“The Super Inframan” Poster
Director: Hua Shan
Cast: Danny Lee, Wang Hsieh, Bruce Le (Huang Kin Long), Yuan Man-Tzu, Terry Lau Wai-Yue, Dana, Lin Wen-Wei, Chiang Yang, Lu Sheng, Fanny Leung
Running Time: 88 min.
By Z Ravas
As someone who grew up collecting an ordinate amount of comic books, it’s seemed strange to me that I’ve spent the last several years completely disinterested in what’s happening in the superhero movie space; but a viewing of last year’s High-Five (perhaps the most purely entertaining new film that I saw in 2025) made me realize I’m not tired of the superhero genre, per se, just Hollywood’s lately very dull conception of it. Case in point: sitting down to rewatch The Super Inframan, the Shaw Brothers’ attempt at a tokusatsu-style superhero movie, confirmed for me all over again that this is one of my favorite efforts from the venerable studio.
In 1975, the Shaw Brothers would have been at the peak of their commercial powers, which must be why they felt they could afford to take such a risk with Super Inframan—both a superhero movie before big screen comic book adaptations were all the rage (a full three years before Superman: The Movie!) and a Hong Kong martial arts film that owed a creative debt to Japanese creations like Ultraman and Kamen Rider. (To that end, the movie features music from Ultraman spinoff Ultraseven and costumes from Japan’s Ekisu Productions, known for their work on Kamen Rider). Even wilder, the studio handed directing duties to Hua Shan, who had served Continue reading
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