Harakiri is a film about Hanshiro, in some way avenging the death of his son in law, his daughter, and his child. He goes to Kageyu, a feudal lord, and requests permission to use his courtyard to perform Harakiri, a suicide ritual. What follows is the story of Hanshiro and how his past relates to a previous samurai, Chijiiwa, who came to the courtyard with the same request.
I chose this scene in particular because of the tension that builds up throughout its course, the simplicity brings total focus on to the characters, the sword clashes are few but when they do happen they are quick and short lived. Only much later does any music come in to act as a build up to the end of the fight. I would love to approach this sound with more modern techniques in mind, create a sense of immersion in the viewer, a well worked soundscape using good spatialisation techniques and good field recordings could help the viewer get a bit more lost in the scene.
In talking about the films soundtrack Andrea Grunert writes for thebigpicture:
Takemitsu’s soundtrack includes sound effects as well. The frequent clashing of swords, the noise of a fan being folded, and single chords on the biwa create a kind of acoustic punctuation. The minimalist use of music parallels the sobriety of the architecture, which Kobayashi explores in long travelling shots. The mise-en-scène is built on the oppositions between light and shadow, linearity and chaos, and other oppositions too – namely sound and silence – are fused into the soundtrack.
This could be a really interesting approach to take for a kind of score/soundscape to overlay certain moments in the scene in question, doing something with sounds which match the style and time period keeping the audience immersed in the film whilst still using more modern techniques