PICTURE: Anamorphic Widescreen. As I said it is low budget, so you have to be a little forgivable. The budgetary quirks allow for some scenes not as sharp as they should be, some dull contrast, and some murky color most of the time. They often just couldn't afford to wait for things like the "golden hour" or a perfectly smooth tracking shot and had to make do with what they got.

But, considering the production values and limitations they faced, this transfer does a good job with the material. The quality of how the scenes were filmed does get uneven, some showing better sharpness, color and definition than others, and some like a craning or tracking shot are a little rough around the edges. There is room for improvement since there are some artifacts and maybe the drab pic quality could go up a notch, but it should still be a pleasing enough transfer for fans.

SOUND: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Stereo Japanese language tracks or English 2.0 Stereo. Optional English subtitles.

Even if you are subtitle wary, a quick comparison between the 5.1 Japanese mix and the English mix should have you veering towards the Japanese 5.1 track. The English track is, in no small terms, extremely weak. So, I'm only going to talk about the 5.1 mix, which is quite good. The sound fx are as over-the-top as anything else in the film and are pushed to a near comical level. Punches will have a thunderous ‘womp!' and the gunfire cracks along, all a bit generic, but no doubt intentionally so. You can tell some of the dialogue post looping wasn't totally in synch, but it is okay. The music score is appropriately cheesy techno rock. Once again, for a low budget film they got a lot of mileage out of the sound fx, though it still is obviously not a top-notch Hollywood affair.

EXTRAS: For you all-region savvy DVD enthusiasts, this two-disc edition has extras that primarily come from a French release of Versus.

Disc One: The film--- Chapter Selections--- Trailers for Pistol Opera, Samurai Fiction, Kunoichi and Pyrokinesis--- Two Commentary Tracks: Track One with director Ryu Kitamura and cast. Track Two with Ryu Kitamura and producer Keishiro Shin. The first track features six people: Ryu, and three actors, the hero and villain, plus a guy who played one of the detectives. I think the remaining two are the producer and 1st AD. It is a very lively and jokey track. Some good stuff but not as revelatory/funny as say the Army of Darkness or Re-Animator commentaries. It is all in Japanese and subbed. The second track is in English, and in comparison to the cast track, extremely dry and filled with gaps and silence. Maybe it was because they were wary of speaking in English. Maybe because director Ryu states that he had about three hours sleep. Some fair fractured anecdotes and jokes at the cast and crews expense, but the gaps make it not likely to merit a repeated listen.

Disc Two: ***On this disc the navigation of my screener was a little rough on my Toshiba 3109, so older model players may have some trouble***--- Evolution of Versus doc (8:11)--- Scenes From Cannes (8:09)--- Behind Versus featurette (26:38)--- Interview with the Editor (12:56)--- Making of Versus documentary (24:40)--- "Nervous" side story, mini/short film featuring the detectives from the film (6:28)--- Trailers (theatrical, promo, and teaser)--- Team Versus (1:07), a little jaunt in to the film offices.--- Preview trailer (4:31)--- Easter egg trailer and "making of" short for Flesh for the Beast.

The "making of" docs are informative. Ryu notes how his main inspiration were 80's less exposition-more action films like Commando and The Road Warrior. An actor sums up the film pretty well, "There are zombies and there are Japanese people going nuts with guns."

CONCLUSION: A fun genre fusion made for exploitation/b-film/Asian/cult action film fans. Media Blasters have released three different editions, a standard, a directors cut, and this two-disc special edition. Obviously, if you are a bit hesitant or feel the pinch in you pocket, the more basic editions are what you will want to check out. For fans of the film or bold people that read the description and feel in their gut they'll love it, this edition certainly delivers with some informative- though not absolutely perfect- extras and a very fair transfer of the lower budgeted material.

Disc two contains eight featurettes including "Evolution of Versus", a montage of behind-the-scenes footage; "Scenes from Cannes", just scenes from the movie; "Behind Versus", 27-min featurette with interviews; "Interview with the Editor"; 25-min Making Of Versus with director, actor & action director interviews; 7-min short film entitled "Nervous" featuring the 2 cops from "Versus"; promotional, teaser, & theatrical trailers for "Versus"; and finally a preview of an unrelated horror film from Media Blasters entitled "Flesh for the Beast".

Notes: This 'Special Edition' is a 2-disc package with the most features of all three of the Media Blasters versions and most of them are geared towards an American audience. Image quality on the film itself is very good, but there is a degraded look to some of it that is either intentional or a result of a limited budget. For a low budget film, the picture quality, lighting, etc is excellent. The Japanese audio track is exceptional in quality from sound effects to dialogue and scoring. No complaints on the removable English subtitles. Of course, all extras where Japanese is spoken includes subtitles.