Business & Finance Club - Art & Culture : Six movie theaters in Japan started screening of "The Cove," a Oscar-winning American documentary about dolphin hunting, on Saturday.

It was originally set to be shown on June 26 at more than 20 cinemas in the country, but the movie was considered controversial and drew fire from some local groups. Some theaters dropped the run amid protests, while others had been encouraged by renewed appeal for the release.

In front of the Theater Image Forum in downtown Tokyo, one of the six theaters to show the movie Saturday, a police vehicle was seen, and officials with the distributor Unplugged Inc. said protesters gathered around the theater before the first screening started at 13:00 p.m.

According to the officials, all the tickets for the three rounds of screening on Saturday in the 108-seat theater were sold out.

A freshman in Tokyo-based Hosei University said after the first screening he could not believe such kind of hunting was taking place in his country.

"I am disappointed," he said.

But the student believed the documentary was not against Japan but rather a reminder for people to reflect on their culinary tradition and the environment.

The movie, winner of the 2010 Academy Award for best documentary, features scenes of dolphin hunting in Taiji, a coastal town, in western Japan. It was directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos. Parts of the documentary had been filmed secretly by underwater microphones and high- definition cameras.

Local media reported that the people of Taiji have objected to the documentary for being shown without their permission and claimed it is based on wrong information.