A film by The Kitsunés, ‘The Fox’s Wedding’ is both inspired by the East Asian folklore and legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s short film of the same title.
From ‘Arcana’, the acclaimed second album of Warrior Goth by New York born CZARINA, the immaculate visual presentation is directed by her and her husband DeadlyKawaii who together are The Kitsunés. It sees East embrace West with a nod to deep roots and lineage, following three mischievous children entering a magical forest filled with fantastical creatures and stumbling upon a magical wedding procession that they secretly follow.
As has been central to all previous CZARINA videos, care and attention has been applied to location and props. Filmed in the Spanish region of Galicia, there are hand painted masks with both Asian and Galician floral motifs as well as a traditional Galician Sporran.
CZARINA chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the making of ‘The Fox’s Wedding’ and her future plans…
Out of the remaining tracks on the ‘Arcana’ album, what made you feel ‘The Fox’s Wedding’ deserved a video treatment?
I wrote ‘The Fox’s Wedding’ as the wedding march song for my and DeadlyKawaii’s wedding. We got married on Winter Solstice 5 years ago, but we had a low key ceremony and celebrations in New York at the time as our families were sprawled across 3 different continents. We are still hopeful to have a grand ceremony here in Galicia with our families together where we can actually utilise the song. But for now, we figured to work on a video that can visually elaborate on the magic that inspired the song, as well as a Winter Solstice offering to close Arcana before I move on to the next record.
Who is “The Fox”?
Both bride and groom in the video, along with the entire entourage. We just went with the singular “Fox” following the traditional title for the Asian folklore – in this case, the Japanese version, “Kitsune No Yomeiri.”
It’s interesting how foxes are vilified by the English Aristocracy and other Western cultures but Ancient Chinese traditions admired them?
The tale of the Fox Spirit – called kitsune in Japan, kumiho in Korea, and huli jing or Nine Tails in China and other parts of Asia – is a massive part of the diasporic traditional folklore of Asia. Magical creatures, shapeshifters and demi-gods seen as both benevolent and malevolent in their role in maintaining cosmic balance as karmic deliverers, fox spirits are said to have brought downfall to certain dynastic empires. But the legend of ‘The Fox’s Wedding’ is one that has been quite popular and has received numerous beautiful depictions throughout Asian history to today. We wanted to capture a lot of the details of the legend in the video – from the sunshine rain to the kitsunebi ghost lights that appear in the forest and of course, the mischievous trickery and final reveal at the very end of the video.
Were the lit paper lanterns and boats inspired by the imagery of Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival?
Yes, we wanted to bring some of the most beautiful Asian traditions into the ambience, especially the dance of lights and the lantern boats from Chinese Mid-Autumn festival and DuanWu. The video is a unique amalgam of Asian traditions mixed with Galician to reflect both my and DeadlyKawaii’s diverse lineage and backgrounds. We wanted to weave that beautiful visual tapestry that bridges the East with the West. I always felt like it’s our personal duty with this project to symbolically communicate this bridge in both art and music, and this video gave the platform to showcase this.
The designs on the entourage’s fox masks were inspired by Sargadelos – which is the iconic Galician porcelain and ceramic wares found all over the region. The entourage also wore blue robes as that is the official colour of Galicia. Whereas the bride and groom have a mix of traditional Asian ceremonial attire with Galician motifs and accessories like the Galician Sporran, with their fox masks symbolising nature and the cosmos.
The faerie creatures that appear were also a mix – from kodamas or “tree spirits” found in Japanese folklore, also called nuno in Filipino, to the horned forest guardians found in Gaelic and Druid legends.
How was it directing the child stars in the story?
It was so much fun working with the kids! I felt we got very lucky because they were so perfect and such natural talents. The two boys, Tico and Torgas, are the fraternal twins of our associate producer, and the girl Charlotte is their friend from school whom they eagerly suggested we cast. So they already have that natural bond with each other and were funny and goofy, yet curious at the same time. We usually film our own videos, but this time we enlisted the help of Galician cinematographer, Raul Lorenzo, who worked with us in directing the kids for the shots. All their shots were so precious and hilarious, so it was quite hard to choose what would go in the final edit. They did a beautiful and tremendous job ushering the audience into the magic and throughout.
You played for the first time in Germany at Dark Dance Treffen recently, how was it and are you doing more?
Performing at Dark Dance Treffen so far is one of my greatest highlights. I really had a great time at the festival and getting to know the German dark music and alternative scene. The scene was quite next-level and I was truly in awe by how cool and awesome they are. And yes, I would love to do a tour in Germany soon and do more fests. The next dark fest I’ll be performing at is at the iconic Castle Party in Poland in July 2024.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to CZARINA
‘The Fox’s Wedding’ is from the album ‘Arcana’ released by darkTunes Music Group, available from https://czarinaofficial.bandcamp.com/
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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
22 December 2023
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