Pretty much, the other reviewers covered the plot so I will try to differentiate the difference between the two.

SCENES: The Japanese director's cut clocks in at 143 minutes, the Korean theatrical cut is 128 minutes. The difference, you ask? A lot of the character depth is missing, the Korean cut feels more like an action film, while the Japanese Cut a definitely an epic adventure. A lot of the scenes in the Korean version is trimmed down and longer, detailed scenes seem to overlap. Also, on Azumi's first encounter with Kanbei, a significant number of fight scenes were missing, I believe that these action scenes should nopt have been cut because this demonstrates why Kanbei became a bit obsessed with the Azumi. I disagree when some people say that Aya Ueto is no Uma Thurman, I belive Uma thurman is no Aya Ueto! Ueto has more footwork and moves more gracefully, probably because of Kitamura's direction.

Video Transfer: Almost identical, although the Korean cut is a bit darker at the beginning of the film. Both versions' picture quality is excellent, hardly any edge enhancements, the transfer is very clean.

Audio: Both has 5.1 DOLBY and DTS Japanese Language. The DTS sound is phenomenal, you can really hear the swords clanging.

Subtitles: Excellent english subs. I prefer the placing of the subtitles on the Japanese version, much better spacing.

OVERALL: I am happy for both versions, and I do not regret having both copies of the film I love. Personally, I prefer the Japanese Extended cut, but whatever you prefer, this film has to be seen!!

Note: the Thai version is an almost exact duplicate of the Korean cut but has Thai subs as well as English subs.

I believe the U.S. cut will be the 128 minute theatrical version but has English dubbed 5.1 Dolby/Japanese 5.1 Dolby, no DTS. Such a shame: except for Tartan, the U.S. distributors never come up with a perfect ASIAN film DVD.