When movie was released, Sigourney Weaver was attacked in some quarters for appearing nude in such a futile and shabby way. They were left to ponder on the reason why Sigourney allowed herself to be talked into doing such pointless and cheaply voyeuristic scenes. She appears topless in a bath, on an exercise bike and in stockings and suspenders with her bare buttocks to the camera. But in Weaver's opinion the scenes of nakedness were perfectly justifiable and were not a crude attempt to garner publicity and draw people to the cinema.
When this movie was reviewed by Joel Siegel, on WABC-TV Eyewitness News, New York City, in September 1986, a few seconds of a clip of Sigourney Weaver, topless on the exercise bike, was accidentally shown.
Filmed before "Aliens, le retour (1986)," but released afterwards. Production on this movie was running behind, and ultimately, Sigourney Weaver ended up with only a couple of days off between the completion of her work on this movie and starting shooting on "Aliens."
Paul Theroux's personal website summarizes the source book "Half Moon Street" (1984), of which this movie was an adaptation of the first novella called "Doctor Slaughter": "Two brilliant short novels on the theme of a double life. Although they are worlds apart in scene and character, both are full of a kind of eerie menace that lies just beneath the outward events."
The word "gonbay", mentioned in the movie, is Chinese, and translates into English as "cheers".