[3] (The same fate befell his second film, The Maid of the Deep Mountain, which was also made in 1918 but not released until 1919 at the same time as The Glow of Life.)
He produced The Glow of Life under the rubric of the Motion Picture Art Association and used shingeki actors such as Iyokichi Kondō and Minoru Murata, the latter who later became a prominent film director.
[3] Kaeriyama "attempted to make an integrated use of all the cinematic techniques he knew", but "the result was sometimes derivative and always eclectic".
The director Kajiro Yamamoto wrote that when he first saw it he felt that, "“A film had been made in Japan for the first time.
According to Donald Richie, The Glow of Life "despite its failure to draw a large audience, was considered successful enough that the industry as a whole, scenting future profit, grew more reform-minded.