Stated by cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa about director Yasujirô Ozu: "I'll never forget that, from the first day on, he knew the names of everybody on the set, fifty people in the crew, people he'd never worked with. He'd written their names down, I learned later. But everyone was impressed and became devoted to him. Every single day working on this film was extremely pleasurable and enriching. In each of Ozu's films you can sniff his personality. He was pure, gentle, light-hearted, a fine individual."
Roger Ebert, who provided the audio commentary on the 2003 Criterion DVD release, names this film as one of his ten all-time favorites.
Some subtitles have Kichinosuke, portrayed by Kôji Mitsui, jokingly calling himself Toshirô Mifune, despite giving his real name in the actual dialogue. Mitsui collaborated with Mifune on six Akira Kurosawa films: Scandal (1950), The Lower Depths (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), The Bad Sleep Well (1960), High and Low (1963), and Red Beard (1965).
Soundtrack, especially in the beginning scenes, is very reminiscent of Nino Rota's circus-like music for films of Federico Fellini.