Originally funded as an educational film, a review board of educators deemed intimate scenes between 16 year-old Akiko and Yamamoto, a man in his thirties, to be too provocative and inappropriate for students, and the project was never released in schools.
Chris Tashima, who plays the musician Yamamoto, had studied violin as a child, and not only plays the instrument onscreen, but also composed an original ballad which was called for in the script - a haunting melody which partly seduces the teenage Akiko into falling in love with him.
This film is based on a short story by Wakako Yamauchi, and was first adapted to the stage in 1977, by Yamauchi, as "The Music Lessons." The play had its world premiere at the Public Theater in New York, and was directed by Mako.