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.

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!

The harsh world of lottery players, Come to the world of the poorest of Sai Gon, immerse yourself in the story of Rom. This is not an easy movie to watch, it's not merely entertaining, it's the pain, the deposition, the obsession that you probably wouldn't be able to fully understand if you didn't live in the world of Rom. . Thank you Tran Thanh Huy and the team.

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

You should watch Rom similar movies. Examples: Hereditary, Burning, Midsommar, American Psycho. No opening nor ending, confusing content, ... The movie isn't bad, you just don't have enough knowledge to understand it.