I saw Bitter Rice and Drunken Angel for the first time tonight and coincidentally both films contained a single shot that reminded me of a Terrence Malick film:
In Bitter Rice, when the girls are indoors, away from the rain, a handful of them are singing and playing a game with a set of rocks, moving them around in a circle. Some of the natives at the beginning of The Thin Red Line do the exact same thing. What game is this? This must've been a 'popular' game back in the day - like "kick the can," etc. - one of those antiquated activities that died out quickly in the television age. Regardless, I think this is only the second time I've seen it in anywhere...could be wrong.
In Drunken Angel, there's a shot of the giant puddle where we see the wind rippling through the surface, in contrast to many of the previous puddle shots where the air is perfectly still. There's a shot in Days of Heaven just like this, with virtually the exact same, gentle rippling - doubtful it's mean to be a direct reference, but these are the only two films that come to mind where this shot is done without incorporating it directly into any greater action (or with characters for that matter).