'Hadaka no shima' was made, in the words of its director, "as a 'cinematic poem' to try and capture the life of human beings struggling like ants against the forces of nature."
Due to the success of the film in France, songwriter Eddy Marnay added some lyrics to the central musical theme by Hikaru Hayashi. The resulting song ("L'île nue") was successively performed by french singers Jacqueline Danno (1962) and later by Mathé Altéry (1968).
Not a word is spoken for the first 37 minutes, 50 seconds.
Director Kaneto Shindo said that this movie described his own childhood as child of a couple of poor peasants. Remembering that his mother made hard work in fields but never complained, suggested to him the idea of making a drama without lines of dialog.
This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #811.
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