Also known simply as Infra-Man. I suppose it was inevitable that I'd eventually cover something in the Kyodai Hero (giant hero) genre. While technically Godzilla vs Megalon sort of fits into under this banner, it's a densely packed branch of Japanese special effects cinema with a lot to cover. The likes of Ultra Q and other shows will have to be approached at a later date. Instead let's jump over to Hong Kong where the Shaw Brothers Studio were happy to shamelessly copy the whole thing. The original title is Chinese Superman and the poster even shows the giant 'S' logo from DC comics; you've got to love the nerve of these guys. Let's head over to Science Headquarters and see what's unfolding.
If you've ever seen any kind of superhero series from Japan you know the drill. Perhaps you're familiar with Power Rangers which recycled footage from the show Super Sentai to make an English language version of it. There are colourful characters, martial arts poses, explosions, and of course monsters and heroes that grow to enormous sizes during battle to make things more exciting. In this case the plot involves ancient villains awakening from beneath the surface of the Earth to take over the world, and it's up to Professor Liu (Wang Hsieh) and his latest invention to stop them. But for such a simple plot there always seem to be dozens of things happening on screen at any time.
In what is a pretty confusing opening a giant lizard appears in front of a school bus and then suddenly vanishes. While the kids on board are unharmed in the crash there's also a fire raging elsewhere that destroys a whole city. Meanwhile it's also discovered that a million year old civilisation has appeared in the form of huge monster statues rising out of the ground. Demon Princess Elzebub (or Princess Dragon Mom depending on the dub) then appears and declares her intentions to rule the planet. I guess this is all just her show of power? There's no time to think about it too much as she also has an array of rubber suited monster goons ready to strike on her command.
There's a certain sense of endearing lunacy to the whole thing in this first act alone. The villain wears a huge gold helmet with a matching pointed bra, and her henchmen are a mixture between a biker gang and a bunch of guys wearing Halloween shop skeleton costumes. During a meeting of government officials the Professor simply announces that this is 'the worst things have ever been'. But there's no need to worry, since he already has a plan underway (apparently before this disaster) to create a cyborg superhero. All he needs is a volunteer to undergo a potentially life threatening procedure. Luckily before you can say thunderball fists Danny Lee from The Killer immediately signs up.
The basic structure of the film follows a fairly repetitive formula as the evil Princess unleashes one attack after another, and the science team has to repel a bunch of brightly coloured mutants and cartoonish weirdos. She sends giant tentacle sprouting Planet Monster to attack their base, she brain washes their friends to steal Inframan's blueprints, and she kidnaps the Professor's daughter in an effort to coerce him to aiding her. It never lets up and there's no time for any kind of serious subplots or character development. But what was anyone expecting? It's a relentless action adventure spilling over with pyrotechnics and monster madness.
It's a tale full of eye popping costumes and laser beam effects. There are moustache wearing creatures and teleporting machines. None of it is state of the art, and although there are some cool '70s style B-movie locations there's always a kind of cheapness to everything. The innards of Inframan are shown with very basic circuit board overlays composited into certain shots and the same transformation scene is used over and over again. I guess they wanted more of everything all at once instead of focusing on just one or two villain outfits. They certainly didn't skimp of motorcycle helmets and blinking control console lights at least.
Just as a crazy effects movie it never stops moving from one debacle to another, jumping from giant creature battles to kidnap plots at the drop of a hat. It's amusing that the bad guys have so many amazing powers but later decide to just use dynamite on the science base in another scheme. I guess they were following the TV format too closely and just wanted to cram in as much as possible. It's not a great example of the Shaw Brothers making a kung-fu movie, and it will probably make your head spin after a while as each scenario blurs into the next. But it's always outlandish, colourful and more importantly entertaining.
3/5
