The movie Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, the first Dragon Ball Z film, was released in Japan.
Prior success and popularity of the Dragon Ball manga by Akira Toriyama laid the foundation for the creation of the Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone movie.
The film Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone was later released internationally, expanding the Dragon Ball Z franchise outside Japan.
Finally got to see this in theaters - it's a lovely movie. One of the higher quality family-friendly sci fi movies in a LONG time. The part I liked least about the book was the humor - movie was the same. Which speaks to how good the adaptation was.
This is the best action movie of all time!