Harakiri1919

Fritz Lang's Harakiri (1919) is a great film for its time. Very sad, but compelling storyline. The film doesn't explain, however, who the European woman is that Olaf returned to after his first vist to Japan & who accompanied him on his second visit there. Is she his European wife? Is she his sister? Anyway, the film has very accurate & very elaborate Japanese façade. Very elaborate Japanese costumes, very elaborate Japanese interior décor, very elaborate Japanese buildings, very elaborate Japanese garden scenes, replete with thick, mature bamboos, exotic birds, & Japanese style bridges. Seems no way that Lang had such an elaborate & seemingly accurate Japanese façade for this film constructed in Germany, yet the idea that he took a filmmaking crew on the road all the way from Germany to Japan in 1919 just to make this fine film seems rather unlikely as well. Guess we'll never know !!