Starring Danny Lee, Terry Liu, Dana, Wang Hsieh and Yuan Man-Tzu. Written by Ni Kuang. Directed by Hua Shan for Shaw Brothers.
Surfacing from within her lair inside the volcanic Mount Devil, evil Princess Elzebub (aka Princess Dragon Mom) vows to conquer Earth.
To stop Elzebub’s world domination plans, Professor Liu initiates the BDX plan, using special devices and hormones to transform Rayma (Lee) into the saviour of mankind. The logic and science behind this process is sketchy at best, but Rayma is duly turned into a red-suited hero with a bug-man robo-face… yes, it’s Inframan!
The foes that Inframan must contend with include Witch Eye, a scantily-clad villainess with a cone bra, horned helmet, knee-high boots and clawed glove-hands with eyes in their palms, Mutant Drill, a blobby dude with one shovel hand and one drill hand, Fire Dragon, a fire-breathing bad guy with a red moustache, green scales, fangs and a gold helmet, and Plant Monster, a man-in-suit creature with tendrils and the ability to sink into the ground. One monster, looking like a manic version of Cousin Itt from THE ADDAMS FAMILY, has long hair, can fire laser beams and cackles a lot.
Visually, the film is a riot of over-the-top art direction, with some wonderful comic book-esque sets featuring dragon fountains, skeletons, skull-faced decor and machinery with blinking lights. The carved entrance to Elzebub’s HQ, for instance, resembles a monster’s mouth.
There are loads of fun sequences to watch out for in this film, one highlight being Plant Monster’s attack on Professor Liu’s research building, where the vegetable-beast becomes a mass of giant, fast-growing rubber vines! The massive plant envelopes the place and the battle that follows is a real hoot, with Hong Kong stunt guys getting knocked around by the terrible tendrils!
Another cool moment features a red bug-dude who rapidly enlarges, so Inframan (just like his Japanese Tokusatsu hero counterparts) grows in size too! This is all done using forced perspective, seen from a low angle, with some slo-mo shots, making this giant showdown an effectively-handled, standout scene in the film.
The plot may be inconsequential, but that doesn’t really matter, as THE SUPER INFRAMAN is non-stop fun from beginning to end. You get to see a mass fight between the silver-suited good guys and Princess Elzebub’s Skeleton Warrior minions in a studio set full of skull carvings and creature skeletons. When the Skeleton Warriors get shot they tend to explode!
Then we get to witness a fight between Inframan and two mechanical monster-men, who can launch their extendable heads and propel spiked mace-hands at him on retractable metal springs!
Inframan has his own special tricks too, of course: he can eject his Thunder Fist gloves, enabling him to punch stuff from a distance, plus he can fire laser blade beams, which, during one confrontation, slice off both of Witch Eye’s hands!
For fans of Japanese-style Tokusatsu action, this Chinese take on the genre, which is also known simply as INFRA-MAN, is an awesome addition, with the folks at Shaw Brothers really putting a lot of effort into this: you get kung fu fights galore with acrobatic flips, somersaults and loud punching sound effects, pyrotechnics, cell-animated laser beams, brainwashing, some iffy flying shots, lots of extras in costumes, a fiery lava pit, a glacial cave set, and a finale in which Elzebub turns into a winged monster that can regrow its head when Inframan cuts it off!
THE SUPER INFRAMAN is colourful fun, so give it a watch!
Here are some posters and other assets…
Finally, here are the monsters, all lined-up and ready for action…
Monster Zone 