Bidasari

Bidasari is a 1965 Malaysian black-and-white romantic-drama film starring Jins Shamsuddin and Sarimah. The film is notable as having dialogue that is written almost completely as rhyming poetry. The story is based on the Malay poem Bidasari which has some similarities with the western fairy-tale of Snow White. When a simple merchant, his young son and mute servant are out in the woods, they chance upon a drifting boat, in which there is a baby girl and a bowl containing a live goldfish. The merchant realises that the baby is unusual because her life is bonded to the fish: if the fish leaves the water, she stops breathing. The merchant adopts the baby as her own and names her Bidasari. Years later Bidasari grows up into a beautiful young...