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Anna and the King

Anna and the King

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful, Exquiste and Wonderful!
Review: Anna and The King starring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat is the most memorable, endearing, spectacular movie I have ever seen. A true winner! Every scene is filled with feeling, passion, honesty and beauty.

Foster and Yun-Fat never hit a false note. Their performances always ring true. Bai Ling as Tuptim gives a moving and memorable performance.

Hats off to a stellar cast and crew and to Andy Tennant for having the vision to bring such beauty to the screen. This is a movie worth watching again and again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the most touching movies ever
Review: The setting of this movie left me spell-binded. Never before have I seen such a beautiful area in which to film a movie. The plot was also great, bringing moral questions into view as well as our own faults. I strongly recommend that you see it as soon as possible.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A performance worth watching again...and again...and again..
Review: Chow Yun Fat and Jodie Foster are the perfect balance of yin and yang in this movie. Although this story has been told no less than three times, this is the first version that brings genuine emotion into play. Chow does an impeccable job of playing King Mongkut, and Foster, the perfect school marm. "Anna and the King" is a movie that will leave you longing for more!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Story, Really Touching...
Review: The story is amazing, the landscapes/views are just wonderful. It's a remake, but still, a good one. Jodie Foster portrays Anna perfectly, I loved her english accent. Chow Yun-Fat is amazing. I was really amazed to discover for the first time in my life the story of a great women. Not all the critics agrees with this movie but it is a beautiful film, and probably one of the best that has ever been made in that category of movies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: exquisite!
Review: I thought that I would like this movie, but I had no idea how much I would LOVE it! I love how they mixed beautiful scenery, music, costumes, dialogue, action, religion, humor, and romance all into one movie. The set was absolutely amazing! The detail in the architecture and in many of the siamese traditions has made me very interested in their culture. Chow Yun-Fat (Oh yah! ) and Jodie Foster worked so well together, and both were able to portray their feelings and thoughts so well on screen! Some complain about the length of the movie, but I can't think of a single scene that I didn't like. In this case the length is essential in displaying the emotion and complication of the plot. I wouldn't have minded if it was even longer! This movie hasn't received the response it deserves, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Brilliant performances !
Review: The story is just superb (it's the best compared to the 2 previous movies "Anna and the king of Siam" and "The king and I") Jodie Foster is just amazing (it's incredible how she can speak with that english accent !) I recommend it to everyone.This movie will stay in your head for a long time...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best "American" Chow Yun-Fat movie so far....
Review: This movie is a feast for the viewers' eyes. The lush scenery and the costumes must be seen to understand how authentic looking they are. The movie set is huge. And of course you have "The Man" in the movie. Chow Yun-Fat does a great job portraying King Mongkut. Jodie Foster gives an above average job of portraying Ann Lenowens. The movie must been seen to fully appreciate it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: PURE entertainment...as it was meant to be...
Review: I love this movie. I have read others' so called "reviews" here and must dispute any negative statements; especially those misguided fools who insist on "reality" when watching a MOVIE, and have no sense of artistic license or drama. Don't you hate those people who insist on tearing apart a film over the minutest of details; like most Americans could really recognize a "fake" English accent if they did'nt know the actress was American already, OY! For those of you who, like me, are marinating in "reality" 24/7, this was a great escape film, filled with gorgeous cinematography and an entertaining script. Jodie Foster is one of the greatest actresses of our generation and Chow Yun-Fat is a welcome import, a man's man, not a pretty boy who's lack of acting ability is blurred by a dazzling smile. This is an enjoyable film that is loosely based on the diaries of Ms. Anna. It is a remake of the King and I; one that is not an insufferable "musical". It is a great lie on the couch in the evening and turn out the lights and let the film entertain you kind of movie that is well worth the 2 and a half hours.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: DESPITE ITS QUIXOTIC VENEER, AN EXQUISITE ODE TO SIAM
Review: This modern rendition of the 'The King and I' is not without its cinematic lacunae, but it's so captivating you'll gloss over most of them.

It's 1862 and King Mongkut of Siam (Thailand) has hired a certain Mrs Anna Leonowens to be an English teacher to his 58 children. She stays there for five years and in 1870 publishes a book about her experiences, which predictably scandalizes British high society, and is considered a great betrayal by the Thai government and people.

The film may be based on these diaries but sure it'd have been blasphemy to rely merely on barebone facts, so it liberally splices action, drama, romance, suspense, even fullfledged battles into the fray.

We follow two broad arcs -- the platonic emotional connection that develops between the king and Anna, and the political backdrop against which this bond is set -- but the leitmotiv is one of change. Both our principals find themselves transformed beyond their own contexts by virtue of their acquaintance.

Jodie Foster is clearly uncomfortable with her British accent as she mumbles her way through three-quarters of the movie, but it is probably her customary detachment in expressing emotion that befits Anna's charm in this film (if one could describe it thus) -- a certain air of arrogance, a misplaced conviction in her own superiority, the 'uncommon richness' of the British way of life, so on and so forth. The film doesn't patronize her character and the few crevices in her personality do come across as cultural idiosynchrasies that can now be looked upon as such, with the benefit of distance.

Chow Yun Fat (a popular Hong Kong actor, you may know him from Crouching Tiger) is majestically imperious in his portrayal of the King caught between the throes of attraction and the cross he must bear as a conscientious ruler.

Their romance is zestful but dignified, their chemistry palpable. His rueful admission of her as an equal and his tender submission to his own feelings of love towards her is masterful. There's even a waltz.

One does wonder about his 26 concubines and 58 children though; they come across chiefly as garden props, we see them and they're there and that's all they do, part of the landscape. An unrelated sequence where a young daughter succumbs to ill health is quite plainly a tear-jerker thrown in for that sole purpose.

Things then get dodgier on the political front. Anna's heroic rescue of Siam seems heavily contrived. No king with a couple brain cells or more would find himself mired in the sort of military faux pas that occurs here. Let's not spoil the suspense but there's a goofball insurrection that culminates in a positively cartoonish battle. Little surprise to me that Thai government chose to ban the film, not for groveling love of their monarchy but out of basic self-respect.

These quibbles aside, the film is stunningly produced and well-worth seeing for the rest of us if only for the luxurious mantle in which it comes cloaked. The scenery is spectacular, with lush green mountain fields, grand palatial foyers draped in red silk, pillars etched in gold, even a long sweeping view of the royal steamboat on the river between the banks of a dense rain forest. The set and costume design are so sumptuous they'd have won Bertolucci's grudging admiration.

Without doubt a heartily made epic and recommended with equal intensity if you're willing to go easy on the rigours of historical or cultural accuracy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as great as I hoped, but still pretty good
Review: The acting and story in this were very good, but it was lacking something for me. Maybe I'm just too used to the musical version (it's called The King And I.) I've seen the movie countless times and even saw the play at my local theater. It was the touring company of the Broadway play. Jimmie Walker starred as the King and he was brilliant!

Getting back to this movie, like I said, it was good. It's worth seeing. Of course, anything starring Jodie Foster is worth seeing. I've been a fan of hers ever since she was in Zapped with Scott Baio.


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