The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979) Kazuhiko Hasegawa

Genre: Action | Crime | Thriller

Country: Japan | Director: Kazuhiko Hasegawa

Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 | Length: 147mn

Dvdrip Xvid Avi - 720x400 - 23.976fps - 1.46gb

A misfit high-school science teacher decides to build his own atomic bomb. He steals isotopes from a nuclear reactor and manages to create two warheads, but at the same time is present at a botched school-bus hijacking and is publicly coronated as a hero. Nevertheless, he uses the bombs to extort the police, first by demanding that baseball games be shown without commercial interruptions and then by having the Rolling Stones play in Japan despite their drug bust. Soon it's a race to see what wins first: the determined cop who's after him, the bomb he's carrying, or a burgeoning case of radiation poisoning...

Look out for this hilariously overblown, big-budget Japanese film from the 70s, in which a trendy young high-school science teacher somehow makes a nuclear bomb in his Tokyo studio apartment, in order to hold the world to ransom. The film, (co-written by "Taxi-Driver" writer Paul Schrader's brother) plays on the public's fear of nuclear weapons, but whether or not you're scared depends on how far you're willing to suspend your disbelief. After some early attempts at political commentary, it turns into a full-blown action film, with endless jaw-dropping stunts. Although overlong at 2 and a half hours, this film is constantly mad, unpredictable and unintentionally amusing.