Das Fleisch der Wassermelone

The English title is given as "The Wayward Cloud". I saw this film in Taipei where the director, Tsai Ming-liang, stopped in for a surprise speech before the show. (Wouldn't it be great to meet the director before every film instead of sitting through the assault of those damned previews, previews evidently aimed at folks who are deaf and dumb?)

He spoke informally for a few minutes just to assure the audience that he intends the film to have _redeeming social values_ -- as US lawmakers used to say. This seems necessary because the government in Taiwan spent 2 weeks meeting with consultants to decide whether or not to censor the film. They let it show uncut.

That is to say, don't bring your kids to see this -- but adults will be able to see that it is not porn, but rather a critique of porn. This is a simplification, since the main theme of the film is general alienation. The wayward cloud and the drought in the film are shown to be symbolic of the emotional and interpersonal "drifting" and "dryness" that each scene highlights. The film shows how porn is merely one symptom of people's awkward attempt to connect with each other on a deeper level.

The film is unusual in style, (see previous user comment) so don't expect it to imitate Hollywood conventions. It is recognizably in Tsai Ming-liang's previous grim and dim style (i.e., "The Hole" and "The River" and "What Time Is It There?") but here he adds a lighter note of wit to that.

Personally I don't enjoy musicals, but the handful of musical interludes in this film are delightfully surreal and humorous, and while they address heterosexuality, the aesthetic is gay in both senses of the term. I especially liked one of these, where a smiling state statue of historical dictator Chiang Kai-shek is the central prop for a tongue-in-cheek erotic song & dance troupe of lovely ladies. Also the music in itself is attractive since we don't usually get to hear those old songs from Shanghai in the '30s and Hong Kong in the '60s.

The final scene officially raises the bar for the visionary use of a sex scene to reflect on alienation. Those who remember the historic shock of "Last Tango in Paris" (Bertolucci's "Ultimo tango a Parigi") so many years ago will see what I mean by raising the bar. It will make its own peculiar mark in underground film histories.

In a Taiwan where a drought has caused water to be replaced by watermelons since they are now cheaper, the disaffected population discovers new uses for this fruit, and new sexual fetishes emerge. With this strange idea, Tsai Ming-liang presents an odd romance, as well as a dissection of the porn industry and an exploration of human nature, specifically lust, desire and sexuality. And to my surprise, The Wayward Cloud wasn't just an erotic romance, but also an absurd musical that, like The Hole, features spontaneous musical numbers with Grace Chang songs. And another thing that surprised me was the fact that this film is a sequel to What Time Is It There?, now following the hopeless romantics Hsiao-kang and Shiang-chyi together in a relationship at last. Only Kang does not sell watches in the street anymore. He is a porn actor, and Chyi doesn't know this. With the same characters of a previous film, Tsai continues to build upon his themes of loneliness, alienation, escapism and lack of human connection and communication.

In this alternate version of Taiwan, its inhabitants strive to escape their miserable realities - Kang from the porn world, and Chyi from her empty and lonesome life. Love is their means to escape the darkness that surrounds them. Oh, and imaginary musicals too - Tsai uses musicals as a way for the characters to communicate the feelings that they unable to using words, for their reality is one of long silences, thoughts unspoken and sentiments unshared. Like in The Hole, Tsai Ming-liang contrasts the emptiness and loneliness of a gray reality with the exaggerated musicals of a colorful fantasy. The Wayward Cloud ends with a 15 minute rape scene where Hsiao-kang fucks the unconscious Japanese pornstar to exhaustion while his camera crew films the whole thing, all of them with unhappy faces, clearly disconnected from reality, devoid of any purpose or meaning in their lives. With this sequence that will certainly make some viewers feel uncomfortable - two cold bodies thrusting against each other without producing any sparks of feeling - Tsai showcases the lack of love and connection in the porn industry, how it's all just a job, how people sell their bodies like one would sell watermelons - for a low price and for the buyer to do whatever they like with it. And finally, The Wayward Cloud reaches its final shot, yes, that horrifying and traumatic final shot. The walls of Shiang-chyi's fantasy of a perfect romance come crashing down as she gets a taste of the nasty reality of life (no pun intended).

The Wayward Cloud might be 'too much' for some (if so, check out the less extreme but still Asian food-porn film, Tampopo), but for me this is a masterpiece. As usual, Lee Kang-sheng is amazing as Hsiao-kang, but Chen Shiang-chyi shined particularly brighter in this film, in my opinion. Though seeing Lee as a sea-monster singing to the moon, and dressed in pink women's clothes while singing that catchy song, was something I never expected to see but absolutely enjoyed. Despite having Tsai's classic contemplative lengthy takes and prolongued moments of silence, The Wayward Cloud is certainly less meditative and slow than most of Tsai Ming-liang's work. It's much more energetic, ridiculous, juicy and freaky, which works perfectly with the themes and concept of this story. The Wayward Cloud is both dark and hilarious, and as I've seen someone say before, Tsai's films are simultaneously funny and sad, never just one or the other - I couldn't agree more. I just loved my time with this lyrical porno-musical of a masterpiece.

This is maybe the most original and bold sequels ever made. Porn is like the one missing ingredient to make his films interesting, and it is a fascinating movie. Very enjoyable, more so than most his others which are shy about sex, but that their sexuality is existing on the corners off screen. This film is also complimenting his tactile oriented cinema, which suits the sexuality of the material like a glove; it is not afraid of the body... and that's the case with all his films, but here especially so. To the point of a certain grotesqueness. Because this is not titillating at all, just extremely intimate. It also carries his foray in physical comedy from Goodbye Dragon Inn, and an interesting thing about watching his films develop is that he learns from each one. By now it is obvious it is the same film every time, it is just going differently into the style each time, taking detours. I do still hold to his first three films because there is something special about an artist not knowing who he is yet and discovering it on screen. I would not even know how to begin to rank his movies.

From the very inventive start to the wicked, tense climax, "Wayward Cloud" is an allegory of longing, frustration and tongue in cheek solutions. Deliciously slow at times, intercepts with frenetic musical scenes in Technicolor splendor, and contrasts with gritty-down-right-dirty voyeuristic insights into pornographic industry; this was the stuff Barney tried to create with 10 times the budget in his Cremaster Cycles (and none of the wit)

The use of 60's Chinese Pop, choreography with enough cheese to put any Madonna's clip to shame offered a break from the relentless heat and the hilarious sex scenes, their seemingly unconnectedness served to heightened the restless state of wander that the characters seem to float in.

In this drought, water isn't the only thing that's running scarce.

Water melons will never be seen in the same light!!!

Watching Tian bian yi duo yun ( The Wayward Cloud ) is a really weird experience. I didn't whether to laugh or cry, to celebrate the brilliance of the film, to recoil in shock from the grittiness or to wince at the absurd campiness.

Its amazing how Tsai Ming-Liang manages to get the cast to emote so much through so little dialogue, how he builds an electrifying atmosphere through minimal use of music (except for the campy nostalgic music videos ... really something else altogether, a see to believe phenomenon).

The brutal scenes of porn filming and the drought were really alluding to the director's favorite theme of alienation, which really works very well. The final scene which seems to disgust so many people into walking out is a really fitting conclusion to this treatise on estrangement and is certainly unforgettable.