The audience at the 2006 Venice Film Festival was very confused and frustrated about the film. But Kitano had warned the audience ahead, asking them not to attempt to analyze the film, but instead, just to let go and feel the film, and in the press conference afterwards, Kitano said that he wanted audiences to come out of this film not knowing what to say or what to think.
Kitano conceived the idea during the shooting of Adrenalina Máxima (1993). Then called 'Fractals', the idea was to depict how an ordinary person's dreams would create an imaginative world, where the dream person's dream's would create another imaginative world and so on, going back and forth between his actions in reality and those in his imaginary worlds. The project was, for many reasons, put off throughout the years, until Kitano rewrote the storyline and made himself the protagonist.
The movie was announced during Cannes 2005, with a huge black banner with big red letters spelling Takeshis', and with smaller white letters saying, "500% Kitano - nothing to add." There was frustration between fans and critics, since there were no synopsis, no cast, no poster, and no trailer. Then in mid-July, a teaser began running in theaters in Tokyo, Japan, and from September 1st on Kitano's studio, Office Kitano, both showing Kitano's character tap dancing on a railroad.