I also watch a roughly 8min long story on the new movie on NHK news, although I could only understand part of what they where saying, it was mostly a visual piece.
From the many scenes they showed, all the major scenes where exactly the same as Kurosawa’s version, down to the face expressions that Mifune did. In fact some of Kurosawa’s version where even showed side by side. This really bothered me, I think any fan of the movie will find this a huge distraction as you cant help but count down to the pending horrible attempt of the new version’s actor at coping Mifune.

However I dont think it is a direct copy, as many scenes where not in Kurosawa’s version although brief I am willing to bet they are used to shorting the film by summing up events and also used to help modernize the film for a younger audience.

I was hoping to stick around for the theatrical opening, but I just couldnt stay that long.

I rarely had my camera with me and only bother to take one picture of the posters. I did it quickly as the station was busy so its not that great and I also forgot I had been shooting monotone so didnt remember to bring back the color to the camera.

http://www.qfilmworks.com/cp/kanda.jpg