The writings of poetess-novelist Fumiko Hayashi supplied Naruse with some of his finest material in films including Repast, Lightning, Floating Clouds, and Late Chrysanthemums. In Her Lonely Lane, based on Hayashi's autobiography, Naruse cast his favorite actress Hideko Takamine in the rather unglamorous role of this rebellious and often difficult personality; Takamine counts the film among her favorites with Naruse. Audie Bock writes, “Clearly this was a labor of love...and a labor of identification with the position of the struggling writer from a lower-class background. The single-minded writer who rejects political affiliation while befriending the ‘Reds', who has difficult loves and marriages, who persists in writing about the world she comes from and the world she sees around her, has a great deal in common with the film director. The problem with this film is...the sort of suffering-woman genre that both Hayashi herself and the Japanese film as a whole are known for. The true Naruse style is one that rejects self-pity, but probably because of his intense fondness for the subject matter of this film, he has allowed himself some indulgences.”