In the article "The Secret History of Japanese Cinema: The Yakuza movies", author Federico Varese wrote that the film "had a clear political message: a reporter uncovers evidence that a Japanese company is exporting weapons to Southeast Asia with the complicity of the CIA. The final scene suggests that the entire fabric of Japanese democracy is controlled by American interests aimed at crushing the socialist left (Toei's conservative managers seriously objected to the wider implication of the movie and put Fukasaku on probation for six months)."
