Anna and the King (1999)

This is a modern remake of The King and I with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr

Summary

-Anna Leonowens is a teacher working in the royal court of Siam during the 1860s and the unexpected romance with the then King of Siam

Cast

-Jodie Foster: Anna Leonowens

-Chow Yun-Fat: King Mongkut

-Bai Ling: Tuptim

-Tom Felton: Louis

-Syed Alwi: The Kralahome

-Randall Duk Kim: General Alak

-Lim Kay Siu: Prince Chowfa

-Melissa Campbell: Princess Fa-Ying

-Geoffrey Palmer: Lord John Bradley

-Ann Firbank: Lady Bradley

-K.K. Moggie: Phim

Did You Know?

-In real life, the real King Mongkut was paralyzed on one side of his face. This was not mentioned in the film

-This film was banned in Thailand because it was said there were historical inaccuracies regarding the King of Siam and that particular time period

-The story was inspired by the novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon. It was written in 1944 and was inspired by the diaries and memoirs of Anna Harriet Leonowens. Anna was an English teacher who worked in the palace. A lot of what Leonowens had written down by her had been invented by her, of cruelties she was said to have witnessed. Years later, she met with the son and then King of Siam, who had inquired about why she had written such lies about their father. She insisted that they were truthful. She had also claimed she had written about a three year visit to Egypt, which never happened. That she elevated her late husband's military rank from private to general, that she was born in England when she was actually born in India and was one quarter Indian. According to the testimony of one of Tuptim's daughters, she had invented the fate of the woman known as Tuptim

-For her role as Tuptim, Bai Ling shaved her head completely, so as to fit in with the Buddhist monks to be with her lover

-Three months into filming, there was an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis, transmitted by mosquitoes, due to the proximity to pig farms. The sets too close to the pig farms were moved, others were doused with insecticide. The on-set doctor vaccinated the entire cast and crew before production could continue

-According to Andy Tennant, Chow Yun-Fat was referred to as "Fatty" on set

-During the scene where Anna is showing the children the science trick of putting the egg into the bottle, the contents smelled so rank that Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat could hardly breathe

-When Anna worked at the royal court, she worked there from 1862-1867. The king had died the following year

-In the film, it was said that the King had a dozen children, with ten more on the way. In real life, the real King of Siam had 82 children