The Super Infra-Man appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Given the movie’s age and origins, it looked pretty good.
Overall delineation worked fine. Some wider shots demonstrated a bit of softness, but these didn’t amount to real distractions and the flick usually came with fairly solid accuracy.
No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. I found a healthy layer of grain and no print flaws materialized.
With its comic book vibe, the film opted for a fairly peppy palette. The disc replicated the hues with appealing vivacity.
Blacks seemed deep and tight, while low-light shots brought positive clarity. Although the movie showed its roots, it nonetheless fared well on the visual front.
Although I found the movie’s LPCM monaural audio less appealing, I’ve definitely heard worse soundtracks from Asian films of this era. Speech showed a little edginess and came with a lot of less than natural looping, but the lines seemed reasonably well-reproduced.
Though music and effects also came with some roughness and both lacked real range, they nonetheless offered perfectly decent quality. Nothing here stood out as great but given how many bad Asian mixes I’ve heard, this one worked fine.
Note that Super Infra-Man comes with both Mandarin and Cantonese versions. Because the disc defaulted to Mandarin, I suspect it exists as the “original” presentation.
It offered the superior sound of the two. Though the Mandarin didn’t provide tremendously higher quality, the Cantonese came with more distortion, particularly in terms of dialogue.
Note that the disc offered an English dub in addition to both Cantonese and Mandarin tracks. The English version offered the usual terrible voice acting and exists as a poor choice.
As we shift to extras, we find an audio commentary from film historians Frank Djeng and Erik Ko. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at genre domains and connections to other properties, cast and crew, the movie’s release and reception, some production elements and their experiences with/thoughts about the film.
For the most part, this becomes a pretty informative track, though as often happens with Djeng commentaries, it loses steam as it goes. Also, Ko makes a few too many factual mistakes like his claim that Infra-Man offered a hero whose power stemmed from the sun before Superman came up with that concept.
Nope – the Superman comics indicated his connection to the yellow sun 16 years before Infra-Man existed. Nonetheless, the discussion gives us a largely enjoyable chat.
When the film got a US release in 1976, it came with the title Inframan and a few changes. This edition ran one hour, 29 minutes, 55 seconds – 44 seconds less than the original – and also boasted different credits, English dialogue and a few minor edits as well as a new four-channel soundtrack.
Don’t expect much from the latter, as it seemed broad mono most of the time. The surround mix did expand matters but the localization came across as muddy and inconsistent.
As for the other alterations, the US cut still suffered from iffy voice acting – though superior to the dub attached to the 1975 version - and nothing else of real note occurred. The 1976 US release will interest fans who grew up with it but otherwise I wouldn’t bother.
An Inteview with Actor Bruce Le runs 24 minutes, 36 seconds as he talks about how he came to work for Shaw Brothers plus his work as Danny Lee’s fight double and other aspects of his career. Le delivers good thoughts about these topics.
Super Ultra Infra Action! goes for 13 minutes, 13 seconds. It involve film historian Steven Sloss.
Billed as a video essay, “Ultra” covers genre domains and background along with aspects of the production. Sloss brings us a tight little overview.
Finally, a Trailer Gallery delivers five theatrical ads, seven US TV spots and two US radio spots. The US trailers/TV promos go out of their way to connect to the then-popular Six Million Dollar Man series, but the movie must’ve gotten a 1977 or 1978 reissue because a poster seen during the radio clips touts the lead as “the star of the wars that ravaged planet earth!” I find it tough to believe that didn’t come about as a way to connect to Star Wars mania.
This Super Infra-Man disc exists as part of a boxed set that also includes a 60-page book. It provides various essays as well as credits/notes about each film in this package. Unfortunately, my review copy lacked the book, but I wanted to mention that it comes with the large release.
Campy and silly, The Super Infra-Man succeeds despite – or perhaps because of – its nuttiness. Nothing here ever seems logical but the movie throws so much over the top action at the screen that it entertains. The Blu-ray comes with good picture, acceptable audio and a mix of bonus materials. Nothing here actually seems good but the end product keeps us engaged.
Note that as of December 2025, this version of The Super Ultra-Man appears only as part of a 10-disc/16-film set called “Shawscope Volume Four”. It also includes Oily Maniac, Battle Wizard, Black Magic, Black Magic Part 2, Hex, Bewitched, Hex vs. Witchcraft, Hex After Hex, Bat Without Wings, Bloody Parrot, The Fake Ghost Catchers, Demon of the Lute, Seeding of a Ghost, Portrait in Crystal and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
