User reviews

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.

Very good film in which the characters are struggling to survive in a bleak, poverty-stricken part of Ho Chi Minh City that is controlled by a ruthless gangster. The main character, Nòm, is an orphan with dreams of reuniting with the parents who abandoned him after they were evicted from their home.

He earns money by running daily lottery bets to and from bookies and persists despite endemic violence, treachery, and literal hunger. He is wiley and relatively street savvy, having had to fend for himself for the last 6 years.

The movie itself seems to expose the seamy side of a capitalist society that provides little or no support to its poorest members, especially in a country founded on Communist principles.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I don't understand why the busan judge love it. Completely boring and meaningless

I spend 17 years in Saigon. The city is beautiful in most part but underlay all of these light is the tough life of the native who live by the alley ways. I witnessed myself these running life. I appreciate the movie very much to show the rough side of the city. The camera in the movie as well is askew on an angle . I think it's an ingenious idea. It seems to works so well to capture the roof scenes. In some way there life is always like that hanging of the edge. always battle to climb up the hill. Always live on an angle plane. Incredible

I mean when it actually ends and I feel like I have escaped that the movie

First, im a Vietnamese. I lived in Saigon (HCM city) for 4 years, since 2012-2016, and Saigon in my memories is a beautiful city. People live with hope, and joy. But in the movie, everyone in this movie do not has a job. They just gambling, gangs??? The judges are forgein, so they misunderstand about my country. The award is a joke, just like Messi Ballor O'dor in 2010.