Masaki Kobayashi's first major film. Its political subject matter was considered controversial at the time it was made, and Kobayashi was asked to make severe cuts and alterations. He opted instead to shelve it, and the film was released unaltered four years later. During those four years he mostly made innocuous domestic dramas, before returning to more politically-charged filmmaking with The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959).
Final film of Eiko Takamatsu.