Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Super Inframan Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 15, 2018

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!

Those who have argued over the years that a good film does not always need to tell an original story are, for the most part, correct. An old story that is told in a different way can produce a good film as well. In fact, this is what the vast majority of contemporary films do -- they retell old stories. The trouble with many of them, however, is that their creators lack the imagination that is required to make them look special.

Shan Hua’s The Super Inframan is a prime example of a film that does not have an original story to tell but does plenty of interesting things that produce a wide range of effective surprises. However, it is so overwhelmingly exotic that it is a lot easier to describe as impressively amusing than good.

The plot is a mish-mash of ideas that seasoned film buffs will very easily trace back to a number of genre classics. A beautiful but evil Princess (lovely Terry Liu) unleashes an army of mutants to help her take over Hong Kong and then the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in a secret laboratory Professor Chang (Wang Hsieh) designs the ultimate weapon to stop the invasion -- Inframan, a superhero with incredible powers. Then, after a few quick tests, he activates Inframan by giving one of his young assistants, Rayma (Danny Lee), the ability to temporarily adopt his identity and the battle for the survival of the world begins. But after Inframan stars beating up the mutants the evil Princess kidnaps Professor Chang’s daughter and seriously complicates his mission.

Produced by the legendary Shaw Bros., The Super Inframan is a cheesy, borderline psychedelic superhero film that at best is only a distant cousin of the Japanese TV show Ultraman that supposedly inspired it. Indeed, even though the concept for the film might have been shaped up by the themes and style of the classic TV show, the kitsch that Shan Hua unloads in its narrative delivers an entirely different type of entertainment,

Quite predictably, the main attraction is the colorful action which relies on conventional ‘special effects’ and old-fashioned but creative camerawork. Obviously, it does not have the zippy quality of the visuals that the likes of similarly-themed contemporary projects like Yatterman boast, but in terms of kitsch value this film sets the bar pretty high. And this is basically what makes it attractive -- or not, if one isn’t easily wowed by actors wearing mostly cheaply made rubber costumes that repeatedly engage in silly ‘fights’ -- because regardless of whether the action looks legit by contemporary standards it is an undeniable fact that throughout the entire film the enthusiasm on display is off the charts.

This film was one of the final projects that the prolific Japanese cinematographer Tadashi Nishimoto worked on. His credits also include the Bruce Lee hits The Way of the Dragon and Game of Death as well as period classics like King Hu’s Come Drink with Me and Imetsugu Inoue’s Hong Kong Nocturne.

The Super Inframan Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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).

The Super Inframan Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

The Super Inframan Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Stills Gallery - a collection of original production stills. With music. (2 min).

• Booklet - 6-page illustrated booklet featuring Dr. Calum Waddell's essay "Cool as Haiju".

• Cover - reversible cover with vintage poster art for the film.

The Super Inframan Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.