The Glacier Fox

The Glacier Fox (1978)

キタキツネ物語

In the Quest of the Northern Sun

Director Koreyoshi Kurahara chronicles a year in the lives of Flep and Leila, two foxes living in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, where the freezing winters are long and the mild summers short. After Flep defeats another male fox to become Leila's lifelong partner, they mate and raise a litter of five kits. With their family complete, the group must contend with human interference in their habitat, such as chicken farms and snowmobiles, and struggle against the debilitating cold of winter. The animals experience both triumph and tragedy, as the law of this harsh land proves – only the strong survive.

Date of release
1978-07-15
TMDB
7.8 / 10 (5)
Runtime
1h 56m
Genres
Family, Documentary, Drama
Director
Koreyoshi Kurahara

Casting

Interesting facts

The Glacier Fox , also known as The Story of the Northern Fox and The Fox: In the Quest of the Northern Sun, is a 1978 Japanese nature docufiction film written and directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara. It was released in Japan on July 15, 1978, where it was distributed by Toho. The film follows the lives of two red foxes and their family in northern Japan.

Production

The Glacier Fox was Japan's first major nature documentary, capturing the ecology of northern red foxes living in a harsh natural environment. The project originated from the work of veterinarian and zoologist Minoru Taketazu, who had researched red foxes for years. Ken Takahashi, editor-in-chief of the animal magazine Anima, published an article written by Taketazu on the subject of the red fox in the magazine's first issue in 1973.

The film was shot over a period of four years near Kitami, Kushiro, Abashiri, Monbetsu, and Koshimizu along the Sea of Okhotsk coast of Hokkaido.

Co-cinematographer Akira Shiizuka would go on to shoot several animal-related films, including Kurahara's Antarctica; co-editor Akira Suzuki also contributed to that film. Additionally, co-cinematographer Tsuguzo Matsumae later shot A Tale of Africa, another Sanrio production.

The score was composed by Masaru Sato, while the songs (including the film's theme song "Red Hunter") were written and performed by the band Godiego. The lyrics for the English-dubbed version were written by Yoko Narahashi, Randy Bishop and Marty Gwinn, with vocals by Gwinn, Rod Burton and Bartholomew Bishop. Recording for the dubbed songs took place at Rusk Sound Studios in Hollywood, with Randy Bishop as producer and T. E.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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