Anna and the King ** (1999, Jodie Foster, Yun-Fat Chow, Bai Ling) – Classic Movie Review 10,678

Director Andy Tennant’s 1999 historical biopic Anna and the King stars Jodie Foster as widowed British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens, who goes to Bangkok in 1862 to rule the enormous brood of the stern King Mongkut of Siam (Chow Yun-Fat), and teach them English. Anna and the King then start an unlikely romance, in this serviceable but none too inspiring, old-style, old-fashioned, old-hat romantic drama.

Foster and Chow are pretty good, though, and so is the handsome production designed by Luciana Arrighi and lovingly captured in Caleb Deschanel’s beautiful cinematography.

Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes’s screenplay is based on the diaries of Anna Leonowens. It is the fourth film of her story, after Anna and the King of Siam (1946), the musical The King and I (1956) and the cartoon The King and I.

It is unlikely that the real Anna and King had a romantic relationship. She was 27 years old when she started as teacher to the children of King Mongkut, who was 58. There is nothing in Leonowens’s or Mongkut’s diaries that suggests anything other than a tolerance of each other.

It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for Luciana Arrighi (art director) and Ian Whittaker (set decorator), and Best Costume Design for Jenny Beavan.

Also in the cast are Bai Ling, Tom Felton, Syed Alwi, Randall Duk Kim, Geoffrey Palmer and Anne Firbank.

RIP Geoffrey Palmer, James Bond actor and British sitcom star, who died in November 2020, aged 93.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,678

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