The Wayward Cloud

It’s still Apocalypse Now among the gleaming new office blocks and open piazzas of Taipei’s new economic miracle, according to Taiwan’s pre-eminent auteur. This challenging but rewarding final part in a trilogy commenced in 2001 with ‘What Time is it There?’ sees Tsai-regulars Lee Kang-sheng (Hsiao-Kang) and Chen Shiang-chyi’ (Shiang-chyi) re-united in drought-stricken Taipei, where watermelon juice is cheaper than water. Ants infest the lifts and, like some Buñuellian insect, a melancholy Shiang-chyi scuttles around the alleyways and hospital-tiled apartment corridors. Punctuating his characteristically unblinking, longish-takes and minimalist dialogue with deliberately anachronistic, humorous/romantic/camp post-Godardian ’60s-style musical interludes, Tsai tracks Shiang-chyi’s difficult assimilation of Hsiao-Kang’s new job as a porn star. The film’s meandering, surrealist-kissed, early scenes dance nicely in time with his urban protagonist’s disconnected, existential malaise. But, be warned, he goes on to push things right to their logical limit, exploring pornography and psychosexual disjnuncture in scenes that make ‘Last Tango in Paris’ seem very coy.