Hong Kong's first superhero movie, Infra-Man (aka The Super Inframan or Chinese Superman) is everything you would expect from a mid-70s Asian martial arts/sci-fi mash-up.
The Earth is threatened by the subterranean Glacier Empire of Demon Princess Elizebub (Terry Liu), also known as Princess Dragon Mom, recently awoken from 10 million years of hibernation and now keen to conquer the Earth with her legion of monstrous henchmen.
Earth's best defence is China's Science Headquarters, run by the genius Professor Liu Ying-de (Hsieh Wang).
Using "science" he transforms one of his staff, the heroic Rayma (Danny Lee), into the superhero Inframan - using bionic-like implants, hormone injections, and high-tech gadgets.
The Earth is threatened by the subterranean Glacier Empire of Demon Princess Elizebub (Terry Liu), also known as Princess Dragon Mom, recently awoken from 10 million years of hibernation and now keen to conquer the Earth with her legion of monstrous henchmen.
Earth's best defence is China's Science Headquarters, run by the genius Professor Liu Ying-de (Hsieh Wang).
Using "science" he transforms one of his staff, the heroic Rayma (Danny Lee), into the superhero Inframan - using bionic-like implants, hormone injections, and high-tech gadgets.
 |
| Princess Elizebub's legion of rubber-suited monster lieutenants |
China's Superman then uses a variety of powers to take on Elizebub's monsters, so the wicked demon queen kidnaps the professor's daughter, Liu Mei-Mei (Man-Tzu Yuan), in an attempt to blackmail him into making her an Inframan of her own!
The iron-willed professor refuses to capitulate, meaning that he and his daughter end up frozen in ice... and it's left to Rayma and the Science Headquarters' army to storm Elizebub's underground base, rescue their colleagues and save the world.
The frenetic pace with which the story moves suggests that Infra-Man could easily have been storyboarded by a six-year-old kid and their box of action figures.
From the film's fit-inducing psychedelic title sequence, Infra-Man is a brilliantly bonkers blend of 1970's Doctor Who and Power Rangers, with cheesy, cheap and cheerful special effects slammed up against campy rubber-suited monsters.
Given the slightly garbled English of the sub-titles, a particularly magical thing about this movie, directed by Shan Hua, is that you could watch it without any dialogue at all and still follow what's happening.
It's the spoken words of the script by Kuang Ni that lead to all the head-scratching and misunderstandings.
We don't actually need all the ridiculous, mumbo-jumbo scientific gobbledegook explanations of how Inframan's powers supposedly "work" because they are pure technobabble and bafflegab.
On the other hand, I cannot tell a lie, I was rather distracted by Princess Elizebub's second-in-command, the scantily-clad Witch-Eye (Shu-Yi Tsen aka Dana Shum), who was able to shoot green beams from the eyes embedded in the palms of her hands.
For a film presumably aimed at a young audience, her fate was one of the most unexpectedly shocking.
In fact, while there's a lot of talk by the villains about 'killing', I'm pretty certain they only actually kill one person onscreen, whereas Infra-Man gets quite brutal in his treatment of the monsters from the get-go, blowing them up, melting them, severing limbs etc
Produced and distributed by Shaw Brothers Studio, the martial arts fight sequences - which are plentiful - are top notch and help distract from the largely nonsensical, yet wonderfully over-the-top, plot.
The iron-willed professor refuses to capitulate, meaning that he and his daughter end up frozen in ice... and it's left to Rayma and the Science Headquarters' army to storm Elizebub's underground base, rescue their colleagues and save the world.
The frenetic pace with which the story moves suggests that Infra-Man could easily have been storyboarded by a six-year-old kid and their box of action figures.
From the film's fit-inducing psychedelic title sequence, Infra-Man is a brilliantly bonkers blend of 1970's Doctor Who and Power Rangers, with cheesy, cheap and cheerful special effects slammed up against campy rubber-suited monsters.
Given the slightly garbled English of the sub-titles, a particularly magical thing about this movie, directed by Shan Hua, is that you could watch it without any dialogue at all and still follow what's happening.
It's the spoken words of the script by Kuang Ni that lead to all the head-scratching and misunderstandings.
 |
| Witch-Eye (Dana Shum) |
On the other hand, I cannot tell a lie, I was rather distracted by Princess Elizebub's second-in-command, the scantily-clad Witch-Eye (Shu-Yi Tsen aka Dana Shum), who was able to shoot green beams from the eyes embedded in the palms of her hands.
For a film presumably aimed at a young audience, her fate was one of the most unexpectedly shocking.
In fact, while there's a lot of talk by the villains about 'killing', I'm pretty certain they only actually kill one person onscreen, whereas Infra-Man gets quite brutal in his treatment of the monsters from the get-go, blowing them up, melting them, severing limbs etc
Produced and distributed by Shaw Brothers Studio, the martial arts fight sequences - which are plentiful - are top notch and help distract from the largely nonsensical, yet wonderfully over-the-top, plot.
No comments:
Post a Comment