The disc's video presentation is an early attempt at the DVD format by Criterion, and their efforts are admirable when one compares this disc to other releases done that same year; however, the video quality here is still far from perfect. Artifacting, and other digitial inconsistances introduced in transfering the film to DVD, are all but unnoticeable on this release, a step up from their Seven Samurai disc. The movie does contain numerous scratches, though, but never enough to become distracting. Flickering, an inconsistent changing of light levels, is also present on this DVD during some scenes. The brightness levels are off here as well, with some scenes appearing overly dark, making details hard to see. The image isn't stable through out, either, as the frame jumps on occasion, and, the most noticeable blemish in this regard, is the "The End" title sequence, which makes a noticeable shift toward the left. The disc does preseve the film's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, although it isn't anamorphic for widescreen TVs.

The audio presentation on this DVD is very faithful to the source, as it's presented here in its mono original format, with no hisses or pops in the audio track. In fact, it's about as good as one could hope for from High and Low. The only discrepency being when the film's score, another of Masaru Sato's contemporary peices, reaches a high level, most often from a cue with trumphants blaring, at which point it does sound slightly more shrill than it should. Unfortunately, like their Seven Samurai release, the English subtitles which compliment the Japanese audio track aren't so perfect, as a small portions of the spoken dialogue isn't accompanied by subtitles.

The low mark of the DVD, without question. Criterion, who would become known for their dedication toward stock piling later releases with extras (their Ikiru is a greatest testament to this), disappoints with their High and Low release. The disc has literally no extras to speak of, save a "Color Bars" screen that can be used to adjust monitors to their proper levels, which is a little pointless anyway for a black and white film (minus a single scene which does contain a small amount of color for cinematic effect).

Bottom line, this is a decent barebones release of High and Low, despite the disc's flaws, and is adequte to enjoy another solid entry from Kurosawa.