Now, how did this monkey get involved with the Ultraman mythos? And how did this lead to a the birth of the Thai Ultraman (Millenium, Elite & Dark)?

Hanuman - the White Monkey

Back in 1974, Tsuburaya Productions the originator of Ultraman and Chaiyo Productions, a Thai company, jointly produced a film called “Hanuman and the 7 Ultraman (หนุมาน พบ 7 ยอดมนุษย์)". The movie premiered in Japan on 14 March 1979 under the name “Six Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army (ウルトラ6兄弟VS怪獣軍団)".

This movie featured the six Ultra brothers - Ultraman, Zoffy, Seven, Jack, Ace, and Taro - together with Mother of Ultra, and also an original Thai hero known as Hanuman. The White Monkey hero is inspired by the monkey god from the Hindu epic, Ramayana.

The Story

Three treasure hunters sawed off a Buddha’s head among the ancient ruins of a Thai temple. Piko, one of the orphans who lived and played in the ruins tried to stop the robbers but was killed. Far away on M-78, the Ultra brothers witnessed the bravery of Piko and retrieved his body back to the Land of Light. There, Piko was resurrected as the human host of the Thai hero, HANUMAN.

Hanuman returns to Earth and returned the Buddha head back to the decapitated body. During that period, Thailand was experiencing a drought. One of Thailand’s meteorological research agency tried to call in the rain by launching rockets into the skies to seed the clouds. However, it was Hanuman who saved the day when he went up to the heavens to tell Rama to drive his Sun chariot away from the Earth.

During the launch of the rockets, something went wrong and one of the rockets misfired. The ensuring explosion roused the monsters hidden underground from their sleep. The monsters, Gomora (from Ultraman), Dustpan (originally from Mirrorman), Astromons, Tyrant and Dorobon (all from Ultraman Taro) woke and tore up the country side.

Hanuman and the six Ultra brothers saved the day.

Licencing Dispute

Before “Hanuman and the 7 Ultraman” Chaiyo Productions collaborated with Tsuburaya Productions on another movie, “Janborg Ace and Giant (ยักษ์วัดแจ้ง พบ จัมโบ้เอ)” in the same year (1974). In 1976, Chaiyo got a licencing agreement from Eiji Tsuburaya’s son, Noboru Tsuburaya. However, the details of the contract was ambiguous. The legally nebulous agreement would later result in a tussle between Tsuburaya and Chaiyo over the ownership of the intellectual property rights to Ultraman (ウルトラマン).

Noboru Tsuburaya passed away in late 1995. In the following year, Sompote Saengduenchai the founder and president of Chaiyo Productions approached Noboru’s son, Kazuo Tsuburaya who’s the incumbent CEO of Tsuburaya productions to claim ownership of the international copyright from the series ULTRA Q through ULTRAMAN TARO together with the character JANBORG ACE.

Many years later, after the death of Eiji Tsuburaya’s son Noboru Tsuburaya in 1995, Sompote Saengduenchai the founder and president of Chaiyo Productions claimed that the deceased had awarded him a rights contract in exchange for a monetary loan. Tsuburaya issued a letter to validate Chaiyo’s contract, under the intent that it would only be used in the Thai business circles. However, Sompote used the letter as evidence that Chaiyo has the blanket copyrights to Ultraman outside of Japan.

In 1997, Tsuburaya sued Chaiyo for intellectual property rights violations. Three years later, the Thai Intellectual Property and International Trade (IPIT) court’s verdict ruled in favor of Chaiyo, granting the company full copyrights to Ultraman outside of Japan. Tsuburaya raised appealed to the Supreme Court of Thailand, which is still pending a decision. Chaiyo also brought the case to Japan.

On 27 April 2004, the Tokyo High Court in a surprise ruling awarded Chaiyo the merchandising rights for the first six Ultra Series (Ultra Q through Ultraman Taro) and Jumborg Ace outside of Japan. However, the ultimate copyright still remains with Tsuburaya. After years of legal battles, Sompote Saengduenchai was awarded a somewhat favorable decision. However, the decisions in both countries clearly stated that the copyright to all of these programs belonged solely to Tsuburaya Productions of Japan. Furthermore, the decision in Japan emphasized that only Tsuburaya Productions has the legal right to create future Ultraman characters or Ultraman TV shows and films.

At the present time, Tsuburaya Productions is still appealing against Chaiyo Productions for the overseas merchandising rights. Meanwhile, Chaiyo Productions had designed its own proprietry Ultraman characters such as Ultraman Millenium, Ultraman Elite and Ultraman Dark. The company has gone on to issue licences to a China toy-maker to manufacture Ultraman related merchandise. The Thai company had already staged an Ultraman live stage show that featured Ultraman Millenium. It has plans to release a 52 episode Ultraman TV series and to also build an Ultraman Themepark in Thailand.

Sources:

Additional reporting credits: Steelultra