For the better part of a year, ¡°Unbroken¡± has been unwatchable in Japanese theaters.

Angelina Jolie¡¯s biopic of Olympic athlete and World War II POW Louis ¡°Louie¡± Zamperini was originally set for release here by distributor Toho-Towa, following its world premiere in Australia in November 2014. But protests by rightists contesting the film¡¯s historical accuracy and complaining about its alleged anti-Japanese bias persuaded Toho-Towa to put ¡°Unbroken¡± on permanent hold.

Now indie distributor Bitters End has announced that it will release the film in February beginning with a run at Theater Image Forum in Shibuya. ¡°We do not plan to make any cuts,¡± a Bitters End spokeswoman told The Japan Times. ¡°We are also in talks with other theaters to show the film.¡±

Good for Bitters End, though Toho-Towa¡¯s excess of caution was hardly unexpected ¡ª it¡¯s built into the DNA of large entertainment companies, and not only in Japan. Another illustrative example is the cave-in by Sony Pictures to North Korean threats over the goofy Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy ¡°The Interview.¡±

Looking back at uproars over foreign films similarly controversial in Japan, from the 1990 WWII drama ¡°Blood Oath¡± to the 2009 dolphin-hunt documentary ¡°The Cove,¡± it¡¯s hard to find any responses more violent than loudspeaker noise-making, though I may have missed a swung fist here or there.

In this as in many things, Japan is a relative paradise on Earth. But the backers of ¡°Unbroken,¡± contemplating their forever-vanished profits in East Asia¡¯s second-largest film market, may not agree.