Vietnamese filmmaker Tran Anh Hung has a distinctive, high-contrast track record.

Tran's debut feature "The Scent of Green Papaya" (1993) was a Vietnamese/Proustian rush of Saigon nostalgia circa late 1950s when life was slow and contemplative, and not so entrenched in war.

Two years later his eagerly awaited second work caught fans off guard — thinking they were in for another impeccably languid depiction of old Vietnam, instead they were assaulted by a brutal fable called "Cyclo" (1995).