The film is adapted from Akihiro Tsuchihashi's novel "Samurai Marathon at the End of the Tokugawa Shogunate". It is set in the Edo period and tells the story of how the lord of the Annaka Domain ordered a long-distance running competition called "Ansei Hiking" to resist foreign threats and train the body and mind of the domain samurai. It is also the earliest long-distance running competition in Japan. However, this event was mistakenly regarded as a rebellion by the shogunate, so assassins were sent to Annaka Castle, where there were no domain samurai stationed, in an attempt to reclaim the territory... Co-planned and produced by Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor) and Toshiaki Nakazawa (Departures), directed by Bernard Ross (Anna Karenina), Philip Glass (The Truman Show) was in charge of the music, and Emi Wada (Ran, Hero) was in charge of the costume design.