The Legend of the White Serpent (1956): Cast & Plot

During the Song dynasty in Hangzhou, Ryô Ikebe portrays Xu Xian, an apprentice at his brother’s medicine shop, who crosses paths with Yoshiko Yamaguchi as Bai-niang, a mysterious woman, and her companion Kaoru Yachigusa as Xiao-qing while they ride a ferry in the rain. A chance encounter unfolds when Xu Xian lends them his parasol, and the next day he goes to the Bai manor to return it. Bai-niang, touched by the gesture, gifts Xu Xian a red scarf and 500 pieces of silver, though Xiao-qing has secretly stolen the money from the local treasury on her mistress’s orders. When the theft is discovered, Xu Xian’s family and the local officials confront him at the abandoned Bai manor, and Bai-niang vanishes in a plume of smoke.