A couple of days ago I happened across a film out on DVD called, “Kwaidan.”
Essentially it’s an anthology film that compiles four renditions of Japanese horror tales. The first was, “The Black Hair.” Another was “Hoichi, the Earless,” then “In A Cup of Tea,” and then there’s "The Woman of the Snow."
Yes it is a telling of the Snow Lady myth. Essentially this version has a old woodcutter and his young apprentice being caught within a sudden, violent snowstorm. They take shelter in an empty shack, but in the middle of the night the younger one awakes to see a woman, with pale skin and white robes, leaning over the older man. She breathes over him and he freezes up and dies.
She turns and sees the younger man has seen her. She approaches him and makes him promise to never tell anyone about what he’s seen or she’ll come back and kill him.
Well after about a year he meets a young woman named Yuki and he quickly falls in love with her. They become married and have children, living happily for years.
Well soon the man grows so comfortable with his wife that he decides that he must tell her about what happened so many years ago. And…well you can guess the ending.
I know this is for bishoujo games and anime, but since it figured in with the myth one of the games is based upon I thought it was okay to share it.