The Super Inframan (1975) - A Review

 

This is called one of the best worst movies. I think it's entertaining!

The Super Inframan (also known as Inframan) is a Hong Kong superhero/sci fi/action/martial arts movie released in 1975, and is the first Hong Kong superhero movie. It stars Danny Lee, Wang Hsieh, Yuan Man-tzu, Bruce Le, Terry Lau Wai-Yue, Dana Shum, and Lin Wen-Wei. The Super Inframan was directed by Hua Shan, with martial arts directed by Tong Kai.

Super Inframan. Enough said.

In The Super Inframan, Hong Kong is being attacked by monsters who rise straight out of the ground. The monsters' leader, Demon Princess Elzebub, makes her intentions clear to the world: She and her monstrous minions are planning to take over! Professor Liu Ying-de (played by Wang Hsieh), head of the Science Research Center, has just finished the BDX project, which coincidentally is just what is needed to deal with these monsters. The BDX project puts bionic parts into a human being to give them super strength and deadly combat weapons in a special suit the human can transform into at will. High ranking Science Research Center officer, Rayma (played by Danny Lee), volunteers to become The Super Inframan. From there, Super Inframan battles the various monsters, while Demon Princess Elzebub brainwashes one of Rayma's colleagues to do her bidding. Can Rayma stop Elzebub from taking over the world?

Demon Princess Elzebub and her skeleton ghost crew.

The Super Inframan is a Hong Kong movie influenced by the tokusatsu shows and movies from Japan. This movie is the Hong Kong version of Ultraman and Kamen Rider. I think this character and movie was a cool concept for Hong Kong movies at that time. Seeing as this was the first superhero movie made in Hong Kong it has its positives and negatives. The story is simple enough. Monsters are attacking and a team must stop them with the help of their super powered team mate. Rayma is a great hero... but there is not much else to his character. Really, all the characters are a bit one dimensional. We do get a nice scene between Professor Liu Ying-de and his daughter, but that's about it. It's fine, though. Who needs dramatic, serious scenes getting in the way of all the action?

The special effects are a mixed bag. The costumes are cool, especially Super Inframan's and the monsters'. They were designed by the same company that made the costumes for Kamen Rider (Shaw Brothers replaced the helmet made by the Japanese company for Super Inframan with their own helmet. I will always wonder what that original helmet looked like). Some special effects are primitive (like lasers) and some are really good (like the monsters and Super Inframan growing to gigantic size). There are a lot of explosions, including one on top of a lake! If you watch this movie, you will either respect the effort of the special effects, you will be embarrassed to be watching it, or you will laugh at it. I respect the effort. 

There's a lot of action in this, and it's awesome!

Even though The Super Inframan takes a little while to get going, once Rayma becomes Inframan, the action scenes pick up. The fight scenes are reminiscent of the first season of Power Rangers (the morphed fight scenes from the original Japanese sentai footage). So no highly complex fights in this one. Still, the fights are very fun. Inframan even has his own version of the Rider Kick! Bruce Le (with one 'e') plays an officer of the Science Research Center, and he gets to fight some Skeleton Ghosts. Danny Lee also has a cool, non-transformed fight as well. The final battle goes on for quite a while, and Super Inframan uses every move and weapon he has against the horde of monsters he has to face. Good stuff! 

So, should you watch The Super Inframan? If you like Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, or Godzilla, then I would say yes. Otherwise, you can skip it. I still say you should give it a chance, though. It's a fun, light-hearted movie with a crazy plot, crazy visuals, and crazy fight scenes. I hope this movie gets remade in Hong Kong or China some day. With modern special effects, and modern fight choreography, I think it would be a pretty cool movie.

(I apologize for the quality of these next pictures, I can't figure out how to take these pictures without glare.)

 

The DVD I watched for this review. The first non-bootleg Shaw Brothers movie I was able to buy.

Back cover of The Super Inframan DVD.

 

The DVD disc with a nice picture on the inner case.

The Super Inframan DVD comes with a booklet that goes into detail the making of the movie. Really informative stuff!

 

 

Reviewed by David Williams