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.

This was way too long, even at the mere 79 min runtime. It was just the same thing over and over again, and it got boring and depressing. It didn't even make much sense how any of these numbers written on a piece of paper go towards betting. You will struggle finishing this one. This would've been better as a documentary. I will say though that it was well shot and certainly shows the slums of Vietnam. The amateur kid actors performed well. Nvm all the bogus high reviews, it's a generous 5/10 from me.

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.

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.

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.