The Man Who Stole the Sun

The Man Who Stole the Sun Photos

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Cast & Crew

Bunta Sugawara
Inspector Yamashita

Kenji Sawada
Makoto Kido

Kimiko Ikegami
Zero Sawai

Kazuo Kitamura
Tanaka

Shigeru Kôyama
Nakayama

Kei Satô
Dr. Ichikawa

Kazuhiko Hasegawa
Director

Kazuhiko Hasegawa
Screenwriter

Leonard Schrader
Screenwriter

Kei Ijichi
Producer

Mataichirô Yamamoto
Producer

Takayuki Inoue
Original Music

Tatsuo Suzuki
Cinematographer

Akira Suzuki
Film Editing

Yoshinaga Yokoo
Production Design

Tomoyuki Maruo
Set Decoration

Osamu Yamaguchi
Set Decoration

Kazunori Sawaji
Set Decoration

Masumi Suzuki
Set Decoration

Masami Saito
Costume Design

Minoru Yamada
Costume Design

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Audience Reviews for The Man Who Stole the Sun

• Jul 31, 2015

  By day, Makoto ' Bubblegum' Kido(Kenji Sawada) is a mild-mannered high school science teacher. By night, he steals a gun which he then uses to steal plutonium from a nuclear power plant. His plans get interrupted when a World War II veteran(Yunosuke Ito) hijacks the full school bus he was trying to sleep on. Thankfully, Makato and Inspector Yamashita(Bunta Sugawara) are able to subdue the hijacker, allowing Makato to return to his plans. You must forgive "The Man who Stole the Sun" for being a little on the long side, for it has a lot of territory to cover. Among the issues that it explores that are important to Japan when this was made in 1979 and no less relevant today are standardized testing, baseball games being interrupted on television(apparently Japan has never had its Heidi Bowl), nuclear weapon proliferation, nuclear power in general, the lack of decent rock music, treatment of war veterans, and the general stagnation of society. This is nowhere near as dry as it sounds, as the movie handles such difficult topics in a frenetic and suspenseful fashion that is also deliberately over the top at times. All of which is in the service of also showing how heroes can also be villains and vice versa.
  Super Reviewer