Review of The Wayward Cloud (2005) by Walter M — 20 Apr 2010

[font=Century Gothic]"The Wayward Cloud" is a sequel to "What Time Is It There?", set during a severe drought in Taiwan. The movie opens in corridors where a nurse and Shang-chyi(Shiang-chyi Chen) are going in different directions. In the next scene, the nurse is lying on a bed with a watermelon between her legs. Enter Hsiao-Kang(Kang-sheng Lee) who is apparently now making a living starring in porn films, since he does make furious love with said watermelon. Shang-chyi has not been back from Paris for long because she still has not opened her suitcase. Having her keys accidentally paved over on the street does not help matters. On one trip to collect water, Shang-chyi runs across Hsiao-Kang who is sleeping in the park.[/font].

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[font=Century Gothic]The director of "Wayward Cloud", Tsai Ming-liang, is one of the only directors I trust to making movies with little plot because of his great skill in setting the mood in the human comedies he makes. Also indicative of his films, is little dialogue, great sight gags and long static shots with more than one thing happening at the same time.(Well, the musical numbers are new.) The film says that even though there are certain basic elements we need in order to survive, quite a bit more is required in order to truly live. (But I still have no idea of what to make of the last sequence...) [/font].