The Snow Woman

In a certain area of Japan there was a legend of a powerful ghost living in the mountains known as the "Snow Woman" who would kill those she happened to come upon. One particularly snowy day a master carpenter and his apprentice were traveling in the forest looking for a tree to make into a statue for their local shrine. They found the tree but that night the Snow Woman appeared and killed the master as he slept. His apprentice, "Yosaku" (Akira Ishiham) witnessed the whole thing as he lay there completely horrified. She then uncharacteristically tells him that she will spare him as long as he never mentions her or what happened that night. He swears and she leaves. Not long afterward, a beautiful woman named, "Yuki" (Shiho Fujimura) shows up in his village. Yosaku falls in love with her and they get married. Anyway, rather than spoil the story for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this was a pretty good ghost story which is very Japanese. As such, those who are able to enjoy films from another culture (with English subtitles) will probably find this movie quite interesting. Others may not. Personally, I thought it was a very good film. I especially liked the makeup and the snowy sets the director (Tokuzô Tanaka) used which enhanced the spooky ambiance and gave the film an artistic touch. An above average movie.