Cao Zhen

    FANS who grew up watching classic Japanese superhero’s Ultra Series can watch a movie version here from Friday.

    “Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy,” a 2009 Japanese film in Tsuburaya Productions’ 45-year-old Ultra Series franchise, known for its star Ultraman, opens on the Chinese mainland Friday.

    After thousands of years of incarceration, evil Ultraman Belial breaks out of prison and steals the Plasma Spark, causing everyone in the Land of Light to freeze except Ultraman and Ultra Seven. He then uses the Giga-Battlenizer to unleash 100 Ultra Monsters against the remaining Ultra Warriors and throw the galaxy into darkness. An Ultraman team that includes Dyna, Mebius, Leo, Reimon, and new arrival Ultraman Zero gear up for the ultimate face-off against Belial.

    “Since the Ultra Series debuted in 1966, there have been more than 30 TV series and 20 movies in this franchise,” Shinichi Oka, vice president of Tsuburaya Productions, told a press conference Thursday at Golden Harvest Shenzhen Cinema.

    “Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy” grossed US$6 million in Japan in 2009 and became the second-highest grossing Ultraman movie behind the previous year’s entry.