The Man Who Stole the Sun

A high school science teacher endures daily ridicule from his students, but his quiet resentment hides a far more dangerous project: he is assembling an atomic weapon in his apartment. When a school trip turns into a hostage crisis, the teacher's double life collides with the authorities, and the demands he makes leave the police struggling to understand what he actually wants. The film follows the standoff between this unlikely criminal and the investigators trying to stop him, while a radioactive threat hangs over everything.

Kazuhiko Hasegawa directed the 1979 Japanese film, his second feature, from a screenplay he wrote with Leonard Schrader. Kenji Sawada plays Makoto Kido, with Bunta Sugawara as Inspector Yamashita, Kimiko Ikegami as Reiko Sawai, and supporting turns from Kazuo Kitamura, Shigeru Kōyama and Kei Satō. The production, mounted by TOHO, Kitty Films and Tristone Entertainment, runs 147 minutes.

On IMDb the film holds a 7.5 rating from around 1,600 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 7.4 from a much smaller base of roughly 41 votes. Those figures point to a durable reputation among viewers who have sought it out, with a modest but clearly positive response across both audiences.