Byaku fujin no yôren

Very gleeful mystery drama about snake spirit Madam White Snake able to transform into human form after a thousand years of meditation . She descends to earth and marries Hsu Hsien who saves her in his previous life. They live happily together until he learns the truth of his wife. I have seen this movie on good quality HK DVD with Chinese subtitles. For my opinion this joint HK Japanese production contains two different cinematic styles and different from ordinary HK movies of 50-60s Chinese ghost story about Madame White Snake is set in the Southern Song Dynasty and telling about beautiful place in China-West Lake in Hangzhou.I was living one year in Hangzou in 90s and after many years of travels cannot forget magic atmosphere of Lake of emperors. My rate is 7/10.

This film takes place in China during the ancient Song Dynasty and starts with a young man named "Xu Xian" (Ryo Ikebe) meeting a young woman named "Bai Niang" (Shirley Yamaguchi) and her servant "Xiao-Qing" (Kaoru Yachigusa) on a ferry. Since it is raining Xu Xian offers his umbrella to Bai Niang who promises to return it to him and gives him her address. The next day he goes to see her and after a brief conversation he learns that Bai Niang has become attracted to him. However, even though he also shares this attraction, the fact that she comes from a noble family prevents the romance from going any further. At least, that is what Xu Xian believes. So when he is offered money by Bai Niang for their wedding he accepts it immediately and goes home to make plans. What he doesn't know is that there is much more to Bai Niang than meets the eye and that any relationship with her involves a great deal of risk on his part. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather strange film in that it featured Japanese actors in a Chinese setting. It also took a little while for the story to fully materialize but it became quite fascinating from that point. That said, I found this to be an enjoyable film for the most part and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Above average.