I watched the 1980 version, which was way more oriented towards a beautiful passion between Mariko Toda and Anjin San. Being Anjin San and Mariko Toda the main character of the show, follow by Lord Yoshii.
2004 version, has incorporated many other characters which make hard to identify who are the real protagonists. Passion and love have been replaced by extremely long pictures of Brutality and violence. Action that shows how the feudal Japan was, has been reduced and overlapped by hours of talking.