"The title blows the already famous ending of Madame Butterfly, filmed by Fritz Lang in Berlin on the shores of Woltersdorf Lake. The film is based on the same David Belasco play that was the source for Puccini's opera, with the improvement that Cio Cio San, here named O–Take–San (Lil Dagover), is no longer a geisha, but now a noblewoman with a father vengeful at her disgrace." (E.S. Blofeld III) For years Harakiri survived only as a fragment, and very little has been written on it. Variety reviewed the restoration in 1988: "It is probably a measure of Lang's budding talents that Harakiri, 70 years later, is not ridiculous and has a certain charm...reveal(ing) the director's future concern for stylized performance and art direction. Lang's future taste for striking set pieces is here evident in such sequences as an autumn festival, complete with lantern–garlanded boats on shimmering lakes."