Anna and the King
Directed by	Andy Tennant
Produced by	Lawrence Bender Ed Elbert
Written by	Steve Meerson Peter Krikes
Starring	Chow Yun-Fat Jodie Foster Bai Ling Tom Felton
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	6 December 1999 (Malaysian Premiere)
Running time	148 min.
Language	English / Thai / French
Budget	$75,000,000
IMDb profile

Anna and the King is a 1999 motion picture loosely based on the story of Anna Leonowens, who was an English schoolteacher in Siam, now Thailand, in the 19th century. The picture is a remake of Anna and the King of Siam, but differs in many respects from that picture and also from the related musical, The King and I.

The film was directed by Andy Tennant and stars Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat. It was an Academy Award nominee in 2000 for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Plot

The film begins by following the story of Anna Leonowens and Rama IV as it is usually told; Anna is a widow who has come to Siam with her son Louis to teach English to the royal children. She is a strong-willed, intelligent woman and this pleases the King, who wants to modernize his country to keep it safe from the threat of colonialism, while protecting many of the ancient traditions that give Siam its unique identity.

Anna is enchanted by the royal children, particularly Princess Fa-ying (Melissa Campbell). The little girl identifies with the spirit of the playful monkeys who live in the trees of the royal garden. When she suddenly takes ill of cholera, Anna is summoned to her chambers to say goodbye. She gets there just as Fa-ying dies in Mongkut's hands, and the two mourn together. Sometime later, when the King finds that one of the monkeys has "borrowed" his glasses, as his daughter used to do, he is comforted by his belief in reincarnation and the idea that Fa-ying may be reborn as one of her beloved animals.

Lady Tuptim (Bai Ling), the King's new favorite concubine, was already engaged when brought to the court. The King is kind to her, but she's too unhappy and at last runs away, disguising herself as a young man and joining the monastery where her former fiancé lives. She is tracked down and brought back to the palace, imprisoned, and caned along with her fiancé. Anna pleads with the King to be merciful, but he says that if Anna had not come to him, he could have done something; since she did, if he helped Tuptim now it would look to others as though he were taking direction from a woman, which would be unseemly. In front of thousands of witnesses, who clearly believe the sentence is monstrously unfair, Tuptim and her fiance are beheaded.

The political aspects of the story are completely fictional: Siam is under siege from what appears to be a British-funded coup d'état against King Mongkut, using Burmese soldiers. Mongkut sends out his brother Prince Chaofa and his military advisor General Alak to investigate.

However, it turns out that Alak is the man behind the coup and he turns on and kills Chaofa. He then flees Siam into Burma where he summons and readies his troops to invade Siam and kill the king and his children.

With Anna's help, the king manages to hide his children and his wives in a safe place. Then he goes with the few soldiers he has to face Alak. Siamese soldiers place high explosives on a wooden bridge high above a canyon floor, as Alak and his army approaches. The king orders his "army" to stay back and rides to the bridge alone. Alak takes two soldiers to confront the king.

Anna is waiting in the forest and sounds her horn, sending the Burmese into disarray and retreat. Alak stands alone, and the king shows mercy and rides back to Siam. Alak picks up a gun and aims at the king, but the explosives are detonated, blowing the bridge to pieces, and Alak along with it.

Cast

Supporting cast

Controversy

The film implies a much larger role in the development of the Thai nation than Anna Leonowens ever claimed for herself. Even more controversially, it suggests a romance between Anna and the king.

A Thai adviser was hired, as were many Thai actors. The screenplay went through five rewrites in an effort to win approval by the Thai government. However, the screenplay still contained too many inaccuracies, so the production was moved to Ipoh and Penang, Malaysia. The film is banned in Thailand because of its distortions of Thai history and the historically inaccurate portrayal of King Mongkut, whose memory is highly revered in Thailand. However, home-video copies have found their way into the Kingdom and the film has gained a following. ^[1]

The story of Lady Tuptim, and of the slave woman La-ore whom Anna works to set free, are repeated from earlier versions of the film and play, and from Anna Leonowens' own writings. Tuptim's story is not a matter of historical record. It was based on bits of harem gossip, and if it genuinely occurred, may have happened long before Anna got there, or before Mongkut took the throne. In any case, Mongkut's law provided for women who were unhappy with harem life to leave without disgrace, provided they had no children.

References

1. ^ Towira, Pimpaka. September 21, 1999. "Heart of a Patriot", The Nation (retrieved via ThaiStudents.com on October 17, 2006)

External links

• Anna and the King at the Internet Movie Database
• Anna and the King at Rotten Tomatoes
• Anna and the King at Box Office Mojo

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