Krieg Der Infras (1975, 1977, 1981, ?, etc)
By David McRobie

Make sure to check out David's site for more classic tokusatsu info!

Introduction

Some fans thought that Saban started the trend of taking out Japanese actors and replacing them with others while saving the monsters and heroes footage. Turns out it was happening in Asia twenty years before! This is the movie known as SUPER RIDERS WITH THE DEVIL in China, which took footage from both of the original theatrical Kamen Rider movies (the ones shot for theaters, not the blown up TV episodes) and then cut in with actors wearing costumes lent from Toei for the feature. This sort of compilation movie has happened since then as well, with such diverse heroes as Jumborg Ace and Mach Baron. Due to the success of the sublimely sensational superhero movie INFRA-MAN in Germany there was a call for similar programming. So they brought over this gem, changed the name to tie it in with Infra-man, and there you have it.

Story

Mostly this is some great battles between good and evil and a ton of exciting fight scenes between our heroes and the resident monsters. An evil organization kidnaps two men and turns them into Super Riders. They escape and vow to stop the plans of the villains.

Review

Here is some information from my pal “el-brazo”:

“Ah, that's a typical German story! KRIEG DER INFRAS (WAR OF THE INFRAS) was released in Germany after the SUPER INFRA-MAN. It was advertised as another Shaw Brothers production and "a brand new adventure of the Infra Supermen". (That's because SB's Super Infra-man is called Infra Superman in Germany.) Of course, we now know that it is a Taiwanese movie.” He’s also been my source for these German discs, for which I am very grateful.

This is an R2 German DVD and the movie looks pretty great, image wise. The sound is nice, and the dubbing is as natural as dubbing can be. There is a slideshow of promotional material on this disc, as well as the German trailer (which is mostly the Chinese trailer dubbed into German. It also has the trailer for ROBOTER DER STERNE. The Germans sure know how to make a good DVD. I’ll tell you this, though. Adding German language to any movie makes it sound so completely different. It’s a very surreal experience to listen to German.

I have seen the original Taiwanese movie, and am glad to have a nice copy of it, even if it doesn’t have the subtitles the original did. That did translate the songs and the names of the kaijin, though, sometimes a tad humorously!

What is odd is that they marketed the movie as having Kamen Rider X in it, and he doesn’t appear at all (his was the third Rider series). It’s not surprising this Rider isn’t in the movie, since his show wasn’t out when the original movies were made.

David McRobie