Jeffrey Nelson
Screenwriter
I just picked up the long-awaited R1 DVD of one of the greatest cult films of all time. It's better than nothing, but it could have (and should have) been much better. What we're getting is a recycled slightly-faulty PAL-to-NTSC IVL/Celestial transfer, stretched out to NTSC speed, making it slightly-more-faulty, with slightly-more-artifacting, although the untrained eye of Joe Six Pack probably won't notice it. It's most noticeable during camera pans, so instead of a smooth pan, it's a bit herky-jerky. And watch closely during the closeups of revolving police lights and flaming miniature buildings...all in all, though, not nearly as bad as some botched PAL-to-NTSC transfers I've seen.
The part that gets me is that the producers of this disc didn't let me know they needed to borrow my old Prism VHS, because it sure sounds a gazillion times better than the muffled, dropout-riddled disaster of an English soundtrack they slapped onto this DVD. It's listenable, but barely. Why, oh WHY don't these silly DVD producers put out an APB to the fans that they need better source materials? We would have been more than willing to help. I would have GIVEN them my Prism VHS, even paid for express overnight shipping, to get a better-sounding English dub on there. And here I thought they might actually have access to original materials for the Brenner version, and were actually going to put it on the DVD, complete with the classic opening credits we all know and love, with the words appearing and changing in time with the audio effects (NOT the rejiggered Power Rangers-ish video-freeze-frame credits of the Goodtimes Video abomination), instead of just slapping on what sounds like the audio from a defective copy of the above parenthetically mentioned Extended Play Goodtimes Video abomination, and looping Infra-Man's flipping-through-the-air foley effects during the extended transformation bits that were cut from the Brenner version...silly me. They didn't even have access to original materials for the Hong Kong edit, and had to use IVL's already-compromised master. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
Some may say that, so what if the English dub sounds lousy -- it should be used for reference only, and that what really matters is that the original Mandarin is present and correct. To them I would say, nuts to you, the English dub is an absolutely indispensable part of this film's charm. Those English-only-speakers who fell in love with it, fell in love with this version. The Mandarin version, while nice to have, just isn't the same.
A minor quibble would be that instead of the original theatrical trailer, only the redone Celestial trailer, which ironically looks markedly better on this DVD than the actual film. And it's stuck in the middle of a bunch of other Shaw trailers, instead of being able to access it directly.
The liner notes booklet is nice, both informative and entertaining, though I'm a bit puzzled that the craptacular Goodtimes VHS release is the only one noted therein, with no mention of the less craptacular Prism release, which was the only way to see it for years. I'm even more puzzled that no mention is made of the crackerjack team behind the priceless English dub, Peter Fernandez' Titra Studios, the same team who dubbed Ultraman, Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and countless other fan favorites.
More puzzling still is the conspicuous absence of any interviews with any of the Titra team...three DVD "Special Editions" of three of their finest hours, SPEED RACER, ULTRAMAN, and INFRA-MAN, and still no subject-specific newly-done interviews with them (the horrendously-shot bit included with the ULTRAMAN set doesn't qualify). Yet another opportunity lost.
I was hoping I could unload my import DVD as well as my Prism VHS, but not this time around, it seems. The definitive home video release of SUPER INFRAMAN/INFRA-MAN: THE MAN BEYOND BIONICS, unfortunately, still eludes us.
The part that gets me is that the producers of this disc didn't let me know they needed to borrow my old Prism VHS, because it sure sounds a gazillion times better than the muffled, dropout-riddled disaster of an English soundtrack they slapped onto this DVD. It's listenable, but barely. Why, oh WHY don't these silly DVD producers put out an APB to the fans that they need better source materials? We would have been more than willing to help. I would have GIVEN them my Prism VHS, even paid for express overnight shipping, to get a better-sounding English dub on there. And here I thought they might actually have access to original materials for the Brenner version, and were actually going to put it on the DVD, complete with the classic opening credits we all know and love, with the words appearing and changing in time with the audio effects (NOT the rejiggered Power Rangers-ish video-freeze-frame credits of the Goodtimes Video abomination), instead of just slapping on what sounds like the audio from a defective copy of the above parenthetically mentioned Extended Play Goodtimes Video abomination, and looping Infra-Man's flipping-through-the-air foley effects during the extended transformation bits that were cut from the Brenner version...silly me. They didn't even have access to original materials for the Hong Kong edit, and had to use IVL's already-compromised master. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
Some may say that, so what if the English dub sounds lousy -- it should be used for reference only, and that what really matters is that the original Mandarin is present and correct. To them I would say, nuts to you, the English dub is an absolutely indispensable part of this film's charm. Those English-only-speakers who fell in love with it, fell in love with this version. The Mandarin version, while nice to have, just isn't the same.
A minor quibble would be that instead of the original theatrical trailer, only the redone Celestial trailer, which ironically looks markedly better on this DVD than the actual film. And it's stuck in the middle of a bunch of other Shaw trailers, instead of being able to access it directly.
The liner notes booklet is nice, both informative and entertaining, though I'm a bit puzzled that the craptacular Goodtimes VHS release is the only one noted therein, with no mention of the less craptacular Prism release, which was the only way to see it for years. I'm even more puzzled that no mention is made of the crackerjack team behind the priceless English dub, Peter Fernandez' Titra Studios, the same team who dubbed Ultraman, Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and countless other fan favorites.
More puzzling still is the conspicuous absence of any interviews with any of the Titra team...three DVD "Special Editions" of three of their finest hours, SPEED RACER, ULTRAMAN, and INFRA-MAN, and still no subject-specific newly-done interviews with them (the horrendously-shot bit included with the ULTRAMAN set doesn't qualify). Yet another opportunity lost.
I was hoping I could unload my import DVD as well as my Prism VHS, but not this time around, it seems. The definitive home video release of SUPER INFRAMAN/INFRA-MAN: THE MAN BEYOND BIONICS, unfortunately, still eludes us.
