Scattered Clouds

Scattered Clouds, director Mikio Naruse's final film, plays like the melancholy last dance of an extended evening of revelry now teetering on the fine line separating drunkenness and sobriety. It's the cinematic equivalent of a hangover, though the heady haze the film conveys is part of its charm and very much in tune with its deeply saturated color photography, which constantly threatens to spill over its borders and run together in a kind of chaotic emotional release. (KG)