''The Wayward Cloud'' is a 2005

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese film directed by

Tsai Ming-liang Tsai Ming-liang (; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian-Taiwanese filmmaker. Tsai has written and directed 11 feature films, many short films, and television films. He is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese ...

and starring

Lee Kang-sheng Lee Kang-sheng () (born 21 October 1968) is a Taiwanese actor, film director and screenwriter. He has appeared in all of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films. Lee's directorial efforts include ''The Missing'' in 2003 and ''Help Me Eros'' in 2007. Ca ...

and

Chen Shiang-chyi Chen Shiang-chyi (; born 27 November 1969) is a Taiwanese actress. She has appeared in most of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films. Career When she was studying at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Chen was spotted by Edward Yang when he ...

Plot

There is a water shortage in Taiwan, and watermelons are abundant. Television programs teach various water-saving methods and encourage the drinking of watermelon juice instead of water. Hsiao-kang, a pornographic actor, films sex scenes with watermelons and water. Shiang-chyi is a woman who lives nearby. One day, while Shiang-chyi is out collecting water bottles, she sees watermelons in a river and takes a watermelon. She passes Hsiao-kang sleeping on a bench and uses his water bottle to wash her watermelon. She sits down on the bench across from him. He wakes up, and they realize that they know each other from when he was a watch salesman. She does not know that he now works in porn. The two start a relationship. She feeds him watermelon, they cook food together, and he smokes on the floor under her table. They go to a video store and make out in the adult film section. Shiang-chyi finds an unconscious porn actress in an elevator. She helps a porn crew member take her to a room where they are filming. Hsiao-kang is there, and she is upset to see him working in porn. The crew films Hsiao-kang having sex with the unconscious woman, and Shiang-chyi watches them. As Hsiao-kang climaxes, he pulls out of the unconscious woman and pushes his penis inside Shiang-chyi's mouth.

Cast

as Hsiao-kang *

as Shiang-chyi *

Lu Yi-ching Lu Yi-ching (born 23 October 1958) is a Taiwanese actress. She has appeared in several films directed by Tsai Ming-liang, such as '' What Time Is It There?'' and ''The Wayward Cloud'', and films by Cheng Wen-tang, including '' Blue Cha Cha''. ...

as Porn actress *

Yang Kuei-mei Yang Kuei-mei (; born 6 September 1959) is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese actress and television host. She has had starring roles in ''Eat Drink Man Woman'', ''Vive L'Amour'', and ''The Hole (1998 film), The Hole''. Yang has received several awa ...

as Porn actress *Sumomo Yozakura as Porn actress

Production

This was the sequel to one of Tsai's previous films, ''

What Time Is It There? ''What Time Is It There?'' is a 2001 Taiwanese film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. It stars Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, and Lu Yi-ching. Plot Hsiao-kang is a street vendor in Taipei who sells watches out of a briefcase. His father dies. Soon ...

'' ''The Wayward Cloud'' was filmed in

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

, Taiwan. It was shot in various landmark locations in the area, including

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas () is a temple located at Lotus Lake in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The temple was built in 1976. One of the towers is the ''Tiger'' Tower, the other one being the ''Dragon'' tower. Both towers are seven ...

and

Love River The Love River or Ai River () is a river (canal) in southern Taiwan. It originates in Renwu District, Kaohsiung City, and flows through Kaohsiung to Kaohsiung Harbor. Love River is the spine of Kaohsiung, playing a similar role to the River Thame ...

Release

The film grossed more than NT$20 million in its theatrical release in Taiwan; it was a big commercial achievement for the Taiwan film industry since most Taiwan films' ticket sales totaled under NT$1 million at the time. It has a 78% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 27 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 6.96/10. The site's consensus reads: "''The Wayward Cloud'' may baffle more literally minded viewers, but its surreal pleasures will resonate with fans of thoroughly unique cinema." The film was Taiwan's official entry for the

78th Academy Awards The 78th Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST. The ceremony was ...

in the foreign-language category. It was released on DVD by Strand Home Video in 2008.

Awards

* 55th Berlin International Film Festival (2005) - Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contributionBerlinale. Archive. Prizes and honours 2005
Retrieved 26 January 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayward Cloud, The 2005 films 2005 comedy-drama films 2000s avant-garde and experimental films 2000s erotic drama films 2000s musical comedy-drama films Films about pornography Films directed by Tsai Ming-liang Films set in Taiwan Films with screenplays by Tsai Ming-liang 2000s Mandarin-language films Taiwanese musical comedy-drama films Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution