The Super Infra-Man
Unprecedented chaos and misfortune has fallen upon the nation of China, earthquakes causing roads and bridges to collapse, city blocks engulfed with fire, utilities disrupted and the emergency services struggling to respond as Director Liu Ying-de of the Scientific Research Unit monitors, asked by reporters whether this is a herald of the end of the world while his attention it drawn to Devil’s Mountain.
A volcano which has lain silent for a millennium but has now erupted, tens of thousands of lives lost, it is the emergence point of ice-age monsters, revealed as the rock crumbles around them, servants of the Glacier Queen, self-proclaimed conqueror of Earth, the only hope for humanity an experimental process of cybernetic implants and hormone therapy to convert security officer Lei Ma into the Super Infra-Man.
Influenced by the successful Kamen Rider franchise launched earlier that decade, itself part of the tokusatsu movement of Asian media, blending live action with practical special effects to expand and enhance the story, The Super Infra-Man (中國超人) was originally released in Hong Kong in August of 1975, directed by Hua Shan from a script by Ni Kuang and produced by the prolific Shaw Brothers, Runme and Run Run.
The broad range of tokusatsu encompassing Godzilla, Message from Space and perhaps most recognisably Super Sentai, repackaged in America as Power Rangers, the acting is exuberant and the emotions emphatic, the peril persistent and the threats myriad and indefatigable, ninety minutes of freaky action and outlandish excitement so unremitting a cup of tea and a biscuit might be in order afterwards, if not an actual lie down in a dark and quiet place.
Starring Danny Lee as Lei Ma, the indestructible titular Super Infra-Man in his shiny red and silver supersuit fitted with lightning fists and explosive darts, Wang Hsieh plays Director Liu and Terry Liu and Dana Shum are the evil Glacier Queen and her henchwoman Witch-Eye, sometimes translated as Demon Princess Elzebub and She-Demon, supported by rubber monsters and their Skeleton Ghosts whose costumes inspired the Boneheads of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
The plot looping through nonsensical attacks and repeated rebuffals, brainwashing, betrayals and kidnappings, The Super Infra-Man is not a subtle film, but it does not ask or expect to be taken seriously, a riot of explosions, hidden trampolines and sometimes visible wire-work, more than likely impenetrable and insufferable to the uninitiated but undoubtedly of great nostalgic value to adherents of the genre.
The Super Infra-Man is streaming on the Arrow platform now
