A family of tanuki screws up, gets cursed, turns into snow. That's the whole movie, and it never wastes a second explaining or apologizing for itself. Ikuo Oishi built this thing with the economy of a folktale, just animal shapes and consequence, no dialogue to soften the landing. The bamboo spirits don't monologue about why they're angry. The tanuki don't cry or beg. Something goes wrong, something happens, and the world moves on. Animation historians keep this one alive because it moves like nothing else from that era, but you don't need to care about history to feel how cold and clean it is.

A family of tanuki digs through the snow in search of food and turns up some bamboo shoots. They carry the shoots home, but once they peel them there is nothing inside. The shoots then change into spirits, which lay a curse on the tanuki family and turn them into snow. The film is a comedy with a supernatural twist.