Directed by Mikio Naruse • 1967 • Japan

Mikio Naruse closed out his career in 1967 with Scattered Clouds (aka Two In the Shadow aka Midaregumo), a mix of melodrama and tragedy involving two people drawn together in an socially impermissible relationship -- Yoko Tsukasa plays the wife who finds herself attracted to the man (Yuzo Kayama) who killed her husband in an accident. Between the quality of Tsukasa's performance (and her extraordinary beauty) and the presence of the near-iconic Kayama, the movie has more than its share of cinematic virtues, and makes a satisfying swan-song for the director, who died two years later.