Just saw this extraordinary movie for the third time. Made me regret deeply that Kurosawa wasn't able to make more films of this immediate relevance and power, in addition to his more thematically refined dramas.
Also struck me, for the first time, how similar it feels to Altman's pastiche of Raymond Carver stories. Darkly humorous, embarrassingly revealing, universal in scope. Wonder if the directors ever met.
OP, you probably won't see this, but this did remind me of films like Short Cuts. I actually think Short Cuts is a better film, but this film has more character development (Short Cuts is more about what happens to the characters than really fleshing the characters out).
I will say, when you say "immediate relevance", I think what you mean is that it takes place in the then-current day and people could directly relate it to their world, but I contend that many of Kurosawa's films have a sort of timeless and universal relevance, which I feel is Kurosawa's forte. I do agree I wish we had seen more films like this from him so he could maybe have taken it further, refined it, mastered it.
Because (most) IMDB forum posters have such deep knowledge and insight, and are willing to share it sociably, I do check back on threads to which I've posted. Be nice if IMDB had a "subscribe to thread" option...
"... when you say "immediate relevance", I think what you mean is that it takes place in the then-current day and people could directly relate it to their world, but I contend that many of Kurosawa's films have a sort of timeless and universal relevance..."
I agree with the latter observation. I meant to engage both senses of "immediate": current, and in-your-face important to much or all of humanity across times and cultures.
Fascinating observation, Cten05. I have to agree.
While I don't know if they ever met, Altman was one of Kurosawa's admirers in the New Hollywood movement. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia (which I checked and verified) concerning an Altman interview on the Criterion issue of Rashomon:
"Robert Altman, when he first saw Rashomon (during the period when he worked regularly in television rather than feature films), was so impressed by its cinematographer's achievement of shooting several shots with the camera aimed directly at the sun—allegedly it was the first film in which this was done successfully—that he claims he was inspired the very next day to begin incorporating shots of the sun into his television work."