| The Super Inframan | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Shan Hua |
| Produced by | Run Me Shaw |
| Written by | Kuang Ni |
| Starring | Danny Lee, Bruce Le Terry Liu, Hap Wong, Yuan Man-Tzu, Lin Wen-wei, Shu-Yi Tsen, Chien-Lung Huang, Lu Sheng |
| Cinematography | Tadashi Nishimoto |
| Release date(s) | 1975 |
| Running time | 84 min |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese, Mandarin, English |
| The Super Inframan | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 中國超人 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国超人 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Chinese Superman | ||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
The Super Inframan (simplified Chinese: 中国超人; traditional Chinese: 中國超人; pinyin: ZhōngGuóChāoRén, translated literally as Chinese Superman) is a Hong Kong tokusatsu-style superhero film produced by Shaw Brothers Studio in 1975. Based upon the huge success of the Japanese tokusatsu shows Ultraman and Kamen Rider in Hong Kong, this film features the same type of "henshin", monster/robot action and costumed derring-do, coupled with Chinese kung fu action.
This film also has some historical importance:
The film was directed by Hua Shan, written by science fiction writer Ni Kuang, produced by Runme Shaw and the cinematography was by Tadashi Nishimoto (as Lan Shan Ho). There was a little help from Japan, also; Music from Ultra Seven (1967) and Mirrorman (1971) (both composed by Toru Fuyuki) is used here. And the Inframan/Science Headquarters/monster costumes were provided by Ekisu Productions, which had done costumes for many Toei Superhero shows of the same period. The film also starred Danny Lee as the superhero himself, and Bruceploitation star Bruce Le in a supporting role (He still got to display some of his martial art skills in many scenes of the film).
The following year, Joseph Brenner brought this film to the US, and retitled it simply Infra-Man (or Inframan), upon Ultraman's success on American syndicated television at the time.
The film is released later in DVD on 2004 in both Japan and Hong Kong.
Contents |
Demon Princess Elzebub plots to conquer the Earth. She destroys a few major cities in China to prove her power to a terror-stricken humanity. Returning to her lair in Inner-Earth, she awakens her army of Skeleton Ghosts and various Ice Monsters to wreak havoc on the surface.
But there is hope, the high-tech Science Headquarters, run by Professor Liu Ying De. He has at long last completed and is prepared to use the BDX Project: In the HQ's secret laboratory, he transforms Lei Ma, a high-ranking SH officer, into the bionic kung fu superhero, the Inframan! Able to perform impossible feats, as well as being equipped with death-dealing weapons, the solar-powered red & silver armored Inframan is mankind's only hope against Elzebub and her army of devils.
Once Inframan destroys the princess's various monsters, she decides to steal the professor's blueprints of Inframan in hope of discovering his weakness. Meanwhile, the professor introduces a new weapon to add to Inframan arsenal. Thunderball Fists are gloves capable of destroying any substance known to man as well as covering up Inframan's weakness. The princess decides to coerce the professor. Capturing the professor's daughter, the princess blackmails the professor into creating a Inframan for her. The professor agrees to go to Mount Devil for a meeting. When the professor refuses to make another Inframan, he and his daughter are frozen. Inframan and the science patrol decide to rescue both which leads to the climatic battle between Inframan and Princess Elzebub.
Lei Ma throws his arms into a Kamen Rider-like "henshin" pose, and says:
His powers & attacks are (Mandarin/Cantonese):
Roger Ebert, on his March 7, 1976 review for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film two and a half stars out of four, concluding "The movie even looks good: It's a classy, slick production by the Shaw Brothers, the Hong Kong kung fu kings. When they stop making movies like Infra-Man, a little light will go out of the world."[1]
On April 30, 1999, after Quentin Tarantino re-released Mighty Peking Man in North America, Ebert upgraded his rating for the film to three stars, explaining that "I find to my astonishment that I gave Infra-Man only two and a half stars when I reviewed it. That was 22 years ago, but a fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that film. I am awarding Mighty Peking Man three stars, for general goofiness and a certain level of insane genius, but I cannot in good conscience rate it higher than Infra-Man. So, in answer to those correspondents who ask if I have ever changed a rating on a movie: Yes, Infra-Man moves up to three stars."[2]