Scattered Clouds (Two in Shadow) (1967)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Scattered Clouds (Two in Shadow) (1967) – M. Naruse

Mikio Naruse’s last feature (and one of the few I remember being in colour) is a mature work that stabs its characters deeply with the dagger of death in the first 20 minutes and then never lets them recover.  Yumiko has everything: her husband has just been promoted in his government job and they are moving to Washington DC and about to have their first child.  When he is suddenly struck down and killed by a driver in an out-of-control car, she finds her life shattered.  Her in-laws essentially disown her and she struggles to make ends meet.  Although exonerated from wrongdoing (the car had a flat tire), the driver of the car (Mishima-san) sends her small amounts of money as compensation.  When he is transferred from Tokyo as punishment for his “crime”, he finds himself in her hometown where she has also returned to live with her sister-in-law (also a widow).  Of course, Yumiko and Mishima keep running into each other, which brings pain and then possibly love.  But to contemplate such a relationship also means to contemplate the cruel fate that brought them together – thus everything here is pain, pain, pain.  After setting up the situation quickly, Naruse allows the relationship to develop slowly with many carefully observed moments (and his usual attention to money and the tensions it brings), dwelling on the characters’ suffering and cruelly snatching away any hope.