THE BAD SLEEP WELL was the first film completed by Kurosawa Productions, the director's own production unit.

In referring to the film, director Akira Kurosawa commented that he "wanted to make a movie of some social significance."

Although THE BAD SLEEP WELL shares similarities with Shakespeare's HAMLET, the film is only vaguely derived from the play. Based on MACBETH and KING LEAR, respectively, THRONE OF BLOOD and RAN are Kurosawa's full-fledged Shakespeare adaptations.

Toshiro Mifune, Kyôko Kagawa, Takashi Shimura, and Susumu Fujita also appear in Kurosawa's similarly themed HIGH AND LOW.

"Oh, it's hard to hate evil. I have to hate and become hateful myself."--Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) to Itakura (Takeshi Kato) and Wada (Kamatari Fujiwara)