At the premiere of the film during the 74th Venice International Film Festival Kitano recalled his previous positive experience in Venice at the 1997 festival where his film "Hana-bi" won the Golden Lion, following in the tradition of other Japanese films such as "Rashomon" which won the gold prize at the 1951 festival. Kitano stated about the new film that, "There are various types of Yakuza... even if they are now disappearing. There are various kinds of humanity within these violent groups. Violence contrasts with some of the issues I dealt with in the past, but in this film there are people who are trying to take care of other people. The actions of the characters are influenced by what surrounds them, but I have to admit that I'm a little tired of devoting myself to violence, so I put many elements in the new film."