Samarang (1933)

With all the natural beauty of the South Seas!

A pseudo-documentary, “Samarang” tells the story of lowly Ahmang (Captain A.V. Cockle) and his socially superior love, Sai-Yu (Theresa Seth). Both live in the village of Samarang in the Indian Ocean. Because Sai-Yu is the daughter of a chief and Ahmang is but a poor fisherman, he needs to increase his wealth before asking for her hand. Thus he accepts the perilous offer of the wily Chang-Fu, who seeks pearl divers. Ahmang must brave the treacherous waters of the Forbidden Lagoon of Sakai, home to bloodthirsty cannibals, killer sharks, and a monstrous grasping octopus. Sai-Yu and Ahmang’s younger brother Ko-Hai come along for kicks, too. Ahmang finds his pearl, but he and Sai-Yu are stranded on the island, where they befriend a local orangutan. When they return to the boat, a shark kills Ko-Hai, and Ahmang must get revenge.

Date of release
1933-06-28
TMDB
4.1 / 10 (7)
Runtime
59m
Genres
Action, Documentary
Director
Ward Wing

Casting

Interesting facts

Samarang is a 1933 American Pre-Code action film directed by Ward Wing and written by Thomas J. Geraghty. The film was released on June 28, 1933, by United Artists. Its copyright was registered in 1933 but was not renewed, so the film is in the public domain. The film, although apparently meant to be set in Indonesia was filmed in Singapore and Malaysia.

Production

With its exotic location, Samarang followed the formula of other educational films of that time, mixing footage of factual cultural scenes with its fictional romance story, and as an American ethnographic film included displays of nudity that were considered acceptable.

Director Ward used Sakai extras for the film, but it was difficult finding a translator. The only person he could find that spoke Sakai was a Chinese man who didn't speak English, so he had to hire a Malay to interpret into Chinese, so the Chinese man could translate into Sakai. Cockle, the lead actor, also assisted in translating into Malay. Additional Tamil language translators were also brought in.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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