stylistic:tone
Kongjwi and Patjwi

Originating from Korea, Kongjwi and Patjwi is a tale similar to Disney's Cinderella, with two distinguishing characteristics: the degree of violence and the plot's continuance past the marriage to the prince charming. The protagonist, Kongjwi, loses her mother when she was a child and her father remarries a widow. The widow also has a daughter, named Patjwi. After her father passes, the stepmother and Patjwi abuse Kongjwi by starving, beating, and working her brutally. Kongjwi is aided by animals and supernatural helpers, like a cow, a toad, a flock of birds, and a fairy. These helpers aid Kongjwi in attending a dance in honor of a magistrate. On her way back from the dance, Kongjwi loses one of her shoes, and the magistrate searches the towns to find the one who can fit the shoe. When he finds Kongjwi, he marries her.

Where Disney's Cinderella ends, Kongjwi's hardships continue into the marriage. Patjwi, envious of this marriage, pretends to ask for Kongjwi's forgiveness and then drowns Kongjwi in a pond. Patjwi then pretends to be Kongjwi and marries the magistrate. Kongjwi is then reincarnated into a lotus flower, burned by Patjwi, and reincarnated once more into a marble. With help from additional characters, Kongjwi is able to inform her husband of Patjwi's doings. As punishment, Patjwi is ripped apart alive, her body made into jeotgal, and sent to her mother. She eats it in ignorance, and when told that it is Patjwi's flesh, she dies out of shock. There are 17 variants of this tale known in South Korea.

A notable difference from Disney's Cinderella is that Kongjwi is not a helpless maiden who relies on a man of greater power to solve her problems. Kongjwi avenges her death with her own determination and willpower. Unlike Perrault's version of Cinderella, named Cendrillon, who forgives her stepfamily when they plead for forgiveness, Kongjwi takes ownership of the principle of kwon seon jing ak (권선징악) and accomplishes her vengeance herself. The violent degree of the punishments stems from the increased violence (starvation, beating, betrayal, and ultimately murder) that Kongjwi suffered compared to the abuses Disney's Cinderella went through.