Tsai Ming-liang's quirky sex comedy/musical.

As the title implies, watching the film is an experience that's rather directionless.

A surreal musical tale of love, sex and making of pornography set in Taiwan. It's surrealism was cool but overusing long shots of weird angles had its limits. To be frank, I was almost bored to death and the musical numbers were not that interesting. Things I learned after watching the film: Asian people like to make porn with fruits.

Bottled water and watermelon.

Surreal. Não é para qualquer público. E eu que pensava já ter visto todo tipo de musical... Extremamente difícil de classificar. Acho que fico com 'WTF-Movie'.

One of the strangest films you'll ever see. Is making an important point about art, cinema and pornography. Not sure what that is though. Fantastic.

excelente! super bizarra! tiene escenas que por si solas ya valen la pena ver la película entera, solo no me gusto el final, pero lo demás me pareció espectacular. soy fan de Ming-liang Tsai

I've admired some of Tasi's films in the past, but this one doesn't work. While there's a some dry wit in the water shortage thread, the rest of the film is just uninspiring musical numbers and unpleasant sex.

I'm sorry, Matt, but you already heard a little bit of my thoughts on The Wayward Cloud. I loved the lonely emotions of the film and the way they establish how these two characters are having a strange impossibility to connect within this strange world where water is becoming scarce and watermelons are being used for everything. What I didn't like what how the film seems to carry on longer than it should. I didn't need the 15 minute long rape scene in the end with the guy shooting cum in the girls mouth and gagging her with his cock for 2 minutes. This is supposed to be the moment they have this physical contact after struggling throughout the whole film, but I just didn't feel anything other than disgust. And what was the point of seeing him shoot cum twice in the film? I laughed at seeing the Japanese girl get the bottle cap stuck up her cooch. The film also has a crazy watermelon sex opening (he begins with fingering it, then fisting it, then they just have sex). If it wasn't for this opening, I'm not sure how interested I would have been in the beginning of the film until the first musical number. It really made me question what the heck could come next. Long, drawn out shots can be used well to set the mood of the film, but I just think it goes too long and too far with the porn. There were plenty of times I thought to myself "ok, we get it." I guess I just didn't get the point of most of it. The unique characters and the creation of the world made The Wayward Cloud an interesting watch, but I don't if I think it's that good of a film.

Visually intriguing and at times quite perverse (the final closing scene are a little gross) this completely baffling little Tai film is an almost wordless exploration of the boundaries between sex and intimacy, while juxtaposing the ambiguity of the character's with wonderfully camp explosions of musical numbers, complete with orgasmic watermelons and giant penis hats. As A.O. Scott from The New York times writes,"this film offers one plausible moral: When life gives you watermelons, make love to them."

There is a point where "artistic" becomes "self indulgence". This sprints past that line and leaps headfirst into the realm of bizzare watermelon metaphors. So extreme it feels like a self-parody. Maybe worth a watch only for the WTF factor.

This is one of the strange films I have ever seen. There are long and silent scenes and funny musicals with distant old Chinese songs that describe the feelings of the actors as the story goes. And the first erotic sex scene with watermelon is quite creative. The story picks up from an earlier film "What time is it there?". But I didn't see the earlier film and have no idea of the background about the relationship of the two main characters. The film can be condensed. Some scenes just drag too long. The thing that annoys me is that I cannot fully understand what the story wants to bring to the audience.

One of the most self-indulgent and unnecessarily cryptic films I've ever seen. I can award the film's ambition to experiment in minimalistic filmmaking techniques, but the director goes to such extremes that the film just becomes wholeheartedly absurd. Basic film principles such as story establishment, character development, continuity, etc are completely sacrificed for the sake of "minimalistic art".

A drought of emotions and interpersonal drifting make the sales of sex skyrocket. Watermelons, water and a wayward cloud, plus a touch of genius from Tsai Ming-liang show us how "porn" is merely one symptom of people's awkward attempt to connect with each other on a deeper level. In brief, an allegorical story about alienation.

Coitus with a water melon, amongst other things. Surreal musical scenes vs no dialogue and silence. And porn making in the midst of water shortage.

I never understood how it would have felt to go to one of those porno theatres that existed in the '70s until I watched this in the cinema. It's 90 minutes of soft porn, sometimes portrayed metaphorically with people fingering watermelons. It's bizarre and whilst a few of the moments work nicely (mostly, the musical bits), it's overall just a glorified set of sex scenes intermixed with pretentious bollocks. Personal enjoyment: 3/10 Actual quality as a film: 3/10

Truly the strangest musical of all time... ok so maybe Forbidden Zone is stranger... maybe... anybody who likes 'different' cinema should definitely check this one out

I really hate this movie. At first it looked pretty interesting, but then gradually I started to get a sinking feeling. I started to see boring people walking slowly down long hallways. I heard almost zero dialogue. I began to realize I'd seen this sort of thing before. It's just like Goodbye Dragon Inn! A terrible, no good, boring movie. Lo and behold it's the same director, back again with more insufferable images. Only this time it a musical too! There's a scene where a character emerges from the water while skinny dipping at night as some sort of half-man/half-lizard creature and sings a tender little ditty about love or something. I'll leave you with that.

Watermelons, sex? Sounds great to me. I decided I wanted to see this film when I was working in a DVD store a while back. The cover is a good seller. You have an Asian nurse laying on her back with a watermelon between her legs and a guy about to stick a few fingers in. I know, sounds naughty but I really love watermelon and who doesn't love sex? I was sold. One thing you need to know about this film and that is that it's a very arty film. We need films like this to keep the balance in this huge movie industry around the world. I believe this is the first Taiwanese film I see and it definitely left an impression on me. I wouldn't call it a musical like some do but it does have a number of very I interesting and catchy mandarin pop pieces. My personal favourite was the four ladies singing to the statue as it reminds me of the 60s and the Everly Brothers sound. The movie has strong sexual scenes that might leave some feeling awkward or uncomfortable so it's best viewed alone I'd say. The director have worked with the same actor in all his films and in wayward cloud the story continues for the main actor from previous films. You don't need to watch them because they're not exactly a prequel but just that the characters story continues. The film is about exploitation of porn, loneliness, innocence and love but in the weirdest way imaginable. The director although I haven't seen any of his previous work seems known for this. I am really looking forward to seeing his other work now if it's anywhere as weird but good as this. Some scenes do test your patience, long shots that last over a minute sometimes but the director has his own unique style in telling his story especially when it comes to loneliness which he seems very familiar to as a young man. I would recommend this to open minded movie lovers and fans of European art films but to many it might just be too weird.

one star for attempted musical, two for weirdness