• Ming-liang Tsai’s seventh feature – and quite a controversial one with the sex and soft-core pornography (which is certainly part of  Ming-liang Tsai’s critique). Ming-liang Tsai is commenting on the porn culture (and more importantly the world that would accept it as part of the norm)- but doing it he uses a ton of it here. This is one of the more bizarre films you’ll see.
  • Kang-sheng Lee (Ming-liang Tsai’s male muse- he’s in all his film) plays Hsiao-Kang a porn actor who can’t make a genuine human interaction—dead inside, empty. It is no surprise to see that L’Eclisse is one of Ming-liang Tsai favorite films. That text is important here and multiple times here in The Wayward Cloud he uses physical barriers in the frame between Kang-sheng Lee and Shiang-chyi Chen
  • The Papillion poster is important as well- it is in the text here in the background- signifying  prison and isolation. I said before Ming-liang Tsai’s characters are living in a siloed sorrow. Often silent.

The Papillion poster is important as well- it is in the text here in the background- signifying prison and isolation. I said before Ming-liang Tsai’s characters are living in a siloed sorrow. Often silent

technology as a barrier- in Rebels of the Neon God it was video games

  • Watermelon is used here in many scenes (some causing controversy), there’s an almost religious parable again like all of Ming-liang Tsai’s films. A water shortage (watermelons cheaper than water), Shiang-chyi Chen’s character seems to hoard water
  • Fixed camera, medium shot distance, long takes—twice we get the divide of two different paths in a mastershot— and the opener we get one character going down the escalator and one going up—there is a separation between the characters that can’t be overcome

there is a separation between the characters that can’t be overcome

Fixed camera, medium shot distance, long takes—twice we get the divide of two different paths in a mastershot

  • 37 minutes we literally have a wall between these two- this is Antonioni. She’s in the kitchen, he’s in the living room in a long take. A great formal connection with the final shot. If Ming-liang Tsai does this more here we have one of the better films of 2005.

37 minutes we literally have a wall between these two- this is Antonioni. She’s in the kitchen, he’s in the living room in a long take. A great formal connection with the final shot. If Ming-liang Tsai does this more here we have one of the better films of 2005.

  • There are a couple flubs where Shiang-chyi Chen and Kang-sheng Lee laugh together. This is inconsistent with his body of work and feel like outtakes incorrectly left in
  • 5-6 songs—like a surreal silly spoof of a really bad Demy or Busby Berkeley film—a merman singing in one—sort of mocking happiness. And the silliness of them accentuate the thunderous emptiness of the rest of the film- I think this is a nice effect
  • 51 min the wide angle shot of the woman hoarding water bottles with the walls closing in on her
  • Simulating sex, faking emotions, porn is fake is the point—faking birth with a watermelon—absurdism
  • It is slow cinema and I admire slow cinema- when you have style or form look at and appreciate—like the wall diving the two, a great tracking shot (none here) or sustained beautiful frame (not really a strength—this is not Roy Andersson). But often here we are just looking at two people not doing anything. We aren’t looking at special cinema for long periods of time—just stylistically quiet scenes of sitting.
  • The very end is strong- we’re back to the wall dividing the man and woman at 99 minutes- he’s working (having sex, his profession) with someone else and the wall is up between them. The cardboard cutouts certainly a comment by Ming-liang Tsai.

The very end is strong- we’re back to the wall dividing the man and woman at 99 minutes- he’s working (having sex, his profession) with someone else and the wall is up between them. The cardboard cutouts certainly a comment by Ming-liang Tsai.

  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 2005