The film was originally set in Busan, South Korea, but was changed to Hiroshima, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami from his 2014 short story collection "Men Without Women," though the director acknowledged that he also took inspiration from two other stories of the eight in the collection: "Scheherazade" and "Kino."
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe became the first Japanese to win the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes.
In an interview published in "The Boston Globe" on January 16, 2022, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi said that when filming either Hidetoshi Nishijima or Toko Miura in the car alone facing the camera, he would have the other actor stand next to the camera so that they feel they were still working together.
Tôko Miura, playing the chauffeur, did not drive in real life and did not even hold a driver's license when she was cast.