Hideo Gosha's directorial film debut.
This film is part of the jidai-geki genre. Translated this means 'period drama', and such films are usually set during the Edo Period of Japanese history.
This film is an offshoot and origin story of a popular Japanese television programme by the same name.
This is a chanbara (sword fighting) film.
Tetsurô Tanba who portrays Shiba in this film also starred in the same role in the Three Outlaw Samurai TV series. Three years later he would gain international fame playing "Tiger" Tanaka in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.