

You should go to theaters and watch this movie right away!

For the first time ever, a "Vietnamese film" but made with passion, with love, the love for art, for this country's dying filmmaking industry. Ròm is definitely beautiful, is a masterpiece i would say. From camera angles that was so creative and magnificent, to a beautiful soundtrack, and some real acting skills from all of the characters. What else can I can say? Ah, yeah a completely strange but undoubtedly excellent concept was built up and ended( wait, but did it really end?) with the song CHAY. All of that created a MASTERPIECE. This is, without a doubt, the future of Vietnamese films. BIG RESPECT.