The Wayward Cloud is the film which I would consider to be Ming-liang Tsai's masterpeice. This is a fascinating film about isolation, sex, and love on some level. The Wayward Cloud could be described as tepid in pace but the addition of 6 musical numbers throughout the running time really add a great deal of energy to the film, being gorgeously photographed, kinetic and hilarious. Critics of The Wayward Cloud seem to argue that the musical segments take away from the rest of the film but I did not find this distracting at all, instead being beneficiary in developing and further fleshing out the themes of the film. The Wayward Cloud is a beautifully shot film, with some incredibly unique use of framing. Prudes may call the film pornographic in nature, being what the main characters do for a living but they care clearly missing the point. Tsai shoots these porn scenes in an incredibly cold and distant way, further strengthening the isolation and distance the various characters experience even when their profession has them conducting very intimate acts. Incredibly unique, The Wayward Cloud feels like some type of cross between Tati's Playtime and Oshima's 'In the Realm of Senses. Like most of Tsai's work it's a very hard film to summarize, but Tsai Ming Liang really has created a unique film about isolation, loneliness and human connection. Oh, and last but not least, The Wayward Cloud guarantees you won't be able to look at Watermelon the same way again, ever. 9/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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