Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko

Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Kazuhiko Hasegawa
Produced by	Mataichiro Yamamoto
Written by	Leonard Schrader (story & screenplay) Kazuhiko Hasegawa (screenplay)
Starring	Kenji Sawada Bunta Sugawara
Music by	Takayuki Inoue
Cinematography	Tatsuo Suzuki
Edited by	Akira Suzuki
Production company	Kitty Films
Distributed by	Toho
Release date	October 6, 1979
Running time	147 min.
Language	Japanese

Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko (太陽を盗んだ男), also known as The Man Who Stole the Sun, is a 1979 satirical film from Japan, directed by Hasegawa Kazuhiko and written by Leonard Schrader.

Makoto (Kenji Sawada), a high school science and chemistry teacher, has decided to build his own atomic bomb. Before stealing plutonium isotopes from Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant, he is involved in the botched hijack of one of his school's buses during a field trip. Along with a police detective, Yamashita (Bunta Sugawara), he is able to overcome the hijacker and is publicly hailed as a hero.

Meanwhile, Makoto is able to extract enough plutonium from his stolen isotopes to create two bombs—one genuine, the other containing only enough radioactive material to be detectable, but otherwise a fake. He plants the fake bomb in a public lavatory and phones the police and demands that Yamashita take the case. Since Makoto speaks to the police through a voice scrambler, Yamashita is unaware that Makoto is behind the whole thing.

Makoto manages to extort the government into showing baseball games without cutting away for commercials. Flush with success, he follows radio personality "zero"'s suggestion to use the real bomb to extort the government into allowing the Rolling Stones to play in Japan (despite being barred from doing so due to Keith Richards being arrested for narcotics possession). Eventually Makoto and Yamashita clash, but Makoto may die of radiation poisoning before he can see his plan through to its conclusion.