B/W Foxes and the Cave of Light

WARNING: May contains trace of spoilers! People allergic to the discussion of any plot's elements before seeing a movie are strongly advised to take the necessary precautions for their safety and should avoid reading further.

“In a world of black and white, ore dug from the cave is shedding colored light. Mikuro, identifying himself as the “Black Fox” bandit appears in front of the white-haired boy Kohaku who is captured in the back of a cave by a gang of thieves. Mikuro who collects the ore shedding “colored” light, says proudly that he has a “dream” to fulfill in this world of black and white. “It's decided! From now on you will be my little brother.” Kohaku has lost hope for life after his parents were murdered, but he is forced to be Mikuro's little brother and together they start running towards the world out of the cave.” (from the movie Press Book)


A young boy with white hair is from a race that can make rocks glow in a very colourful manner. This ability is feared in a world where all colour has disappeared, leaving only black and white, and therefore members of this race are persecuted. White Fox is captured and held in a cave, but he is saved by Black Fox who as vowed to restore colour to the world. He sees White Fox as the only one left who could do it. They escape to the surface and join Black Fox's sister who is almost blind, but can see only colour. She is the reason why Black Fox wants to bring back colour and makes his sister see again.

This is a nice short movie that feels a lot like a student movie. However, it was planned as a pilot for a full-lenght feature film. Because of his young age, Kiyoshi Endo had trouble to find support for his fantasy adventure feature film, “B/W Foxes and the Rainbow Crystal”. And then the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, paralyzing most of the movie industry in Japan. After doing some volunteering in the area affected by the tsunami, he decide to at least produced this short prelude. It was shot in five days, under conditions of heavy snow fall, in the northeast: Abukuma-Dou in Yamamoto-cho (Miyagi prefecture) and Tamura City in Tohoku district (Fukushima Prefecture).

Action and stunt scenes could have been better, but considering this is a very low budget movie, it is quite acceptable. The actor playing White Fox had lots of hesitation in his acting, but that also is to be expected considering his young age (even if he had previous acting experience). The special effects are not too bad, so all in all it is a nice and cute story. (And it is surprising I could say that much about such a short movie).

B/W Foxes and the Cave of Light (白黒ギツネと光の洞窟 / Shirokuro gitsune to hikari no dōkutsu): Japan, 2012, 15 min.; Dir./Scr./Ed./Prod.: Kiyoshi Endo; Phot: Ricky Shinoda, Misako Toki, Misato Ichiki; Ass. Dir.: Noriyasu Takizawa, Fumiya Hayashi; Sound: Mari Aoki; Makeup & Styling: Ayaka Sato; SFX Makeup: Kanako Kitaochi; Cost.: Keko Saito, Asaki Asano; Music: Kenji Oh; CGI VXF: Tomoaki Nakano; Cast: Takuma Wada (Black Fox Mikuro), Sanshiro Yoshioka (White-haired boy Kohaku), Rinka Uzawa (Kureha), Yuichi Uchida (Fraun), Keisuke Niimi (bandit), Keijiro Matsushima (bandit). Short Film opening for Boku no Naka no Otoko no ko, screened at the Montreal World Film Festival August 31th, 2012 (Cinema Quartier Latin 15).
For more information you can visit the following websites:
B/W Foxes and the Cave of Light © 2012 Kiyoshi Endo Studio.

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