Initially, an audition was held to cast the female lead, and a friend of
Kim Ji-hyun's brother heard about it. The friend recommended Kim for the role over the phone, and she was given the script for the movie. Receiving the script, Kim was resistant to its explicit content, but she was touched by the storyline and accepted the role. In preparation for the role, she viewed erotic films such as
Last Tango in Paris and
In the Realm of the Senses, and read news articles and books from and depicting the 1980s, the time period the film was set in.
Ryu Soo-young, the film's male lead, was also a first-time movie actor, though he had experience appearing in TV dramas. He chose to star in
Summertime because his manager was close with the film's producer, and at the time staff needed more male actors. Ryu was also reluctant to appear in the film, but he accepted after the director urged him it was not just "people taking off their clothes". For the movie, he took on a strenuous diet consisting of only one meal a day. Filming took place inside sets in Yangsu-ri,
Gyeonggi Province, in November 2000. The actors filmed the majority of erotic scenes without covering their genitals or employing substitute actors. ==References==