Lee
Kang-Sheng, Chen Shiang-Chyi , Lu Yi-ching , Yang Juei-mei , Yozakura
Sumomo.
Films by the renowned
Taiwanese director Tsai Ming Liang often convey a deep, heartfelt,
humane, and most of the time erotic emotion. His latest feature
The Wayward Cloud, controversial for the eroticism it encompasses,
picks up where What Time is it There? left off. The film returns
again to the bizarre misadventures of Hsiao-Kang (Lee Kang Sheng),
who appears in almost every movie by Tsai. Hsiao-Kang has retired
from his watch sales position in What Time is it There? to pursue
a part-time career in the pornography industry as an actor, but
finding it difficult to fulfill his desires and compensate for his
loneliness...
Unlike all of Tsai's previous films where water seems flooding all
over the place, The Wayward Cloud is set in the midst of a drought
where strangely, the government is promoting watermelon juice as
a substitute to water. Tsai's previous obsession with water as a
symbolic reference to sexual activities becomes more impassioned
when substituted for watermelon juice. The film builds upon Tsai's
usual preoccupations using interaction, eroticism, alienation, minimal
dialogue, and voyeurism to create the film. Musical vignettes of
classical Taiwanese songs have established an imaginative dimension
for the film. The Wayward Cloud was recently awarded the Silver
Bear, the FIPRESCI and the Alfred Bauer Award at the 2005 Berlin
Film Festival. |