 Because Oniroku Dan had objected to Konuma's handling of "Flower and Snake", he was not involved in the making of "Wife to be Sacrificed", though he later gave Nikkatsu exclusive rights to the filming of his novels.The resulting film is generally credited with firmly establishing the string of S&M films which helped sustain the company throughout the 1970s and 1980s.It became Nikkatsu's biggest hit of 1974, and remains one of their top five successes of all time.