Editing Intent:

After the great collaborative effort with the Silver Screen Samurai on the James Mangold Restoration (JMR), I added a few things back in for my personal version, without the restraints like leaving all the f-bombs and all the extended scenes, and the yellow suit ending. But recently, I have been trying to give the story a more complete feel that might warrant its own release. IMO Harada's story arc still felt incomplete, and not quite a "final act" battle opponent due to lacking motivation for keeping Mariko away from Logan at the end.

Resentment against mutants was much of Shingen's anger at his father, and the same resides with Harada too, as he also shows aggression to Viper in the scenes we removed. Having Harada hate mutants seems like a valid reason to want to end Logan's influence over Mariko, something that might override his obedience to her. So playing off that, I thought I could use the "Blackened Mantle" technique, and rewrite narratives through new subtitles. I wanted to turn any of the subtitle translations for Japanese into actual on screen text anyways. This also allows me to rewrite the discussion Mariko and Harada have in the tower, before Logan's clash with the Black clan. Now, we get a more full story of his job as leader of the Black Clan, his honor forcing him to "protect" Mariko more than simply "obeying" her, which allows him to make his own judgment on what he perceived as threatening to her. He also references Logan as an outsider, like Shingen does before.

The final thing that bothered me with the Viper storyline removal is the poison Harada uses to send Logan to see Jean one last time. It feels important but we are unsure why. Where did he get it and why does he think it might incapacitate Logan? In the JMR, it's implied that the green steam from Logan's tea is the same that Harada is using again, but it's a difficult thread to connect even if you know to look for it. In order to give this poison more of a backstory, I started looking at the scenes when he got the poison from Viper, and while I don't think I could use those outright, started playing with dialogue to see if someone could give it to him along the way. The scene in the alley showed promise, so I started working there, as a "back alley" deal where he gets it. The available dialogue didn't really work out, and since Viper never talks in JMR, I've been sending lines I recite through some AI to get dialogue that brings some compelling backstory, more visual evidence of Harada's hatred of mutants, and an easter egg from some research I could find on enemies of Wolverine for the source of the poison - the Ogun Ryu.

Cut List:

• Base is the Extended Edition

• Japanese translations are burned in when available

• Removed Yukio's line "Some believe" from car ride into Tokyo, keeping it about Yukio.

• Logan and Old Yashida's meeting was edited to remove Old Yashida wanting Logan's powers. Instead, Yashida in this edit is a good person with no hidden agenda. He also does not ask Logan to protect Mariko. That is simply Logan’s heroic side that he is battling against due to his guilt. Scene edited to remove most of the shots where Viper is the focus, keeping her in the background.

• Logan being poisoned by Viper scene replaced with the excellent nightmare sequence from Silver Screen Samurai, with Jean hair FX fix and slight SFX of "Jean rolling on top of Logan to make out " added by Wakeupkeo

• Funeral Scene edited to remove most of the shots where Viper is the focus, keeping her in the background.

• Funeral fight trimmed to reduce appearance of Viper and some of Hamada's face shots

• Harada saving Logan has been removed unfortunately, because it clashes with Harada’s new character arc.

• Some dialogue and shots remove from Love Hotel reception due to repeat exposition due to burned in subtitles

• Mariko saving Logan at the hotel is slightly edited to make Mariko seem more badass.

• Some of Logan's dialogue at the end of the scene in the vet's office is trimmed.

• Transition to train to Nagasaki adjusted slightly for flow after removal of Viper scene.

• Logan and Mariko's discussion about her and Hamada trimmed to remove the "old boyfriend" aspect. Instead, they both were just proficient martial artists as kids.

• Noburo's interrogation is trimmed to remove discussion of Yashida ruining the company and Shingen trying to save it.

• Scene added of Harada getting mutant poison in a busy metro alley from the Ogun Ryu clan.

• Shingen's slap of Mariko just before her kidnapping and Mariko's line about not wanting to commit suicide removed.

• Shingen and Viper interaction removed.

• Removed Yukio mentioning the tower is a company facility in the mountainside, keeping it simply as some building in Yashida’s birthplace.

• Shots of Shingen getting his swords and armor moved slightly later.

• Yumiko's mentions of seeing Yashida dying removed.

• Shingen's lines about Mariko and Shingen destroying the company were removed, dialogue trimmed down to just Shingen resenting Yashida's appreciation of Logan. Dialogue edited so Shigen replies "She's Gone. He took her."

• All scenes of Viper and Hamada were removed.

• Dialogue between Hamada and Mariko at Yashida's tower changed to reveal backstory: Harada is honorbound to protect Mariko against foreign influences, mutants are an abomination.

• Dialogue pulled from a cut Viper and Harada interaction used as Harada’s opening dialogue to Logan “Listen to me, mutant.” and a line from “Blade Runner Black Lotus” to give Harada one more line before fighting “But this has gone far enough. Walk away.”

• End of the Ninja fight trimmed and score edited to be the final act.

• Final transition from snowblower crash to the dream of Jean, created by Wakeupkeo.

• All of the scenes in the tower were removed.

• Alternate ending with the yellow suit added. Yukio’s line about being his bodyguard removed for more open-ended future possibilities to be imagined by the viewer..

• Mid-credit scene removed. Two years later just seems too long, and kills the yellow suit possibilities if we go right into Days without seeing the yellow suit…