The Wayward Cloud (Tian Bian Yi Duo Yun) (2005) (Taiwan)

[hengcs]

Director: Tsai Ming Liang
Cast: Lee Kang Sheng, Chen Hsiang Chyi

At the Berlin International Film Festival 2005, it won the
-- Silver Bear for An Outstanding Single Achievement, and
-- Alfred-Bauer Prize
see
http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/2005/03_preistraeger_2005/03_Preistraeger_2005.html

It was also awarded the FIPRESCI Prize (competitive section).


Like most of Tsai’s film, the “simplicity” of the storyline suggests that it is NOT plot driven, but rather character driven or even mood driven. In essence, the story involves two people who fell in love but did not know how to express themselves. Nonetheless, the film is rather thought provoking …


What I like …
-- The film is full of symbolisms, messages, and food for thoughts …
e.g., the use of images … yup, you will see several “clouds” except actual clouds in the film … but isn’t everyone a cloud? We presume we can drift freely, but like clouds, we need the wind … and what happens when two clouds collide?
e.g., wow … the metaphoric use of watermelon … go watch …
* yup, you will never view watermelon the same way again … ha ha ha *
;)
e.g., the setting against a hot summer drought and thirst … symbolizing the drought/lack of love and the thirst/quest for love …
e.g., the age old question of love and s**: is there love in s**, does love require s**, is it love or lust? etc ...
-- The songs in the musical interludes are actually rather “classic” and not crude (at least I “used to” think so), but the way they were interpreted and choreographed in the musical sequences was very comical indeed.
* Hmmm … merely for a good laugh? Or is life, love and s** simply laughable?! *
-- The BEST scene in the movie …
* drum roll *
in my very humble opinion, it is actually the LAST scene …
oh, I know some people walked out of the theater, some people are going to grumble, some people are going to complain or feel disgusted …
But frankly, if you think about the entire film, it is among the SADDEST scenes …


What may be problematic for some people …
-- Hmmm … some people may feel offended by certain scenes, dismissing them as pornographic or crude. Like many controversial films, the line between art and pornography is really thin …
-- Like most of Tsai’s films, it is again long and slow, with few dialogues …
-- Like most of Tsai’s films, he uses the same cast (again?!) … so, one may regard this as a continuation of the previous film “What Time Is It There?”
* yup, there are some references to it *
or if you do not like, regard this as a separate film …


Food for thought:
By leaving several things unexplained and ambiguous, the director has allowed audience to exercise their own interpretation and judgment. While some people may complain about the “non closure” or “unexplained events”, art film moviegoers seem to embrace it … ;)

I have always wondered,
-- is it easier and wiser for a director to leave things unexplained so that most audience would assume the director is interpreting the scenes like the way they do, thereby pleasing most … instead of explaining what happens and disappointing audience with his/her own take …
e.g., what happened to the actress who made porn video
* a different interpretation would deliver a slightly different message! *


Conclusion:
-- I think it is an excellent film in terms of symbolism and messages
-- However, one has to get used to the director’s style of filming … and certain explicit scenes …

[trevor826]

Tian bian yi duo yun (2005) The Wayward Cloud - My Opinion.

Directed by Ming-liang Tsai

Starring Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen

*May contain spoilers*


A film about love, loneliness, longing and sex.

Hsiao-Kang is an actor in porn films, sex is a job and has ceased being a pleasure for him, what he needs is love, genuine love that doesn’t necessitate sex.

Shiang-chyi on the other hand is lonely for love and the intimacy of sex, her path crosses with Hsiao-Kang’s several times until a quite sweet point where the silence is broken and recognition of each other (from the earlier film What Time Is It There?) is confirmed.

They share time together but Hsiao-Kang isn’t interested in getting into a sexual relationship whereas Shiang-chyi appears very willing to give herself to him. Things change when she opens the lift (elevator) one-day to find a girl sprawled on the floor, totally whacked out, probably from drugs. The girl is a porn actress from Japan and before she knows it, Shiang-chyi is helping to drag her limp body to a flat where the porn shoot is taking place. It’s here that she discovers what Hsiao-Kang does for a living, it’s also where the film has its most controversial scenes!

The film is full of metaphors, some very clearly defined, Watermelons for sex and lust, not just one aspect of sex but many. From the substitution of half a watermelon for female genitals, through the juice and pulp as offerings of sex, to the use of a whole melon as a substitute baby.

Water on the other hand equates to love and hope, Taipei, maybe the whole world suffers from a lack of genuine love as opposed to sex which like watermelons can be bought and sold as a commodity. Taipei itself is going through a drought reflecting the lack of love and the loneliness of most of its inhabitants; there is a key moment (sic) where love breaks through bringing with it a trickle of water and hope.

The title “The Wayward Cloud” in my opinion represents the characters, each listlessly drifting in their own direction until by chance they might bump into another creating rain and a ray of hope.

The film is also interspersed with a number of scenes choreographed and mimed to Chinese popular songs from the 60’s, these illustrate how the most innocent sounding songs can actually be full of innuendo and double entendre. I thought the idea to put these throughout the film was pure genius, from the girls dancing around the statue of Chiang Kai-shek surrounded by overblown phallic and yonic plants to the routine set in a large public toilet, tacky, cheesy, camp and brilliant.

So overall what message does the film hold? Porn is cold, uninvolving, machine like and unemotional but not just porn, sex without love is almost as bad. Love is the saving grace for us and although the two can and do mix, you shouldn’t substitute, equate or confuse one with the other.

I enjoyed the film but obviously there are moments that have the intention of making you feel uncomfortable (and so they should), definitely only for a mature and fairly broadminded audience, well worth seeing in my opinion.

Cheers Trev.

No BBFC rating but definitely 18.

Region 3 DVD available from several retailers.

[arsaib4]

"So overall what message does the film hold? Porn is cold, uninvolving, machine like and unemotional but not just porn, sex without love is almost as bad. Love is the saving grace for us and although the two can and do mix, you shouldn’t substitute, equate or confuse one with the other."

Well said!

I have decided to watch this film in Toronto at the end of the week. As you know, I saw it earlier on DVD but I don't want to miss an opportunity to watch a Tsai film on the big screen even though I'm letting go of another choice for that day. The reaction overall has been quite timid, and the film hasn't generated the response I was expecting, both positive and negative. After one viewing I don't believe that The Wayward Cloud is at the level of Tsai's previous two features, What Time is it There and Goodbye Dragon Inn, but then, not many films are.

[trevor826]

Thanks arsaib4, I agree it isn't quite up to the standard of Tsai's other films I've seen although I haven't had the opportunity to see Goodbye Dragon Inn yet. I would definitely go to see it if by some miracle it was shown in the cinema, though because it would probably be at a festival or the art-house cinema I wouldn't expect many walk outs.

Cheers Trev.

[arsaib4]

Have you seen Tsai's short film The Skywalk Is Gone which he made after What Time is it there? as sort of a precursor to his latest?

[trevor826]

No not yet, I had heard about it but am unaware of it's availability.

Is it an extra on any of the DVD's or can you get as a seperate entity?

Cheers Trev.

[arsaib4]

It is available separately in Taiwan (on a VCD, I think) but it's next to impossible to import anything from there.

However, the short is present as an extra on the DVD of Goodbye Dragon Inn, the one released by Wellspring in the U.S. I was looking to add something to the other film so I'll include this one.

[trevor826]

What can I say, except thank you.

Cheers Trev.

[oscar jubis]

The Wayward Cloud (Taiwan, 2005)

After playing anonymous projectionist and ticket lady in Goodbye Dragon Inn, Kang-sheng Lee is again Hsiao Kang and Shiang-chyi Chen returns as the girl who, before going to Paris, bought a watch from him in What Time is it There?. In the short The Skywalk is Gone, Shiang-chyi returns to Taipei to find that the overpass where Hsiao Kang set up shop has been demolished. It's gone, like the theatre in Goodbye Dragon Inn_the dislocation and nostalgia caused by rapid development is a major Tsai Ming-liang theme. She failed to locate Hsiao Kang, who auditioned for the role of doctor in a porn film.

The Wayward Cloud opens with Shiang-chyi crossing paths with a woman dressed as a nurse who carries a watermelon. The nest cut takes us inside an apartment where a sexual scene takes place involving the "nurse", the watermelon and...Hsiao Kang (he obviously got the part). Tsai doesn't reveal a crew filming this and other sex scenes until 45 minutes into the movie. Meanwhile, Shiang-chyi alone in her flat watches a TV report regarding a severe water shortage. She goes around collecting empty bottles she fills with water at a public restroom. She also drops a key on the street and attempts to open a suitcase, but we don't see her dropping the key and we don't know what it opens. Welcome to Tsai's metaphorical, enigmatic and elliptical filmmaking. The structure of The Wayward Cloud is similar to his The Hole in that musical numbers disrupt the narrative (and comment on it) at several times, only here the musical sequences are more elaborate and eye-catching.

Tsai's style demands a great deal of careful observation and requires the viewer to interpret what's on view. As an illustration, consider when exactly Shiang-chyi finds out Hsiao Kang works in the porno industry. Trevor is not "wrong" when he states she finds out after finding the porn actress passed out on the elevator, but it's only one possible interpretation. She works at a video store with an ample porn section. When he follows her into a room, she embraces him from behind as she grabs specific dvds from the shelf and shows them to him. Are these those he appears in? If not, before finding the actress on the elevator, she watches some dvds she brought home and appears startled. Is this the moment of recognition? Maybe, but it's possible, given her line of work, that she knew it all along, even when she asks Hsiao Kang if he still sells watches during their reunion scene.
Tsai is perhaps cinema's most oblique storyteller.

[trevor826]

Yes Oscar, the question of when she actually found out crossed my mind a few times but I came up with my answer through my own reasoning based on the same key scenes.

She works at a video store with an ample porn section. When he follows her into a room, she embraces him from behind as she grabs specific dvds from the shelf and shows them to him. Are these those he appears in?

To me it was obvious that she wanted intimacy whereas he really wasn't interested, I took this just as her attemp to emphasise to him that she wanted to take it further but it also struck me that they may well have been films that he appeared in.

before finding the actress on the elevator, she watches some dvds she brought home and appears startled.

She watched the dvd after finding the girl, I did re-watch this bit to make sure, in fact the girl is sprawled on the floor in her apartment at the time. I thought it was recognition of the actress but again it could have been recognition of either or both.

What isn't clear is how she knew who to contact about the actress, a guy suddenly appears at her apartment to drag the limp body to the shoot, obviously she must have contacted someone and that certainly points to an earlier discovery of what Hsiao Kang did for a living.

Cheers Trev.

[oscar jubis]

Originally posted by trevor826
To me it was obvious that she wanted intimacy whereas he really wasn't interested, I took this just as her attemp to emphasise to him that she wanted to take it further

Regarding their relationship:
-I think it's significant that he finds the key she looks for, and that when he extricates it from the pavement, water pours out.
-They share a couple of domestic scenes (cooking and such) that are indicative of a type of intimacy. At least once, he can be seen trying to open her locked suitcase. When she's watching those dvds she brought home, the suitcase can be seen in the background with the flaps upturned. Again, he seems (because I am not certain, the suitcase is closed but it looks unlocked) to have helped her.
-If when you state: "he really wasn't interested" in intimacy, you mean sex, then I'm still in complete agreement with you. He regards sex, to use your words, as "cold, uninvolving, machine-like and unemotional".

*The last shot of the film is highly ambigious. How do you see it, Trevor? Is sex a destructive force to Tsai?

*This is the first of his films that prompts me to wonder whether a bit more clarity or a bit more information_at least another brief dialogue between them, would result in a better film.

[arsaib4]

THE WAYWARD CLOUD

Communication, or lack thereof, has been one of the key motifs of Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang’s oeuvre so far. And a sequence early on in his latest feature, The Wayward Cloud (Tian bian yi duo yun), only confirms that fact: As we watch Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng), last seen auditioning for a porno in Tsai’s short The Skywalk is Gone (2002), having kinky sex with a voluptuous woman during which he stuffs large pieces of watermelon in her mouth (an act that resonates with the film’s harrowing final-shot), Tsai cuts to his other protagonist, Shiang-chyi (Chen Shiang-chyi), who is back from Paris (with her suitcase) and now works at a museum, listening to a broadcast proclaiming that watermelons have now become the new symbols of love among residents. It turns out that Hsiao-kang was indeed shooting for a porn film in an apartment right above Shiang-chyi’s.

Tsai’s perpetually depopulated Taipei, a metaphor for his characters’ loneliness, is now experiencing a draught—hence the watermelons. The draught symbolizes a lack of love, or a soul, which Tsai believes results from human beings abusing themselves. As Trevor brilliantly stated, "Porn is cold, uninvolving, machine like and unemotional but not just porn, sex without love is almost as bad. Love is the saving grace for us and although the two can and do mix, you shouldn’t substitute, equate or confuse one with the other." Tsai has repeatedly voiced his opinion regarding how porn stars use and abuse their bodies, and then how they are thrown away upon arrival of new flesh.

But the approach employed by Tsai in The Wayward Cloud isn’t distanced or cold. Indeed, much like his earlier feature The Hole (1998), the filmmaker enlivens his latest with kitschy musical numbers referencing Mandarin pop-songs of the 50’s and the 60’s. More importantly, however, they vividly project the inner feelings of his characters: one features Hsiao-kang declaring his loneliness; another has an aging porn star claiming a lack of soul; and yet another has our protagonists switching sexual identities. (The film also features numerous droll, comedic moments -- the best of whom involves Hsiao-kang’s Japanese porn-partner (Sumomo Yozakura) losing the cap of the bottle inside of her while she was pleasuring herself with it, resulting in a frantic search.) After watching this film, one gets a feeling that Tsai, an avid follower of European Cinema, wouldn’t approve of the paths recently treaded by the likes of Breillat, Haneke, or Chéreau to explore sexuality in our post-modern world.

The Wayward Cloud is one of Tsai’s most lucid films. But since, for the most part, Tsai doesn’t allow for moment-to-moment contemplation, it’s possible that its virtues might get counted against him. At the Berlin film festival, where the film had its world premiere, Tsai reportedly clarified his personal stance as being pro-erotic, but anti-pornography. The latter is quite obvious from the film, and the way Tsai, for the first time, fetishizes the tender body of Shiang-chyi (something I wish he would’ve done more of), it becomes apparent what he meant by the former. Having said that, the aforementioned final-shot is a powerful off-kilter moment that’s bound to leave a few doubts.

However, amidst ubiquitous alienation and the cumshots, the film features sublimely beautiful moments involving our protagonists -- who only share one line of dialogue: "Are you still selling watches?" That’s what Shiang-chyi asks Hsiao-kang after finding him. (It refers to his occupation in Tsai’s previous feature What Time Is It There? [2001].) In one scene, as Hsiao-kang takes a bath in the building’s water tank, the result produces bubbles from Shiang-chyi’s faucet that eventually make their way into her room while she sleeps. Another involves the former pulling the latter under the table, but even though Shiang-chyi’s is practically ready to be devoured by him, all he does is fall asleep. And in one of the most moving sequences that Tsai has ever shot, Shiang-chyi takes charge and starts to make love to Hsiao-kang, ironically in the porn section of a video-store, but as she readies to take him in her mouth, Hsiao-kang pulls her up and hugs her. He’s simply no longer capable of distinguishing between love, sex, and his mechanical acts.

Toronto and Beijing based writer Shelly Kraicer, an authority on East Asian cinema, stated at the festival that "Tsai Ming-liang’s is one of the very few filmmakers working today whose films can change our world," adding that, "This is not mere hyperbole...." I wouldn’t think that it was, because they’ve certainly changed mine.

__________________________

*As mentioned earlier, THE WAYWARD CLOUD premiered at Berlin, where it won the Silver Bear (special prize) and the FIPRESCI Prize (given by critics). The film doesn't have a U.S. distributor at this point.

*The film is available on HK (http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1004055277/code-c/section-videos) and Taiwanese DVDs with English subs.

[Chris Knipp]

This certainly sounds fascinating and makes me want to watch more Tsai and particularly this one. Not available on Netflix. Do I have to buy it to watch it? Who is Trevor? Why do you say "for the most part, Tsai doesn’t allow for moment-to-moment contemplation"? Whey you say of Tsais's 'fetishinzing" of Shiang-chyi 's body that it's "something I wish he would’ve done more of", do you mean in previous films? Can you expand on this comment: "[Tsai probably] wouldn’t approve of the paths recently treaded by the likes of Breillat, Haneke, or Chéreau to explore sexuality in our post-modern world"? Thanks.

[arsaib4]

I’d be very surprised if The Wayward Cloud receives theatrical distribution in the U.S. But then, films like Bad Guy and 9 Songs, who had to endure certain restrictions in their home countries, did play here w/out any cuts. Trevor’s excellent review is available above.

Tsai’s films are usually extremely demanding. Every contemplation of space and time by him, and every move, gesture, word by his characters can open up an infinite number of possibilities. So, in that sense, his latest is pretty straightforward, until, of course, the final shot.

As for Shiang-chyi, yes, I wish he was even more assertive with his "pro-erotic" stance. But perhaps he didn’t want to take any attention away from his other point which he made forcefully (even though he tried to add a little color with the musical set-pieces). And that leads to what differentiates him from European filmmakers, with their inherently bleak outlook. Due to the graphic nature of his film, Tsai didn’t want viewers to react like they would with pornography, so he balanced it with deadpan humor and music. He was very concerned about how his film would be considered, unlike his counterparts, who, in some cases, have been accused of simply trying to create controversy.

[Chris Knipp]

IT's a disappointment to me that more Tsai isn't available on US DVD's, to say nothing of theatrical distribution. And I'm overburdened with Netfilx French films (however limited that selection ultimately is) to have much time for Asia right now, apart from what I find in theaters. If that makes any sense. But this one sounds really interesting, and I loved What Time Is It There? and have watched it a number of times. Definitelyl Tsai lends himself to re-watching.