Director/screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto was given carte blanche to make this film based on his three-decade record of success, including being a screenwriter for a number of Akira Kurosawa's films, including Rashomon (1950) and Ikiru (1952), and the screenplay of Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (1962), all of which are in the IMDB Top 250. When it failed, Hashimoto retired permanently from the business.