Scattered Clouds (1967)

Scattered Clouds (Midaregumo)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Written by Nobuo Yamada
1967/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/Criterion Channel

[box] “my feet will want to walk to where you are sleeping/ but/ I shall go on living.” ― Pablo Neruda[/box]

A beautiful tearjerker that earns every one of its tears.

Yumiko and her husband have an idyllic life.  They are madly in love and newly pregnant. He works for the Trade Ministry and has just received a prestigious appointment to the embassy in Washington, DC.

Suddenly he is killed in a car accident.  Although he is entirely innocent, driver Shiro Mishima is determined to pay the widow monthly as amends.  Yumiko can hardly stand the sight of him.  Since he is an employee of a company that has close ties to the Ministry he is exiled from Tokyo to the provinces for a few years.  His new post is near the widow’s home town.

Poor Yumiko is stripped of her child, her married name and her widow’s pension by her husband’s greedy parents.  Everyone tries to exploit her in some way.  As the years pass, Mishima gradually falls in love with her.  She is determined to cut ties with the past, including Mishima, to get past her grief.  I won’t reveal any more of the plot.

I can’t even count the number of times I teared up.  This is a bit of a misery sandwich but is so downright sincere and sensitively made that I believed every minute.  It is also gorgeous to look at.  Warmly recommended.

This was Mikio Naruse’s final film in a career that spanned 47 years in the industry.  He added a lot of beauty to this world.  Farewell, sensei.

dTrailer (no subtitles)