There is a common saying about people living in their dreams and having lost touch with reality. With their “head in the clouds”, it is often difficult to communicate with friends and colleagues who do not seem to look beyond their dreams, how it is affecting others and what purpose it has in the long run. This phrase and many other seem to be at the core of director Wylie Chan‘s 2023 short feature “Life of Cloud”, his overall third directorial effort, which may also serve to highlight his skills as a visual storyteller since it includes various CGI elements to enhance the tale of a person facing the truth about his life.
Life of Cloud is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Ever since his childhood, inventor Cheung Tak-hung (Chu Pak-Hong) has been obsessed with the creation of clouds. He has forgotten everything around him, including his friends and family, when suddenly he suffers a lethal cardiac attack and finds himself on board of a plane. The flight attendant (Kaki Sham) explains Cheung has begun his journey into the afterlife, and it is now up to him to determine whether he will go to hell or heaven. Confronted with a panel showing all the people connected to him, he has to pick five who will first confirm his existence and second the purpose of his cloud-making. Quite confident at the beginning, Cheung is quickly humbled by the testimonies of his friends and family.
While there are some things to be said about the aforementioned visual elements of the feature, the story itself develops in a predictable manner. Even though the main character is clearly more sympathetic than Charles Dickens’ Scrooge, his character traits, being self-absorbed and also -centered, result in a catharsis many will likely see coming from a mile away. The actors, especially Chu Pak-Hong, do the best with the material they receive, which brings forth some good moments, but in the end the kitsch takes over, with the last couple of images being particularly annoying.
Since “Life of Cloud” features some instances of CGI, we should take a close look at these moments. In particular, the creation of the clouds, which the main character has not yet perfected, is visually quite well done, as it highlights his fascination and his obsession. While thematically there could have been an opportunity to give his experiments a little more substance, for example, to improve the overall state of the world he lives in, there is also the hint to his self-absorbed nature, as mentioned before.
“Life of Cloud” is a short feature about people being absorbed within their dreams and having lost touch with the world around them. While Wylie Chan has the right visual tools to tell his story, the narrative itself lacks depth and becomes entangled in a web of kitsch in the end.
