Zhong guo chao ren

Hard to rate a movie as bad as this that's so much fun! The key to this one is kung-fu fighting monsters, "thunderball fists", and of course, Princess Dragon Mom! Wielding a very long whip she plots to rule the earth and unfortunately only Inframan tries to stop her. Dig the fact that everybody in the film drives VWs. Shaw Bros' do Ultraman, and it's a pretty bizarre affair. Best scene -- Professor and the monsters on the motorboat going to monkey-skull island. Truly strange.

Let's look at INFRA-MAN for what it is:a rollicking kung fu/biker/disaster/monster flick of the highest magnitude! If you love cheap chopsocky movies and guy-in-a-rubber suit films, this is a serious contender for the ultimate trashy movie. Out of it's 88 minute running time, there are maybe five minutes where nothing ludicrous/exciting happens. How many films can you honestly say that about?

The plot in a nutshell:all hell breaks loose all over the world (in the form of earthquakes, firestorms, etc.) when the incredibly evil Princess Dragon Mom (yes, you read that right) awakens from eons of sleep. A hot Asian super-villain/dominatrix in a blond wig with a dragon's head/bullwhip for a left hand,she intends to enslave the Earth with the sorriest-looking bunch of monsters since SIGMUND AND THE SEA MONSTERS, and there's nothing we can do about it! Fortunately, Professor Chang creates Infra-Man, an utterly invincible cyborg superhero who is such a badass that he can come up with powers when he happens to need them.Much craziness and ass-whuppin' ensues, and it may just leave you dizzy! You have to watch this with a group of nine-year-olds (or drunk/stoned buddies) to get the full effect that this has on a fun-loving crowd. And how can you not love a movie where you can see the monster's hightop basketball shoes (look at Plant Man's feet during closeups)?

Two classic moments: When Infra-Man first shows up,even though he has only just been created,and absolutely no one other than Professor Chang knows about him, people point at him and exclaim "That's Infra-Man there!" And the moment when Professor Chang gives Infra-Man his newest weapons: "These are Thunderball fists! They have the power to destroy everything!" Need I tell you to rent this?

Shaw Brothers is mostly known for their kung fu films, but they did occasionally try things outside of their wheelhouse namely Mighty Peking Man and Super Infra Man. Super Inframan is your basic rubber suit monster battle but filtered through the lense of Hong Kong kung fu flicks complete with bad audio syncing and out of place sounding impact shots. In terms of plot.....Image if you had an entire seasons worth of Power Rangers plots squished into 90 minutes and compressed the storytelling into about 20 minutes filling the rest with action scenes. The movie is non stop action and unapologetically silly and if you're a fan of silly monster movies or kung fu flicks you'll find something to like. Just don't expect much of a coherent narrative.

For anyone who has a soft spot for cheesy Asian action pictures, this one has it all; pseudo-sci-fi, kungfu heroes, kungfu villains, Skull Warriors by the thousand, and a villain with one of the most classic names in movie history: the dreaded. Princess DRAGONMOM! Stationed at the earth's core, she wakes up after a ten million year sleep (with her superscience still on the cutting edge and her minions still hanging around waiting for her to wake up), and becomes alarmed at the surface world's progress. She attacks with her massive resources and threatens a stunned world.

Naturally, the answer to this threat of millions of soldiers emerging from the center of the earth is to combat them with a handful of kungfu cops and their one leader, Inframan, a sort of early Cyborg created from a brave volunteer.

Clad in a (very) tight outfit, Princess Dragonmom makes demands to the world's leaders to serve under her. Frankly, I don't see how they could refuse. (Imagine seriously for a moment, the world's leaders having to go on t.v. and announce with a straight face that our world is in danger from.Princess DRAGONMOM!)

Princess Dragonmom has her own special henchmen, in the form of a half dozen of the oddest-looking rubber creatures ever created; one has tentacles for hands and speaks (I swear) in a tough New York accent (remember, this is dubbed); another has a drill-bit for a hand. How do they fight the kungfu cops? With kungfu, of course! The sight of a guy with tentacles doing kungfu blocks and chops (complete with loud THWACKS and POWS) is something I can't quite describe. I found myself rooting for the rubber monsters all the way through the movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The kungfu goodguys are in there kicking (literally), doing continual blackflips, frontflips and somersaults throughout the entire movie, the skull warriors outnumber the Stormtroopers from Star Wars (oddly, both are dressed in white) and are even worse shots (I think it's the glare from those white helmets), and Inframan kicks anyone's butt he comes up against, which in a way is a little anticlimactic. He's strange-looking and a walking special effect, but not really that interesting a character as say, a Chinese babe with an attitude.

By the end of the movie you may find yourself wishing that Dragonmom had won.

Seven stars.

Super Infra-man (1975) was the Shaw Brothers attempt to try and start a franchise super hero like Ultraman. Filmed in Shawscope (panavision) Super Infra-man is an enjoyable action film filled with cheesy over the top bad guys and a whole lot of sci-fi mumbo jumbo. Danny Lee is chosen to become Infra-man when Earth is threatened by a race of interstellar demons. To sum up the movie, just imagine an episode of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that was action-directed by Bruce Lee! That's because one of the Dragon's protégés was involved with directing the fight scenes. The whole cast seems to be in on the joke and no one takes it too seriously. Harmless family fun.

Highly recommended!

Factoid: For some reason, the Shaw Brothers like to recycle stock footage from their other films and reuse certain scenes over and over.