It's not too often that Chinese make decent ripoffs of Japanese superheroes. INFRAMAN was the exception, and come to think of it, SUPER RIDERS VS. THE DEVIL and FRANKENSTEINS KUNG FU MONSTER were pretty good. Those movies were all in the 1970s, when I think HK had a certain flair for action. So what happened?! Things seemed to change in the 1980s......
Though HK cinema became more advanced in the 1980s, it seems that only the standard crime-dramas and urban actioners benefitted. Chinese movie makers spent little time on decent fantasies (though the early 1980s flick THE FAIRY AND THE DEVIL had its moments). Case in point: INVINCIBLE SPACE STREAKER. This full color, feature length movie has English subtitles and is a rushed, hasty imitation of Japan's KAMEN RIDER X (Toei; 1974) TV program. The title hero looks more than similar to his Japanese predecessor, but very little of this pennyless farce concentrated on superhero action.
The story had something to do with some wizard/scientist guy up to no good, creating a few low budget monsters we see very little of. What we see a lot of are little kids, who occasionally morph together to form the white suited, bug-eyed superhero, Invincible Space Streaker (he's not called that anywhere in the movie, but that's its English release title). There are a couple decent kicks, but fans of Far Eastern heroes should stick to INFRAMAN, KAMEN RIDER, ULTRAMAN, the Monkey King, and so on. Even the American POWER RANGERS junk is more exciting than INVINCIBLE SPACE STREAKER.
Though HK cinema became more advanced in the 1980s, it seems that only the standard crime-dramas and urban actioners benefitted. Chinese movie makers spent little time on decent fantasies (though the early 1980s flick THE FAIRY AND THE DEVIL had its moments). Case in point: INVINCIBLE SPACE STREAKER. This full color, feature length movie has English subtitles and is a rushed, hasty imitation of Japan's KAMEN RIDER X (Toei; 1974) TV program. The title hero looks more than similar to his Japanese predecessor, but very little of this pennyless farce concentrated on superhero action.
The story had something to do with some wizard/scientist guy up to no good, creating a few low budget monsters we see very little of. What we see a lot of are little kids, who occasionally morph together to form the white suited, bug-eyed superhero, Invincible Space Streaker (he's not called that anywhere in the movie, but that's its English release title). There are a couple decent kicks, but fans of Far Eastern heroes should stick to INFRAMAN, KAMEN RIDER, ULTRAMAN, the Monkey King, and so on. Even the American POWER RANGERS junk is more exciting than INVINCIBLE SPACE STREAKER.
