physics

The Man Who Stole the Sun

The Man Who Stole the Sun is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Man Who Stole the Sun rather than just read about it. In short: The Man Who Stole the Sun (Japanese: 太陽を盗んだ男, Hepburn: Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko) is a 1979 Japanese thriller film, directed by Kazuhiko Hasegawa. Plot Makoto Kido, a high school science and chemistry teacher, has decided to build his own atomic bomb.

Key takeaways

The Man Who Stole the Sun belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Man Who Stole the Sun to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Man Who Stole the Sun from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Man Who Stole the Sun (Japanese: 太陽を盗んだ男, Hepburn: Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko) is a 1979 Japanese thriller film, directed by Kazuhiko Hasegawa.

Plot Makoto Kido, 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, he is able to overcome the hijacker and is publicly hailed as a hero. He also gets close with a female radio personality nicknamed "Zero". Meanwhile, Makoto is able to extract enough plutonium from his stolen isotopes to create two bombs. One is genuine, the other contains only enough radioactive material to be detectable, but is otherwise useless. He plants the second "bomb" in a public lavatory and phones the police. He demands that Yamashita take the case to investigate him. Since Makoto speaks to the police through a voice scrambler, Yamashita is unaware that Makoto is behind the whole thing. Makoto next manages to extort the government into having baseball games broadcast in their entirety rather than stopping the coverage at 9pm (as per standard practice). Flush with success, Makoto follows a suggestion by Zero to use the real bomb to extort the government into allowing the Rolling Stones to play in Japan (despite a ban due to Keith Richards's arrest for narcotics possession). The request is soon granted and the band eventually is scheduled to play in Tokyo. As Makoto makes his way to the concert with the bomb, Yamashita follows him. Makoto pulls out a gun and forces Yamashita to a rooftop. Makoto reveals that he was the extortionist and gets into a fight with Yamashita. Eventually, the two fall from the roof whilst Makoto holds on to the bomb. He is saved by grabbing onto a power line. Yamashita is not so lucky and falls to his death. Still in possession of the bomb, Makoto decides to leave. As he walks away, a ticking sound, then an explosion, is heard.

Cast Kenji Sawada as Makoto Kido Bunta Sugawara as Inspector Masuo Yamashita Kimiko Ikegami as Reiko Sawai a.k.a. Zero Kazuo Kitamura as Tanaka Shigeru Kôyama as Nakayama Kei Satō as Dr. Ichikawa Yūnosuke Itō as Bus Hijacker

Release The Man Who Stole the Sun was released by Toho on October 6, 1979. The film's U.S. premiere was presented at Japan Society on October 10, 1980.

Reception On its release, the film won the Reader's Choice Award for Best Japanese Film in Kinema Junpo and Best Director, Reader's Choice Award at the (Mainichi Film Concours) and Best Supporting Actor for Bunta Sugawara at the Japanese Academy Awards. In the Japanese film magazine July 2018 issue of Kinema Junpo a list was made of the Top 1970s Japanese Films voted by 115 people including film critics and directors with The Man Who Stole the Sun being voted at number one. In 2022, American writer and critic Nick Newman placed The Man Who Stole the Sun on his Sight and Sound list of the greatest films ever made, saying, "In anything like a just world this is seen concurrent with benchmarks of Japanese cinema."

References

Sources Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1461673743.

External links The Man Who Stole the Sun at IMDb 太陽を盗んだ男 (in Japanese). JMDB.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Man Who Stole the Sun

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Man Who Stole the Sun claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Man Who Stole the Sun before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Man Who Stole the Sun ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Man Who Stole the Sun

In research: The Man Who Stole the Sun appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Man Who Stole the Sun in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Man Who Stole the Sun is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1979 Japanese-language films, 1979 Japanese films, 1979 films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Man Who Stole the Sun outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Man Who Stole the Sun in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Man Who Stole the Sun means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Man Who Stole the Sun out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Man Who Stole the Sun in simple terms?

The Man Who Stole the Sun (Japanese: 太陽を盗んだ男, Hepburn: Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko) is a 1979 Japanese thriller film, directed by Kazuhiko Hasegawa. Plot Makoto Kido, a high school science and chemistry teacher, has decided to build his own atomic bomb.

Why does The Man Who Stole the Sun matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Man Who Stole the Sun?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Man Who Stole the Sun.