Harakiri (1919)

The Buddah priest wants the Daughter of the Daimyo to become a priest at the Forbidden Garden. The Daimyo thinks, if he was in Europe, that his daughter should decide on her own, but he is ... See full summary »

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

David Belasco (play), Max Jungk,

Stars:

Paul Biensfeldt, Lil Dagover, Georg John

Cast

Cast overview:
Paul Biensfeldt	...	Daimyo Tokuyawa
Lil Dagover	...	O-Take-San
Georg John	...	Buddhist Monk
Meinhart Maur	...	Prince Matahari
Rudolf Lettinger	...	Karan
Erner Huebsch	...	Kin-Be-Araki
Kaete Juster	...	Hanake
Niels Prien	...	Olaf J. Anderson
Herta Heden	...	Eva
Loni Nest	...	Child

Storyline

The Buddah priest wants the Daughter of the Daimyo to become a priest at the Forbidden Garden. The Daimyo thinks, if he was in Europe, that his daughter should decide on her own, but he is denuciated and has to comit harakiri. She meets Olaf, a European officer, falls in love and marries him but after a few months he has to return to Europe. She gave birth to a child and is waiting for him, while he marries in Europe. When he comes back to Japan 4 years later, he is accompained by his European wife...

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Plot Keywords:

japan | madame butterfly | based on play

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany

Release Date:

17 October 1921 (Finland)

Also Known As:

Madame Butterfly

Filming Locations:

Decla Lot, Hagenbeck's Tierpark, Hamburg, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Decla-Bioscop AG, Decla-Film-Gesellschaft Holz & Co.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min 76 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White (tinted)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Mainly a curiosity

The Madam Butterfly story, with the character names changed, perhaps for copyright reasons. Fritz Lang fans will probably want to see it, but I do not think that it is worth going you of your way for.

Mainly interesting to me for the various items from Oriental curio stores used for set decoration and costumes. Few of the cast look Japanese or move in a Japanese manner (walking in a kimono takes practice and women would be embarrassed to show their arms).

I saw the Dutch/Italian restoration, which mostly looks very nice and clean and is nicely tinted. The titles were in Dutch. Running time was about 85 minutes.