The Forest of the Little Bear

The Forest of the Little Bear (1987)

イタズ　－熊－

Hunting master Ginzo kills a man-eating bear. When he finds out the bear had a cub, Ginzo decides to raise the cub, but the bear later becomes a troublemaker.

Date of release
1987-09-05
TMDB
8.0 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 57m
Genres
Drama
Director
Toshio Goto

Casting

Interesting facts

Itazu Kuma , also known as Born Wild, Run Free and The Forest of the Little Bear, is a 1987 Japanese drama film directed by Toshio Gotō. Set at the end of the Taishō era, the film depicts the story of a hunter who raises a bear cub after killing its mother. As the cub grows, it comes into conflict with the hunter's village. The film stars Takahiro Tamura as Ginzō the hunter, in addition to Junko Sakurada, Hiroshi Miyata, Ryutaro Tatsumi and Nijiko Kiyokawa. Itazu Kuma was theatrically released by Toei Company on September 5, 1987, in Japan. It was acclaimed and nominated for several awards, winning the Kinema Junpo Best Supporting Actress award for Junko Sakurada's performance.

Production

Filming lasted from the spring of 1985 to April 1987 in order to depict Gonta and Ippei's growth. The film was shot on location in Akita Prefecture, including Ani, Akita City, Kosaka and the area around Mt. Kitanomata. Local town officials, townspeople and children participated as extras in filming, and also aided the production in procuring resources in the rural region.

Hiroshi Miyata was cast as Ippei after an audition process involving 1,500 children.

The six bear cubs used for production were selected from 160 bears at Noboribetsu Bear Park. Each cub was used to represent a separate stage of development. A scene of Gonta playing in nature was composed of documentary footage that the assistant directors came across. The village bear attack sequence was achieved with a combination of animal stuntwork with an adult bear and special effects.

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

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