BERLIN -- This silly film does nothing to enhance Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang's reputation. The acting is below par, the mise-en-scene is clumsy and the structure is lazy. Tsai's elegiac Goodbye, Dragon Inn indicated that he'd stopped attempting to shock by depicting unusual sexual activities in favor of exploring more interesting topics. But The Wayward Cloud sees him reveling in a sexual melee that is both banal and misogynistic. Even die-hard Tsai fans will have to work to hard find something of interest here.
Art house distribution would seem far from certain, though Tsai's name and the film's "exotic" sexual content will provide some marketing angles. The film will probably show up at festivals because of the director's auteur status on the circuit. But it'll probably perform best as a quiet video release aimed at Tsai completists. Cloud played in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it somehow picked up a prize for individual artistic contribution.
Cloud is a kind of continuation of 2001's "What Time Is It There?" though style and characterization are much different. Tsai's 2002 short film The Skywalk Is Missing -- a precise piece of work more akin to Dragon -- provided the narrative bridge between the two. Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) is no longer selling watches but making a living as a performer in porno films. Shiang-chyi Chen Shiang-chiyi) looms around and ends up watching him make love to an unconscious Japanese porno actress (Sumomo Yozakura). The experience excites her so much that she lets him thrust his penis into her mouth. Like Tsai's The Hole, the film is punctuated with campy musical set pieces.
Tsai tries to be tongue in cheek, but the results are unfunny. A cheesy sequence in which a Japanese porn actress gets a bottletop stuck up her vagina even reminds of Hong Kong's master of lowbrow comedy, Wong Jing, though he would have made it more amusing. But the film's worst failing is its rampant misogyny. The Japanese actress is essentially raped on the porn set at the end, but the film fails to even acknowledge this, let alone make any comment on it. All the women in the film are simply presented as holes for Lee to joyfully thrust his penis into.
In spite of Tsai's desire to focus on the sexual act, it's still a coy film. There are semenlike substances, and the sex could be real, but no actual genitalia are shown. At least Catherine Breillat's Anatomy of Hell -- a kind of anti-Cloud in the sense that it was a strong attack on misogyny -- had the courage to go whole hog and depict hard-core sex to support its ideas. Taking a similar approach might have reinforced Tsai's "vision." But Tsai always prefers to wimp out at the last minute and cut away.
Tsai, when freed from his desire to shock and revel in seediness, has shown himself to be a master of the longeur. His compositional skills can be excellent, and he can force intense performances from his performers. It's a shame that today's homespun Taiwanese film industry doesn't allow for strong producers who could funnel his vision into films more worthy of his talent.
THE WAYWARD CLOUD
Arena Films and Homegreen Films present
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Tsai Ming-liang
Producer: Bruno Peserer
Executive producer: Vincent Wang
Director of photography: Liao Pen-jung
Production designer: Yip Kam-ting
Art director: Lee Tian-jue
Costume designer: Sun Hui-mei
Editor: Chen Sheng-chang
Choreographer: Peggy Wu
Sound designers: Tu Duu-Chih, Tang Shiang-Chu
Cast:
Hsiao-kang: Lee Kang-sheng
Shiang-chyi: Chen Shiang-chyi
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 113 minutes...
Art house distribution would seem far from certain, though Tsai's name and the film's "exotic" sexual content will provide some marketing angles. The film will probably show up at festivals because of the director's auteur status on the circuit. But it'll probably perform best as a quiet video release aimed at Tsai completists. Cloud played in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it somehow picked up a prize for individual artistic contribution.
Cloud is a kind of continuation of 2001's "What Time Is It There?" though style and characterization are much different. Tsai's 2002 short film The Skywalk Is Missing -- a precise piece of work more akin to Dragon -- provided the narrative bridge between the two. Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) is no longer selling watches but making a living as a performer in porno films. Shiang-chyi Chen Shiang-chiyi) looms around and ends up watching him make love to an unconscious Japanese porno actress (Sumomo Yozakura). The experience excites her so much that she lets him thrust his penis into her mouth. Like Tsai's The Hole, the film is punctuated with campy musical set pieces.
Tsai tries to be tongue in cheek, but the results are unfunny. A cheesy sequence in which a Japanese porn actress gets a bottletop stuck up her vagina even reminds of Hong Kong's master of lowbrow comedy, Wong Jing, though he would have made it more amusing. But the film's worst failing is its rampant misogyny. The Japanese actress is essentially raped on the porn set at the end, but the film fails to even acknowledge this, let alone make any comment on it. All the women in the film are simply presented as holes for Lee to joyfully thrust his penis into.
In spite of Tsai's desire to focus on the sexual act, it's still a coy film. There are semenlike substances, and the sex could be real, but no actual genitalia are shown. At least Catherine Breillat's Anatomy of Hell -- a kind of anti-Cloud in the sense that it was a strong attack on misogyny -- had the courage to go whole hog and depict hard-core sex to support its ideas. Taking a similar approach might have reinforced Tsai's "vision." But Tsai always prefers to wimp out at the last minute and cut away.
Tsai, when freed from his desire to shock and revel in seediness, has shown himself to be a master of the longeur. His compositional skills can be excellent, and he can force intense performances from his performers. It's a shame that today's homespun Taiwanese film industry doesn't allow for strong producers who could funnel his vision into films more worthy of his talent.
THE WAYWARD CLOUD
Arena Films and Homegreen Films present
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Tsai Ming-liang
Producer: Bruno Peserer
Executive producer: Vincent Wang
Director of photography: Liao Pen-jung
Production designer: Yip Kam-ting
Art director: Lee Tian-jue
Costume designer: Sun Hui-mei
Editor: Chen Sheng-chang
Choreographer: Peggy Wu
Sound designers: Tu Duu-Chih, Tang Shiang-Chu
Cast:
Hsiao-kang: Lee Kang-sheng
Shiang-chyi: Chen Shiang-chyi
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 113 minutes...
- 2/23/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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