Running time/alternate versions?

I was wondering about the same thing. It's not because of "PAL speedup" though, becasue PAL is only 4,3% faster than NTSC.

The versions are actually different. I do not know if the difference is regional or not, but the recut was rather skillfully done. Not only was 22 minutes cut out, but scenes and sequences were rearranged and parts of the soundtrack were remixed, music and effects added and removed. Which means that whoever prepared the 93 minute version had access to the mixing elements.

I suspect that the shorter version is an "authorized" one (perhaps reluctantly). The 115 minute version is richer and more interesting, and we get to know the characters much better, but I have to admit that when I looked at the long version for the first time, there were only 2 sequences that I could point to as not being in the shortened version. It was not until I made a side-by-side comparison that the extent of the revisions became obvious.

More distressing (on the DVD) is the poor visual quality of the US version. Probably transfered from a film print made from the digital original, it suffers greatly compared to the Korean Region 3 version which may have used the original DV master as its source.

At best, the 93 minute version could be considered an alternate version. At worst --- just a commercial compromise.

***********UPDATE**************
For the story on the two versions: http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/kiyoshi_kurosawa2.shtml