The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
The Wayward Cloud
When
Wed 7 Jun 2023
This Silver Bear-winning sequel to What Time Is it There? and The Skywalk Is Gone is Tsai’s boldest film, freely shifting tonal registers to encompass minimalist, ennui-inflected drama, absurdist comedy, high-level sex scenes and exuberant musical numbers adapted from vintage Taiwanese pop. Hsiao-Kang (Lee Kang-Sheng), now a jobbing porn actor, and Shiang-Chyi (Chen Shiang-Chyi) meet again in a Taipei beset by a water shortage but abundant in watermelons; the latter as central to sex as to hydration. The finale remains the most confronting sequence – and amongst the most profound – in Tsai’s cinema.
Also screening on Wed 7 June
Program
One Day at a Time: The cinema of Tsai Ming-Liang
What Time Is It There? (2001) – Wed 31 May, 7pm
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) – Wed 31 May, 9.15pm
Rebels of the Neon God (1992) – Wed 7 Jun, 7pm
The Wayward Cloud (2005) – Wed 7 Jun, 9pm
The River (1997) – Wed 14 Jun, 7pm
Days (2020) – Wed 14 Jun, 9.10pm
About the program
Of all the notable figures of to emerge in 1990s world cinema, few have developed a corpus of work as consistently transfixing and distinctive as that of Malaysian-Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-Liang (1957–). Born in Kuching, Sarawak, Tsai was largely raised by his cinephile grandparents, who would take him to the movies twice a day from the age of three...
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
