 Kinji Fukasaku (qv) was originally slated to direct, but had to  bow out when he discovered his lead actor could only be available  for periods of ten days at a time due to television commitments. The  lead actor Takeshi Kitano (qv) already cast as Azuma, offered the  job after a joking reference to possibly doing it, took over the  directors chair after heavily rewriting the script to remove all  traces of comedy.