There is acute water shortage in Taipei. The populace quench their thirst with watermelons, although inventive minds find more erotic uses for the fresh pulp. In the midst of the ongoing drought, two old acquaintances who had lost touch meet again by chance. He hires himself out as a porn actor, she roams the streets and compulsively collects water bottles. The two lonely souls try to establish a tender relationship with each other, but his disturbed relationship with sexuality increasingly gets in their way.
Already in Vive L’Amour, which we showed at the Filmstelle last semester, the Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang portrayed urban loneliness and suppressed emotions with a unique mixture of quiet melancholy and dry humor. In The Wayward Cloud, he expands his approach with surreal musical sequences while denouncing the degrading portrayal of sex in modern pornography, which objectifies people and denies genuine intimacy. A film as complex as life itself; equally funny, sobering and disturbing.
Mischa Haberthür