7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The ten million year-old Princess Dragon Mom (Terry Liu) attempts to conquer the earth with her legion of mutant monsters. In response, Professor Chang (Wang Hsieh) creates Inframan, turning a young volunteer into a bionic superhero to save the world. However, the Princess kidnaps Chang's daughter. Can Inframan save her and the planet before it's too late?
Starring: Danny Lee, Terry Liu, Hsieh WangSci-Fi | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: LPCM 2.0
English: LPCM 2.0
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Shan Hua's "The Super Inframan" (1975) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors 88 Films. The only bonus feature on the disc is a gallery of original production stills. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring Dr. Calum Waddell's essay "Cool as Haiju". In Cantonese or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
Get him!
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.36:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Shan Hua's The Super Inframan arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films.
I have seen a couple of different releases of Shaw Bros. films that have emerged on Blu-ray via 88 Films and unfortunately all of them have some sort of digital filtering applied. The remaster that was used to produce The Super Inframan has traces of digital corrections as well, but they are the least obvious ones and therefore the easiest to ignore. In fact, plenty of the indoor/darker footage can look quite decent and on a medium size TV set -- anything between 46'' to 55'' -- the majority of the viewers will almost certainly not spot any issues. On other hand, on a bigger monitor the flatness that is associated with these types of corrections can become quite obvious during the daylight footage (see screencapture #5). The good news is that even though shadow definition and delineation in general should be better, plenty of detail is retained. The color grading is also good, though in some areas black crush does make its presence felt. There are no traces of sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese (with Mandarin) LPCM 2.0 and English LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
I viewed the film with the original Cantonese track and excluding some very obvious thinning during the opening credits I thought that the rest of the audio was outstanding. Balance can be a bit fluid at times, but clarity and overall stability were excellent. Clearly, the audio was remastered when the film was remastered. The English translation is very good.
While the content may be different I think that Shan Hua's film The Super Inframan delivers the same type of period kitschy entertainment that you would get from Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires and Kinji Fukasaku's The Green Slime. The only notable difference here is the superhero element, which shifts the tone of the film and makes it easier to introduce some more unique surprises. I find these types of films to be most effective when viewed in the wee hours of the night. 88 Films' release is sourced from a mostly decent remaster which actually could have been quite spectacular. RECOMMENDED to fans of period genre films.
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