Many audience members left the theater during the final scene at the Berlin International Film Festival's screening.
Before making The Wayward Cloud, Tsai would often joke that if his film career continued to have financial difficulties he would be forced to direct pornography.
Tsai Ming-liang originally wanted the story to focus on a grandmother who finds her grandson in the porno business, but when Tsai's friend and fellow director Ann Hui was unable to play the role of the grandmother Tsai decided to change the role to a young girl, and thus brought back Chen Shiang-chyi's character from his previous film "What Time Is It There?"
Official selection from Taiwan for the 2005 Academy Awards.