Unfortunately now out of print, this DVD boxed set is really the way to go if you are interested in seeing Kinji Fukasaku's doomsday masterpiece Virus or have seen the butchered American cut and want to see the complete Japanese version. The DVD set features a gorgeous presentation of the fully uncut two and a half hour Japanese cut, coupled with dynamic Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 remixes and a mega load of extras

The video presentation here, while not one hundred percent flawless, is still quite beautiful, especially compared to the horrible grey market DVDs of the film floating around here in the states. The print used for the transfer, for starters, is just gorgeous, barely a scratch or speckle to be seen, making the early 80s film look more like it was made in the late 90s. The colors are near perfect and one can at last fully appreciate the beautiful cinematography of the Antarctic landscape in which much of the film takes place. In terms of the MPEG-2 encoding, there is some slight compression here and there, but it's really only noticeable watching the film on a computer. There is also some very minor film grain that can really only be picked up on a computer or very high quality TV. My only other gripe with this transfer is the fact that's it's window-boxed, that is, there are very slim back bars on the both sides and tops and bottoms of the screen, but again, this is very barely noticeable when viewing the film on any TV screen. Very minor gripes aside, this is likely the best Virus has looked and ever will look.

The film is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is anamorphically enhanced for 16:9 TVs.

The audio quality is very close to perfection. For purists, the DVD offers the original stereo track in Dolby Digital 2.0. Also included are remixes of the film in DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track sounds great, but the real treat is the DTS remix. It doesn't sound quite as good as a modern film would in DTS, but it is the best the film ever will sound and, as with any DTS track, is considerably louder and more detailed than it's Dolby Digital counterpart.

The DVD also offers two different sets of Japanese subtitles, one for all the English dialogue, the other for the hearing impaired that subtitles all the dialogue.

The extras are nothing short of amazing. On the first disc are four Japanese trailers for Virus, two teaser trailer and two full theatrical trailers, respectively. Also included is an audio commentary track featuring about five members of the film's crew, including director Kinji Fukasaku and cameraman Daisuke Kimura. As I do not speak Japanese fluently yet and could only really make out some words in the track, I can't really review it. The second disc contains numerous very interesting extras. The first is a beautiful documentary called "Antarctica 1980" showing various outtakes of Antarctic scenery, most of which were not used in the finished film all set to music (including some classical). Also on the second disc is a gallery of some very fascinating behind the scenes photographs, a gallery of blueprints for some of the films sets and gallery of storyboards. There's also some behind the scenes footage showing Fukasaku at work and interviews with Sakyo Komatsu (the author of the novels upon which Virus, Submersion of Japan and Bye-Bye Jupiter were based) and Kinji Fukasaku. Best of all, this DVD also includes the butchered International cut, though the picture and sound presentation is much inferior to the Japanese version on disc one and this version of the film is the especially bad TV version that cuts out Yoshizumi and Marit's reunion at the end. Finally, the DVD contains some promotional videos, including one showcasing the film's conceptual art and a full 10 minute promo apparently intended for the international market.

Overall, if you are a fan of this film, a fan of Kinji Fukasaku's body of work or a fan of disaster films in general (Japanese or otherwise), you really owe it to yourself to hunt down this DVD set.