Best movie ever!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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.

This is essentially the same Snow Witch story as told in the well-known Japanese ghost film anthology, "Kwaidan". Here it is extended out into a 75 minute excursion into the supernatural.A master sculptor and his apprentice are trapped in a bad snow storm after finding a special tree for carving a statue for the local temple. Finding refuge in an abandoned hut they celebrate their luck n finding the tree but soon they are visited by the Snow Witch who freezes the sculptor to death but takes pity on the apprentice. He must promise to never speak of this or she'll return and kill him. Back in town, the apprentice is promoted and given the task of making the statue. A mysterious beautiful woman arrives during a torrential rain storm and quickly falls in love with the apprentice. Soon she comes under the lustful eye of the evil Baliff who controls the town. And so it goes....While the painterly method this story is told in Kwaidan is well-known and appreciated, here the story is accomplished with very careful lighting effects and lens filters. In some ways this is a much more beautiful telling of the story. Akira Ikufube provides a familiar yet unique score. Aside from a couple of clumsy spots in the script and the actor playing the apprentice underplays his part, this is an excellent film.