Zhong guo chao ren (1975)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Shan Hua

Writer:

Kuang Ni (writer)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Man Behind Bionics (USA)

Plot:

Princess Dragon Mom and her mutant army have arisen, and only Inframan can stop them!

Plot Keywords:

Superhero | Dragon | Monster | Mutant | Demon

Cast

Danny Lee	...	Rayma / Inframan (as Li Hsui-Hsien)
Terry Liu	...	Princess Dragon Mom
Hsieh Wang	...	Professor (as Wang Hsieh)
Man-Tzu Yuan	...	Chan's Daughter
Wen-wei Lin	...	Chu Ming
Dana		(as Shu-Yi Tsen)
Chien-Lung Huang
Lu Sheng
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yang Chiang
Chun Chin
Tien-chu Chin
Jen Kwan
Bruce Le	...	Xiaolong (as Kin Lung Hung)
Man-yi Liang
Wai Lo
Shun-Yee Yuen

Also Known As:

Chinese Superman (Hong Kong: English title) (working title)
Chung kwok chiu yan (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Infra-Man (USA)
The Infra Superman
The Super Inframan (International: English title)

Runtime:

Germany:80 min | USA:90 min | Hong Kong:88 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Infrasound)

Certification:

Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Australia:PG | Germany:12 | USA:PG | Hong Kong:I | Norway:(Banned) (1977-2003) (cinema release)

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Trivia:

The Japanese TV shows "Urutoraman: Kûsô tokusatsu shirîzu" (1966) and "Kamen Raidâ" (1971) (which were extremely successful in Hong Kong) are the bases for this film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When fighting the plant monster in the woods, Inframan grabs the monster to toss him. At this point, the hide on the monster's back splits open, revealing a striped shirt underneath.

Quotes:

Professor: There are other weapons I haven't given you as yet. For success it's essential you have thunderball fists.
Rayma: I can have such a thing?
Professor: That's right, thunderball fists!

Movie Connections:

References "Urutoraman: Kûsô tokusatsu shirîzu" (1966)

Soundtrack:

Music

Inframan Rocks!

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.