A fiery Foster stars in new version of 'Anna and the King'

By Tam Notosusanto

JAKARTA (JP): East is East and West is West. And the twain did meet at the court of the King of Siam.

At least they did in the 1860s, when a British woman came to the palace to teach King Mongkut's children and wives English. However, both the king and the Brit got more than they bargained for.

The world discovered Anna Leonowens and her experiences at the King of Siam's palace through her diaries, which later became the basis for a Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical. Hollywood soon followed suit, with Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The King and I (1956), the big-screen adaptation of the musical. And later followed The King and I (1998), the animated version of the musical.

Apparently Hollywood deemed us in need of yet another version: the nonmusical one. And so they created Anna and the King, a retelling of the story, with more realism, less humor and no songs whatsoever (save for the theme song, which is placed at the closing credits).

The film ensures that the Thai monarchy is not treated as a joke, that the king is not presented as a Yul Brynner-style caricature, that he is in fact portrayed by a real Asian for a change. From the outset, the movie tries hard to make up for whatever offenses were committed by The King and I, which is considered one of Hollywood's classics, but is so infamously unpopular in Thailand that it was never screened there.

All the king's horses and all the king's men could not keep Anna and the King from enduring the same fate, however. On the week the film opened in the United States and several other countries (including Indonesia), the Thai censor's board officially banned it, calling it a "distortion of history and insulting the king and the royal family."

The board is nothing if not consistent, as a year ago it did not even allow the film's shooting to take place in Thailand, since the movie script already indicated the said offenses.

In truth, Anna and the King displays a somewhat politically- correct image of the king, who is portrayed in the previous films by Englishman Rex Harrison, European Yul Brynner, and on the stage, among others, by La Bamba Lou Diamond Phillips.

This time, he is played by Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-Fat, which is as far as Hollywood would go in casting an Asian (given Hollywood's limited choices of big stars from our continent, I'm sure it was either Chow or Jackie Chan).

Nevertheless, although Chow gives Mongkut some dignified elegance the king was never allowed in the past films, Anna and the King goes back to the same old core: how Westerners view themselves as teachers of Asians in leading cultured, civilized lives.

In this film, Anna Leonowens (Jodie Foster) has that mission in mind from the start. As she arrives in Thailand in 1862, ready to work as the hired English tutor for the royal family, she tells her young son, Louis (Tom Felton): "We're here to teach the king's family, because the ways of the English are the ways of the world."

And so she demonstrates it: insisting on standing as she is accepted by Prime Minister Kralahome (Syed Alwi) and pushing to meet the king when he doesn't want to see her. After a few minor clashes, however, the king is smitten by her rebellious nature. In their subsequent encounters we can see a glint in his eyes, as if telling her, "Lady, you got spunk."

Anna's jurisdiction gradually expands beyond her classroom. First she tames the proud Chulalongkorn (Keith Chin), the king's crown prince -- who glowingly narrates the film's opening and closing: "She was the first Englishwoman I'd ever met." Next, she liberates a slave from her vicious owner. And she continues to make a fuss about the king's numerous wives and concubines. All of this under the king's watchful gaze.

Director Andy Tennant is no stranger to this kind of material, having created a progressive and gutsy Cinderella in the 1998 film Ever After. He seems committed to injecting an air of realism into Anna and the King, largely by way of Luciana Arrighi's lavish sets and Jenny Beavan's meticulous costume designs.

But he and his co-writers, Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes and Rick Parks, couldn't help making Anna into a powerful crusader of democracy and human rights. Never mind that the real Mongkut and his successor, Chulalongkorn, are Western-minded reformers in their own rights. Never mind that historians say the real Anna had little contact with the king. Folks, according to this film, there would be no modernization in Thailand if it weren't for Anna Leonowens!

As Anna, Jodie Foster tries to impress with her British accent, but she tries too hard to make each atrocity Anna witnesses in 19th century Siam real. Each time she stumbles upon an issue, her speech is so overcome by emotion that she appears to have breathing problems.

The only scene-stealing appearance is Bai Ling's subdued performance as Tuptim, a concubine who meets a tragic end in pursuing her true love. After defending the mistreated Richard Gere in Red Corner, now it is Bai's turn to play the mistreated victim herself.

Sit back and enjoy this movie. Enjoy it all the way to the awkward climax (which has nothing to do with human rights or democracy, but of the king getting rid of some malicious traitors) in which Mongkut's life is saved -- by guess who? It's a decent and enjoyable movie, only if you don't take it too seriously.