Thoughts on the 30 minute Sahachi sickness/flashback?

My personal feeling is that the flashbacks (there are two flashbacks, one within another, actually) were too long and could have been either cut down, or left out of the script completely.

Point One: It's too long, at 30 minutes (about 16% of the film's total length), and takes us away from the story's main focus, which is Dr. Yasumoto's awakening and the growth of his relationship with Red Beard. I realize that the patients in the clinic are crucial to the development of that relationship, but that's an awfully long time to spend on a subsidiary character's flashback.

Point Two: It's too redundant. The travails of the lives of the poor had already been established with the Mantis and the dying Rokusuke character, plus several other characters which occur later in the film. The difference is that those characters had a more direct impact on the young doctor (he watched Rokusuke die and was attacked by the Mantis), whereas the flashback sequence focused on events told at second hand. Perhaps in the book a parallel was being drawn between Sahachi's disappointments in love and those of Yasumoto, or for some other reason that I simply have yet to fully appreciate.

Point Three: It's too melodramatic. Having the landslide bringing down the body of his wife on the very day of his death is a bit much. I realize this may have come from the novel on which the film is based, but melodramatic Dickensian coincidences like that usually play better on the printed page than they do onscreen (or so I feel).

That said, of the three points above, I'd be willing to let Point Three slide (pun intended), in the spirit of fictional suspension of disbelief, more so than points one and two. I had a few other reservations with the film, chiefly that the character arcs of Yasumoto and Redbeard were a tad too predictable and that a few scenes veered perilously close to kitschy melodrama. Nevertheless, I've watched this film numerous times over the years and always find aspects I like about it. It's an impressive film in many ways, and though I don't consider it one of his very best films, I'd probably score it a solid "B" or "B+".