Madame White Snake (1963)

Genres - Children's/Family, Drama, Fantasy, Romance  |   Sub-Genres - Children's Fantasy, Fairy Tales & Legends  |   Run Time - 105 min.  |   Countries - Hong Kong  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Tom Vick

One of more than a dozen film versions of a famous Chinese folk tale, this co-production between Japan's Toho Studios and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers stars the Japanese actress Shirley Yamaguchi in the title role. She plays a serpent spirit who, along with her sister, is finally able to attain human form after centuries of practice. She falls in love with and marries a mortal man, but their union (and her life) is threatened by a sinister Buddhist monk bent on destroying her. Yamaguchi's husband at the time, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, created a well-known sculpture based on her character in this film.

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Keywords

amulet, battle [war], Buddhism, clerk, marriage, metamorphosis, monk, mortality, reincarnation, shapeshifter, soulmate, supernatural-forces