Viewers familiar with Japón bajo el terror del monstruo (1954), may recognize many of the cues present in The Burmese Harp's soundtrack, as composer Akira Ifukube adapted Godzilla's requiem theme into several pieces heard throughout the film.
Kon Ichikawa said the original novel was treated as a fantasy, but he chose to eliminate that aspect of the story.
The film was originally slated to shoot in three-strip color, but director Kon Ichikawa worried that the huge camera might break down on location and he would not be able to have it fixed, so he shot in black-and-white.
According to the Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide by Ronald Bergan and Robyn Karney, this World War II film was "one of the first Japanese films concerned with pacifist themes related to the defeat of Japan in 1945."
Official submission of Japan for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 29th Academy Awards® in 1957.