Translated material
Cloud without pants
New film by Tsai Ming-Liang on Moscow screens
The heat has descended on Taipei. Thirsty people are forced to steal water from public restrooms and slowly but surely switch to watermelon juice. Feeling their strength, the watermelons completely relaxed. And they began to dictate their terms. They even imposed a new language of love on people: a small yellow fruit in the hands means true friendship, and a ripe, scarlet giant on the crack testifies to ardent passion. The watermelon becomes both an object and a subject of carnal relations, flowing with life-giving moisture and rolling out from under the skirt of the dress like an overgrown newborn baby. But be that as it may, watermelons remain watermelons, and people remain people. Shian-Chi returns home from a trip and realizes that he is unable to even unpack his suitcase. Therefore, she has to spend her leisure time persistently collecting water and filling the refrigerator with plastic bottles. One day, Shian-Chi meets Hsiao-Kang, who is passing the time by acting in semi-amateur porn, which some shady and constantly thirsty types are playing in a nearby apartment with the involvement of a not entirely sane Japanese artist. A strange, almost wordless relationship arises between the heroes, which, however, leads to the fact that Hsiao-Kang and Shian-Chi merge in a paroxysm of passion under the gun of a tireless video camera. But they absolutely don’t care anymore.In principle, this was not the first time they met. In 2001, Ming-Liang filmed the film “What Time is It?”, where Shian-Chi was going to Paris, and watch dealer Hsiao-Kang, who accidentally met her on the square, was so impressed by this meeting that he switched all the hands in Taipei to French time. However, for the director himself this does not seem so important. Having splashed paint from a glass, he clears the screen space for a new story - and echoes of the past only occasionally peek through the freshly applied layer. At times, however, earlier planes are also exposed - for example, it is impossible to refuse the idea that the action of “The Capricious Cloud” takes place in the same apartment building where the characters once unsuccessfully hid from an unknown cockroach virus and along the way tried to love each other “ Rivers" is perhaps Ming-Liang's best film to date. There, the phantasmagoria of everyday relationships was also continually replaced by enchanting numbers from the repertoire of some outrageous trash musical.
In 1998, “The Hole” captivated and drew me in completely. Years later, approximately the same recipe does not fully work (although most of the film community is not at all sure about this: the film received the Silver Bear and the FIPRESCI prize in Berlin). Of course, Ming-Liang’s magic has not gone away, and the crabs, stupefied by the heat and imminent death in loving mouths, still inimitably and magically crawl across the kitchen floor, and cluttered attics, plastic bottles and stale bed linen again form a unique picture “ crotch of fate." But it’s impossible to feel completely immersed in all this cozy lunar lunarness. The set of signature techniques of Tsai Ming-Liang turns out to be exhaustive (unlike, by the way, from the seemingly much more unambiguous developments of Kim Kiduk, who turns his barrel organ with invariable success and does not allow almost a single extra or false note) and seems to be a repetition of the past. Magical - but passed. However, most likely the point is simply that the clock hands, once moved by Ming-Liang, have finally reached their starting point. And everything doesn’t matter anymore.