Kyoshin - Mirrored Mind: JDP vs Dir. Cut + dvd comparison

[HungFist]

Two versions of Sogo Ishii's Kyoshin exist. The film was originally made as a Jeonju Digital Project short film in 2004. In 2005 Ishii released an extended version of the film.

2004 Version: 39:57 (without ending credits)
2005 Version: 59:57 (without ending credits)

What's different between the versions? Spoiler free, somewhat:

- The opening is heavily extended. In the 2004 version there's only 1 minute of street and apartment footage in the beginning. In the 2005 version, there's new opening credits, new visual effects, more footage in the apartment, on the streets (day and night), and shots of a green pond and golden river. A total of 8 minutes.
- The movie set / interview scene opens with some new shots of blue windows and swimming pool.
- The Tokyo street footage following the movie set / interview scene, but before the main character sees the electronics store display window, is about 50 seconds and plays without music in the 2004 version. In the 2005 version it's 1 min 20 sec and with music.
- There's brief street and nature footage after the display window scene in the 2005 version, none in the 2004 version.
- The apartment scene that follows is about 2 minutes longer in the 2005 version.
- The nature / fantasy footage at the end is majorly extended with loads of additional shots. The new footage counts for approx. 6 minutes.

Here we have a case where the new version is far superior to the original. The 2004 version was a rushed out sprint, while in the 2005 version pacing has been corrected, and the film's true nature resurrected. Without knowing the backgrounds, it's easy to guess Ishii was forced to butcher his film in 2004 to fit it into a short movie collection.

[HungFist]

Screencaps of selected new scenes. If you have not seen the film, you may want to skip this post.

New footage in the beginning






New footage in the movie set scene


New footage after the movie set scene




New footage at the end

[HungFist]

Top: Jeonju Digital Project release (from the Korean dvd collection box set).
- 2004 version of the film
- Non-anamorphic
- Japanese 2.0 (192 Kbps)
- English and Korean subtitles
- Film file: 1.3 GB

Bottom: R2J (from the Sogo Ishii: Psychedelic Years box set)
- 2005 version of the film
- Anamorphic
- Japanese LPCM 2.0 1536 Kbps (3D sound HD... whatever this means)
- No subtitles
- Film file: 5.5 GB