In order to achieve maximum authenticity, actors were fed very little, and were not permitted to tend to matters of simple hygiene such as brushing their teeth and cutting their nails. As a precaution against serious deterioration of the actors' health, a number of nurses were always on call on the set. Eiji Funakoshi was never specifically told not to eat. He willingly abstained from eating to help get himself into character. The rest of the cast and crew were unaware of this until he eventually collapsed on the set. Production was shut down for two weeks.
Official submission of Japan for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 32nd Academy Awards in 1960.
This film has a 100% rating based on 17 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
This film shows in an accurate manner the will of many Japanese soldiers to fight on even when it was clear the war was lost and, in some cases, even after Japan surrendered. So strong was the will of some soldiers to never surrender that some held on in islands in the Pacific for many years later, including Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, who held on in the Philippines until he finally surrendered in March 1974, and Private Teruo Nakamura, who was arrested in December 1974 in Indonesia, almost thirty years after the war ended.