Gift of Fire

Gift of Fire

2021 · 80 min · ★ 8.2 · History, Drama

Towards the end of WWII, the Navy gave the Kyoto University's physics lab the secret of a bomb that makes use of nuclear fission energy. While doing research to save Japan, the researchers there wonder if they should promote the development of weapons as scientists. Research enthusiast Ishimura Osamu tries to experiment purely but is at the mercy of the time period. His brother, Hiroyuki, also has to face the truth of the war. Asakura Setsu wants only to talk about the future. A story based on historical facts about youth during the tragedy of war.

Directed by Hiroshi Kurosaki · Written by Hiroshi Kurosaki

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

HuluU-NEXTFOD

Rent or Buy

Amazon VideoGoogle Play Movies

Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 21m together

Gift of Fire

Irena's Vow

A close match in mood and era.

More from Hiroshi KurosakiSee all →

HiyokkoHiyokko · 2017
Hiyokko
8.22017
SeriesDrama
The 17-year-old Yatabe Mineko grew up in a family of seven in a mountain village in northeastern Ibaraki Prefecture. Her father Minoru has gone to Tokyo to work in order to earn extra money. However, her life completely changes when her father does not come back for the New Year. Mineko asks her family to let her go to Tokyo to find him and promises to send money home. In the autumn of 1964, she and two childhood friends Tokiko and Mitsuo are hired to start working at a small factory in Tokyo’s working class neighborhood. After work each day, Mineko searches for her father and gets disheartened at times. Mineko overcomes challenges and starts to lay down roots in Tokyo as she experiences many meetings and farewells amid the laughter and tears with regulars, people of the shopping street, friends, and colleagues. But will she be able to find her father?
Chase: National Taxation InspectorChase: National Taxation Inspector · 2010
Chase: National Taxation Inspector
7.82010
SeriesCrime
Following the death of his wife from a plane crash, tax inspector Haruma is convinced that the tragedy was a premeditated crime. A number of clues connect him to a tax evader Murakumo, who is about to perform an evasion scheme of US$ 7 billion.
Beyond GoodbyeBeyond Goodbye · 2024
Beyond Goodbye
7.82024
SeriesDrama
After losing her fiancé in an accident, Saeko feels an inexplicable connection to a stranger — who, by a twist of fate, received his heart and memories.
Their MarriageTheir Marriage · 2025
Their Marriage
7.52025
SeriesDrama
After a life of solitude, a lawyer finds companionship with an art teacher. But behind their quiet union lies a secret that could change everything.
Reach Beyond the Blue SkyReach Beyond the Blue Sky · 2021
Reach Beyond the Blue Sky
7.32021
SeriesDrama
Shibusawa Eiichi was born in 1840 to a farmer’s family. He grew up helping his family with work, which was to manufacture and sell indigo production and also silk farming. He left his hometown at the age of 23 and began working for the government. He later traveled to Paris and learned about banking. Upon his return to Japan, he helped build up the first modern bank in Japan. He eventually became a founder or supporter to about 500 companies and was involved with about 600 public services, including education for women.
Second VirginSecond Virgin · 2010
Second Virgin
7.22010
SeriesDrama
Second Virgin is a Japanese television drama series that aired on NHK in 2010. Nakamura Rui is a divorced but highly successful producer in publishing. She meets Suzuki Kou, an ambitious buisiness man 17 years her junior, and finds herself getting aggressively persued by him. Eventually they begin a steaming affair. Meanwhile, a young couple moves into the house next to Nakamura's and the wife begins to confide in her about the frustrations of their conjugal life.
Made in JapanMade in Japan · 2013
Made in Japan
7.02013
SeriesDrama
With the strong yen, global financial crisis and competition from developing nations, the Japanese manufacturing industry is in a precarious situation. A large electronics maker is on the brink of bankruptcy and can support itself for only 3 more months. Three men at the company, who work in sales, finance and production respectively, secretly form a reconstruction team and they work feverishly to revive the company.
Second VirginitySecond Virginity · 2011
Second Virginity
2011
MovieDrama
45-year-old Rui Nakamura is a highly successful publisher. During the course of work, she encounters a 28-year-old married man named Kou Suzuki who aggressively pursues her. Unexpectedly, Rui Nakamura starts to fall in love with the younger married man Set 5 years after the ending of the NHK drama series “Second Virgin,” Rui Nakamura is transferred to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while still taking care of Marie Suzuki.
Fish of the FireFish of the Fire · 2009
Fish of the Fire
2009
MovieDrama
Hi no Sakana (火の魚, Fish of the Fire) is a Japanese novel by Murō Saisei; it was first published in 1960, and was later adapted into a single episode TV drama that was broadcast on NHK Hiroshima in 2009. The story describes the interactions between an elderly author and a young staffer from a publishing company as they collaborate on a book cover design for the author's latest novel.
Gift of FireGift of Fire · 2025
Gift of Fire
2025
Movie
Detective Totori and the Perfect CrimesDetective Totori and the Perfect Crimes · 2012
Detective Totori and the Perfect Crimes
2012
Series
An enthusiastic 28-year-old detective Yasunaga is assigned to work with a notoriously geeky 43-year-old rookie, Totori. Totori became a detective because of a secret "motivation," despite his previous outstanding career as an animal ecologist. Together with Yasunaga, the unusual rookie detective uses logical thinking and experiments to solve seemingly perfect crimes. Detective Totori and the Perfect Crimes uses a reverse format where the crime scene is presented at the start of each episode. This entertaining human crime drama, created by a talented young Japanese scriptwriter is masterfully filled with cunning suspects and witty conversation.
Goodbye to MyselfGoodbye to Myself · 2014
Goodbye to Myself
2014
SeriesDrama
In the autumn of their first year in high school, some incident spurred Tomomi and Kaoru to promise to be friends forever. However, at their present age of 41, the two of them have gone through different lives. Tomomi has built a happy family that everyone envies while Kaoru lives for her career as a movie producer. The differences in their lifestyles have created a distance between them. The two friends meet again for the first time at a class reunion after 20-something years and return to their former closeness. However, Tomomi has one suspicion. Kaoru knows too much about her own family. Is her husband and good friend having an affair? When Tomomi gets to the bottom of the matter, an inconceivable fate awaits her and Kaoru. The two of them are at the mercy of a harsh destiny, and before long, they learn what is hidden in each other's hearts.

More Like This

EichmannEichmann · 2007
Eichmann
6.02007
MovieHistoryDrama
Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel, of his role in Hitler's plan for the final solution.
Irena's VowIrena's Vow · 2024
Irena's Vow
7.62024
MovieWarDrama
19 year old Irena Gut is promoted to housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer in Poland when she finds out that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated. Determined to help twelve Jewish workers, she decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of – the basement of the German Major's house. Over the next eight months, Irena uses her wit, humour and immense courage to hide her friends as long as possible.
When Trumpets FadeWhen Trumpets Fade · 1998
When Trumpets Fade
6.61998
MovieDramaWar
In WWII Western Germany, Private David Manning reluctantly leaves behind a mortally wounded fellow soldier and searches for survivors from his platoon, only to learn from commanding officer Captain Pritchett that they have all been killed in action. Despite requesting a discharge on the grounds of mental disability, Manning is promoted to sergeant and assigned to lead a new platoon of young inductees.
SlackerSlacker · 1990
Slacker
6.71990
MovieDramaComedy
Austin, Texas, is an Eden for the young and unambitious, from the enthusiastically eccentric to the dangerously apathetic. Here, the nobly lazy can eschew responsibility in favor of nursing their esoteric obsessions. The locals include a backseat philosopher who passionately expounds on his dream theories to a seemingly comatose cabbie, a young woman who tries to hawk Madonna's Pap test to anyone who will listen and a kindly old anarchist looking for recruits.
Barefoot GenBarefoot Gen · 1983
Barefoot Gen
7.61983
MovieAnimationDrama
A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
DefianceDefiance · 2008
Defiance
6.82008
MovieDramaHistory
Based on a true story, during World War II, four Jewish brothers escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus in Poland and join the Soviet partisans to combat the Nazis. The brothers begin the rescue of roughly 1,200 Jews still trapped in the ghettos of Poland.
The Great RaidThe Great Raid · 2005
The Great Raid
6.52005
MovieActionHistory
As World War II rages, the elite Sixth Ranger Battalion is given a mission of heroic proportions: push 30 miles behind enemy lines and liberate over 500 American prisoners of war.
Battle of the BulgeBattle of the Bulge · 1965
Battle of the Bulge
6.91965
MovieDramaHistory
In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent it, Hitler orders an all-out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp.
Max Manus: Man of WarMax Manus: Man of War · 2008
Max Manus: Man of War
7.12008
MovieHistoryWar
Max Manus is a Norwegian 2008 biographic war film based on the real events of the life of resistance fighter Max Manus (1914–96), after his contribution in the Winter War against the Soviet Union. The story follows Manus through the outbreak of World War II in Norway until peacetime in 1945.
Closing the RingClosing the Ring · 2007
Closing the Ring
6.22007
MovieDramaRomance
During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter