D V D C R Y P T

THE SUPER INFRAMAN

Directed by Hua Shan
Written by Runme Shaw
Produced by The Shaw Brothers
Cast: Danny Lee Sau-Yin, Yuen Man Tzu, Wong Hap, Lau Wai Yue, Lam Man Wai, Bruce Le, Lo Wai, Leung Maan Yee & Kong Yeung

1975/84 mins/Color/5.1 Dolby Digital
2.35:1 anamorphic/Cantonese/Hong Kong/NTSC Region 3

Review from the Celestial Pictures

After awakening from her sleep that she's been in since the ice age, Princess Elzibub (known as Princess Dragon Mom in the US version) finds out that the world she once ruled is now "infested" by humans. Her first goal is to enslave them. A team of rebelious scientists and fighters lead by Professor Liu Ying-Te have developed a secret "weapon" that might help them save the world. Ray (Danny Lee) is chosen to become InfraMan, a red suited bug-eyed weird looking super hero which could be describe as the godfather of the "Power Rangers"! InfraMan possesses all the power and skills you could wish for; X-ray vision, solar armor, lasers, flaming bombs, fire flying boots...

InfraMan has to take on each of Princess Elzibub's henchmen... all the more bizarre and plastic looking then the others. There's the Octopus Mutant with tentacles who shoot explosive liquid and can teleport himself (!), the Giant Beetle who can increase in size and ends up in a GODZILLA-like fight with our hero who "surprisingly" can also grow bigger, the Laser Horn monster which is kinda boring... the twins Iron Fist Robots who can shoot their heads and spiked fists and many more! But beside InfraMan, the coolest characters are without a doubt the Skull-like warriors which are kinda like the StormTroopers of the film... there's many of them and they look way cool.

As a result of a betrayal in the human clan, Princess Elzibub gets her hands on the blueprint of InfraMan. Will she destroy him or will InfraMan save the world?!

With this film, the Shaw Brothers released one of the coolest and most spectacular of the ULTRAMAN/KAMEN RIDER-like movies ever! THE SUPER INFRAMAN was pure entertainment when I first saw it back in the 70s and still holds itself very nicely together! When I first read about this DVD release from Celestial Pictures months ago I simply couldn't believe it... finally another of my all time favorite will be part of my ever growing DVD collection.

Celestial Pictures have made the impossible possible with their great DVD edition. First of all, the image is simply stunning! Like I said above, I saw the film in theater as a kid and on VHS many times but it never looked so damn good! The colors are dead on, rich, vibrant and solid. There is simply no complains I can make in this department, an amazing job! The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and it is of course anamorphic (16x9). The remixed 5.1 Dolby Digital Cantonese audio track is a little bland and shows the limitation of the remixing of the source and turning it into a 5.1 DD track, still it is very enjoyable and far beyond what I was expecting. There is some rather small but easy to read English subtitles.

The special features are a little too weak for my taste though, there's the very cool trailer plus trailers for other Shaw Brothers flicks like TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR, BUDDHA'S PALM, THE KILLER SNAKE and another fav, THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN. In the 'Photo Gallery' section there's some movie stills and a few behind the scenes pix, there's also the nice original poster, a way too small production notes, bios and selected filmography. The film is separated in 12 chapters, comes in a keep case which comes in a cardbox with a 4 pages booklet on the Shaw Brothers' films available on DVD/VCD. Some menus are animated while others are static. Overall a very nice edition for this classic!

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