Imamura had taken interest in the phenomenon of ongoing vanishings of people in Japan, which summed up to thousands every year. He chose what he called the "most ordinary" case and met with the missing man's fiancée Yoshie Hayakawa. Imamura, who had planned to make a film on her research, was startled by what he saw as the woman's self-centeredness and tendency to perform in front of the camera. Imamura concluded that she wasn't interested in finding her fiancé at all, but found himself accused of the same by her in return. He decided to shift the film's focus towards her persona, often filming her secretly.