This 1975 Hong Kong outrage is a lousy movie in most respects: it’s confused, incoherent and runs out of steam after about 40 minutes. It is, however, a classic of sorts, and a prime example of accidental surrealism.
INFRA-MAN (Zhong guo chao ren), also known as SUPER INFRAMAN, was a product of Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers, who were looking to capitalize on/rip off the popular ULTRAMAN TV and movie franchise from Japan. As such INFRA-MAN is rather shameless, replicating ULTRAMAN’s look and plot outline quite blatantly, but with a Hong Kong-forged roughness that clashes mightily with the statelier Japanese methodology. INFRA-MAN was acquired for American release by the veteran schlockmeister Joseph Brenner, who recut the film and provided the requisite horrendous English dubbing (with rewritten dialogue to match, including that quintessential chop-socky cliche “Now you die!”).
The Demon Princess Dragon Mom (Terry Liu) awakens from a 10 million year hibernation, announcing her presence with a succession of natural disasters. Her aim is the complete takeover of Planet Earth, and she issues a stern warning to its populace: “surrender to me or I’ll destroy all humans!” To assist in her campaign of destruction she summons a band of animalistic monsters/guys in goofy-looking suits and a “Demon Witch-Eye” female assistant (Shu-Yi Tsen). According to one high ranking human official, “the situation at this time is so serious that it’s the worst in human history!”
It’s up to Professor Chang (Wang Hsieh), working in a high-tech satellite station containing flashing lights and glowing crystals, to figure out how to defeat the Princess. He settles on Infra-Man, a nuclear powered, cybernetically endowed superman, with Chang’s macho underling Rayma (Danny Lee) volunteering to be the subject. While the Infra Man is being created Dragon Mom orders her demon minions to attack the station, and in so doing turns Rayma’s colleague Professor Chu Ming (Wen-Wei Lin) into her brainwashed slave.
Rayma, who transforms into the bug eyed, red armor sporting Infra-Man by making elaborate arm gestures (accompanied, in the original Hong Kong version, by flashes of psychedelic animation), fights off the critters in a succession of kung fu skirmishes. At one point Infra-Man grows to the size of a mountain and squishes one of his foes like a bug, and at others leaps impossible distances to the accompaniment of a twanging sound. The princess brings matters to a head by kidnapping Chang’s daughter Mei-Mei (Man-Tzu Yuan), forcing Chang to head to Dragon Mom’s layer, a cave bordered by giant animal skeletons that contains a pit of fire. Rayma follows, leading to a final protracted battle.
Corralling this lunacy was former cinematographer Shan Hua in one his earliest outings as director (further Hua helmed productions include parts two and three of the CRIMINALS film series and the horror-action hybrids BLOODY PARROT and KUNG FU ZOMBIE). If nothing else, he had an eye for the esoteric, creating some arrestingly bizarre images—a giant tentacle wreaking havoc in a high-tech control room, eyeballs in a woman’s palms shooting laser beams—that can’t help but lodge themselves in the viewer’s subconscious.
In many respects INFRA-MAN plays like standard Shaw Brothers 1970s fare, which a cast of stock performers (including Hong Kong action movie legend “Danny Lee,” a.k.a. Hsui-Hsien Li, and Bruce Lee wannabe “Bruce Le,” a.k.a. Chien-Lung Huang) going through the motions of a film that consists largely of extended fight scenes. Here, though, those fights are undertaken by performers in bulky monster suits and involve laser beams and explosions, making for a spectacle that more than embodies the overused “on acid” designation.
Vital Statistics
INFRA-MAN (Zhong guo chao ren)
Shaw Brothers/Joseph Brenner Associates
Director: Shan Hua
Producer: Runme Shaw
Screenplay: Kuang Ni
Cinematography: Lan-Shan Ho
Editing: Hsing-Lung Chiang
Cast: Hsui-Hsien Li, Terry Liu, Wang Hsieh, Shu-Yi Tsen, Wen-Wei Lin, Man-Tzu Yuan, Chien-Lung Huang, Yang Chiang, Lu Sheng, Man-Yi Liang