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