Throughout the lawsuit, 19 witnesses were heard over a two and a half-year process including directors, newspaper reporters, film critics and two members of the film-going public. Kohshi Ueno writes of Suzuki's own testimony on the making of "Branded to Kill", "A film scheduled for production was suddenly deemed inappropriate and Suzuki was called in at very short notice to fill the gap. The release date had already been set when Suzuki was asked to write the script. He suggested dropping the script when the head of the studio told him he had to read it twice before he understood it, but the company directed him to make the film. According to Suzuki, Nikkatsu was in no position to criticize him for a film that he made to help them out in an emergency." Suzuki had never before disclosed this information or discussed any internal company affairs and his testimony exposed the fact that the major studios assigned films to directors at random, improperly publicized them and expected directors to carry any blame.