BEIJING — China will set aside its long-standing cinema ban on Japanese superhero Ultraman when “Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends” becomes the first movie in Tsuburaya Productions’ 45-year-old Ultra Series franchise to make the big screen in China.
The 2009 pic is being imported and distributed by China Film Group and is expected to do well here, where many people grew up watching Ultraman on TV, but never got to see the red-suited hero’s exploits in a hardtop.
Relations between China and Japan, which occupied China between 1931 and 1945 in brutal fashion, are strained, and a few years ago, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao complained publicly that his grandson spent too much time watching the Japanese animated skein instead of Chinese cartoons.
