I find a commonality in all languages from German to Japanese. When they are spoken by young women, particularly in a sales capacity like an airline stewardess, they sound soothing and when spoken by impatient old men, they sound harsh.
If you can imagine a young Japanese girl saying, "soo, deshoo ka?" (Yes, don't you think so?") It sounds so melodic and sweet, but an old man forbidding an action, "zen, zen, deki NAI" (absolutely can NOT) sounds like a dog barking.
In the Arabic version of the Disney film Mulan, it really stands out as the Arabic the Mulan character uses sounds so sweet and the very same language spoken by the military leaders grates like fingernails on a chalk board.
My husband speaks Mandarin and the only thing of know of cantonese is that when we go to a Chinese restaurant, if my husband is saying shema, shema? (What? What?), then the hostess/waitress is obviously not speaking mandrin, most likely cantonese. But as it is typically a young girl waiting on us at a restaurant, I find her speech southing.
Korean is the same. I worked two years in Korea and my former police officer investigator colleague could really be intimidating while my mostly young lady colleagues sounded so smooth and beautiful. You can really see this in the movie Untold Scandal. You can see and hear young women speaking softly and sweetly in Korean and angry men barking. There's not too much sweetness in 2009 Lost Memories, but a lot of macho growling going in both Japanese and Korean.
Does this post sound sexist? I didn't mean to be. Men can certainly speak gently, but it seems difficult for women to project as harshly as men can and maybe this is just the drama of the movies. My favorite barking men are Charles Bronson and Toshiroo Mifune, whom I find to be remarkably similar somehow. Mifune starred in many of Kurosawa's movies, but his rage in 7 samuri is among the most intensely fierce performances on film.