(Originally posted on
Infra-Man hit American screens in 1976. Known in China as either “The Super Inframan” or “Chinese Superman”. My first viewing was as a little moppet of seven years old. Even in a seven-year-old’s eyes, it’s a weird movie. It’s a Chinese superhero movie with insane visuals, monsters and a lot of Kung Fu.
The Shaw Brothers cobbled this strange gem together, along with some Japanese help. In appearance, the Infra-Man character looks a lot like Kamen Rider, which is probably intentional. In fact, all elements of Infra-Man have a “borrowed” or imitative feel. This doesn’t detract from the cheese vibe of the film, and in fact, enhances it. It looks like a Japanese production, fights like a Hong Kong film, and has elements from American television. The Six Million Dollar man was popular at the time and they shoehorned the “bionic” elements as much as possible.
As the movie begins, a Disco-Dominatrix-looking chick named Queen Dragon Mom (Terry Lau) appears from beneath the Earth with an army of monsters. She blows up a bunch of Chinese cities to demonstrate her powers. Dragon Mom plans on conquering the Earth (naturally). The only thing standing in her way is a group of heroic agents wearing shiny jumpsuits. And motorcycle helmets.
Don’t overthink it.
Anyway, this group of intrepid agents is outmatched by Dragon Mom’s forces. So their intrepid head scientist, Professor Liu Ying-de (Wang Hsieh) asks for a volunteer to become Infra-Man. He apparently had plans for this project, but needed someone to go through the torturous process. Our hero, Lei Ma (Danny Lee) volunteers to become the bug-eyed Infra-Man, no matter the cost.
The professor crafts Infra-Man with consummate care, which consists of sticking parts from Radio Shack on him. Combined with blinking lights. Unfortunately, while the professor works, one of the monsters attacks. It’s called (I think) “Plant Monster” and looks like a combination of Cthulhu and one of the animated trees from “HR Pufnstuf”. It plants itself and grows into a giant plant/tree/something and starts smashing up “Science Headquarters”. The power is cut during the attack and Lei nearly dies on the table. Intrepid agents restore the power, and Infra-Man is born! He leaps to the attack and quickly prunes back the arboreal menace. (Yes, I went there.)
Speaking of the monsters, these are some drug-trippy things. Besides the Plant Monster, there are: The Spider Monster, which looks like a fat, humanoid spider and can grow to Kaiju size. The Mutant Drill which is . . . umm, a green scaly guy with a drill for a hand.) Long Hair Monster (which is like a troll doll without a face,) and lots of others. There are also the obligatory faceless flunkies of the Skeleton Ghosts. The Skeleton Ghosts wear black jumpsuits and motorcycle helmets painted up as skeletons. Yes, I’m serious.
The movie is a series of excuses to have superhero Kung Fu fights and the plot, such as it is, is mostly superfluous. It culminates in a giant brawl in the volcano headquarters of Queen Dragon Mom, with enough action for a sugar-dose ADHD child.
Infra-Man is gloriously fucking bizarre and cheesy. It’s not all fun, as the movie drags in places, but when it’s fun, it’s pretty damn fun. Go ingest your drug of choice and watch it. Now.
