Taiyô wo nusunda otoko

1979
16
2h 27m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation pois... Read allA high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation poisoning.A high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation poisoning.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.5/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 8 wins & 7 nominations total

Photos19

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9:57

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
At one point when Kenji Sawada is fending off the nuclear plant workers, the sound effects are taken from the video game Supêsu Inbêdâ (1978) which was enjoying massive success in Japan at the time of the movie's release. The movie begins and ends with exactly the same sound: a ticking clock, and then an explosion.

Quotes
[On their way to appease a hostage-taker.]
Yamashita: You're a teacher? What do you teach?
Makoto Kido: Science.
Yamashita: Hm. I don't think science isn't going to help us right now.

Connections
Referenced in Kurosufaia (2000)

User reviews17

Featured review

9/10

It's a blast

The best thing that can be said about The Man Who Stole The Sun is that it runs for 2.5 hours and never feels boring or overlong. The worst thing that can be said about it is there's a couple of time where it looks like they were mean to a cat while filming, which is never nice (it's thankfully briefer and less difficult to handle than an infamous scene in Satantango).

It follows a teacher who decides to build an atomic bomb, and then makes a series of demands by threatening to detonate it. It begins as a satirical crime movie, gradually morphs into a thriller, and then explodes into action in the last half-hour or so. Along the way, it can be pretty funny at times, having a tone where calling it light or non-serious would maybe feel inaccurate, but it's definitely fun (while being kind of dark, once you step back and look at the whole thing).

All in all, it's a riot. It's rare to get a movie that's around (or over) two and a half hours where I don't ever feel ready for it to end, which I think is a testament to how well-paced and creative this is, above all else just being very entertaining. As much as I'm looking forward to Oppenheimer, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the best movie about atomic weapons that I watch in 2023.