Review | The Sun Stands Still movie review: Tatsuya Fujiwara plays globe-trotting super spy in ludicrous Japanese thriller
- Tatsuya Fujiwara and Ryoma Takeuchi star as secret agents on the trail of confidential solar energy tech in this high stakes game of cat and mouse
- What the film lacks in logic is more than compensated for with a number of impressive action set pieces staged in exotic foreign locales
2.5/5 stars
Reprising their roles from the 2020 television series of the same name, Tatsuya Fujiwara and Ryoma Takeuchi play globe-trotting secret agents on the trail of confidential solar energy tech in The Sun Stands Still, Eiichiro Hasumi’s big-screen adaptation of Shuichi Yoshida’s spy novel series. South Korean actors Han Hyo-Joo and Byun Yo-Han also star in this high stakes game of cat and mouse.
A secret organisation of jet-setting spies that masquerades as a global news corporation seems like the perfect premise for a top-flight action caper. The “journalists” of AN Press travel freely within Japan, as well as to far-flung destinations like Bulgaria, India and even Hong Kong as they sniff out information relating to a new solar power generator. But they’re not the only interested parties, and their freedom of movement comes with some potentially deadly compromises.
Each AN Press agent is recruited from a broken home at a young age, and trained in secret to become a deadly warrior as well as a shrewd covert operative. Each is also fitted with a tiny electronic device implanted in their chest, which will explode if they fail to check in with their boss, Kazama (Koichi Sato), every 24 hours.
It’s a cool narrative device for building edge-of-your-seat tension, but raises a number of practical concerns, especially for agents who are frequently beaten unconscious, taken captive or sent to remote geographical locations.