Official submission of South Korea for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 63rd Academy Awards in 1991.
The Korean Air jet depicted repatriating Mayumi and the dead Shinichi from Bahrain to South Korea was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30. Such jet was used to transport the real-life Kim Hyon-hui/Mayumi and Kim Seung-il from the same country to Seoul.
The Baghdad, Seoul, Abu Dhabi, and Bahrain airport sequences were filmed at Gimpo International Airport. Examples of those filmed in Gimpo are the security check, boarding gate, and check in, with images of Saddam Hussein and UAE leaders used as set dressings to mimic Iraq and Abu Dhabi. However, the scenes where Mayumi and Shinichi fail to enter the United Arab Emirates passport control, meet a Japanese airline agent who recommends them a Gulf Air flight, and spend the night at the airport terminal during their Abu Dhabi stop were filmed at the now-closed Terminal 1 of Abu Dhabi-Zayed International Airport. The attempted escape and suicide scenes were filmed at the old terminal of Bahrain International Airport.
The Korean Air offices in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain allowed filming on their site. A similar scenario was done for the Korean Embassy in Bahrain.
The real Kim Hyon-hui wrote and published a memoir named "Tears of My Soul", which gave an accounting on her mission to bomb Korean Air Lines flight 858, detailing her early training and life as a party member in Macau, Hainan, and across Europe; her terrorist act; and her consequent trial, reprieve, and integration into South Korean society. It was well-received by the masses and although she earned a huge amount of money from it, she only kept a small percent of the profit and donated the rest to the families of the Flight 858 victims.