It is based on a prose version by Eiji Yoshikawa of a Japanese epic poem, The Tale of the Heike.

[note 1] It is Mizoguchi's second and last film in color, the other being Princess Yang Kwei Fei (Yōkihi) of the same year.

Ian Cameron, editor of the British film magazine, Movie, wrote in 1962:[1] “The parallel between the historical action and the personal story gives Shin Heike Monogatari its particular beauty.

This is arguably his best film, and the best of all films.” Kevin B Lee in a 2009 review for Slant Magazine found it a rather tentative attempt at color filmmaking and a self-conscious "prestige" picture, with Mizoguchi's usual themes present but at odds with the desire for spectacle and action of a samurai movie.

[2] After the American release of the film in 1964, Eugene Archer of The New York Times wrote that the plot was "subordinate to the decor".