DVD Video is based on MPEG-2 compression, while VCD Video is based on MPEG-1 compression. When you have any kind of data compression there is a balance which must be considered. The greater the compression ratio, the smaller the file, the lower the quality. And vice versa.

Thus VCD Video would look very good if the compression setting was set to low at the time of the mastering process. The movie "Blade" is very dark, making it suitable for VCD transfer, although illegal.