This film is said by critics and scholars to epitomize the "one scene = one long shot" aesthetic of director Kenji Mizoguchi. In fact, there are many scenes that have no internal cuts, and the entire film contains almost no close-ups.
It contains only 142 individual shots.
In the latest (2012) BFI "Greatest Films of All Time" poll, available online, nine critics and three directors chose this film as one of the 10 best ever made.
The film finally premiered in the U.S. in 1979, 40 years after its initial release in Japan.
This was the first film for stage actor Hanayagi, who would star for the director again in 1945's The Sword. Both he and his leading lady Mori would only appear in three movies. Mori would eventually give up acting to write, with her novel Joyu inspiring a 1956 film from Kaneto Shindo.