Wayward Cloud, The

Aroview: Eye-popping musical numbers burst forth from this outré Tsai Ming-liang offering, which couples the Taiwanese director’s usual preoccupations (wordless encounters, urban alienation, water) with yearning torch songs and hardcore watermelon sex.

Achieving striking contrasts between the reckless and absurd, Tsai’s willfully minimalist world is given a shake up by the camp explosions and sexual escapades, of which are basically unsuccessful but make for outrageous experimental viewing all the same. Lee Kang-sheng plays a thirsty porn star hard at work during a drought-stricken Taipei; meanwhile, his new love interest resides downstairs oblivious to the nearby copulation…

NZ International Film Festival 2005