The Legend of White Snake (Season 1)

The Legend of White Snake (新白娘子传奇, 2019) is a Chinese fantasy romance you can watch online on iFILM. Bai Su Zhen is a snake spirit who has cultivated her powers for a thousand years; she takes human form in the city of Hangzhou and finds herself drawn into a confrontation with the mortal merchant Xu Xuan.

What begins as a contest — she sets out to expose him as a fraud — turns into something neither of them planned for. Standing against them is the Buddhist monk Fa Hai, who believes a union between a spirit and a mortal violates the natural order and intends to end it. Ju Jingyi and Yu Menglong lead the cast; Zhi Lei directed.

The White Snake story has been staged in Chinese opera and retold on screen for well over a century — it is one of four great classical folk legends in Chinese culture. This 2019 adaptation keeps the focus on the love story, with the fantasy elements serving the romance rather than overshadowing it. Stream The Legend of White Snake (2019) online on iFILM.