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- [anna and the king]
- -- usa / 1999 / 147 mins
- -- director : andy tennant
- -- screenplay : anna leonowens (diaries), steve meerson
- -- starring : chow yun-fat, jodie foster, bai ling
- -- certificate : IIa(hk), pg-13(us), 12(uk)
- -- awards :
- academy awards <2> : best art direction (nom), best costume design (nom)
- golden globe award <2> : best orginal score (nom), best original song (nom)
- golden satellite awards <3> : best art direction & production design (nom), best cinematography (nom), best costume design (nom)
- golden reel award <1> : best sound editing - music (nom)
- award for excellence in production design <1> : best feature (nom)
- young artist award <2> : best family feature film - drama (nom), best performance in an international film - young performer (keith chin) (nom)
anna and the king, chow yun-fat's third hollyfeatwood movie since he made his debut appearance in the replacement killers (1998), then in the corrupter (1999) and it is also the best among the three. he does not have guns on his hands this time any more, on the other hand, what appeals to the audience is his humour and charisma as king mongkut. academy award winner, jodie foster also gave a solid performance but she got meagre chance to be nominated as best actress in oscar this year 'cause her role as an english teacher is emotionally flat (comparatively), that means the key element that every oscar-nominated role needs is absent. other protagonists, especially bai ling gave compelling performance as well. though her role is rather minor, she did leave deep impression on my mind long after the movie.
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anna and the king is absolutely beautiful to watch, thanx to cinematographer caleb deschanel. i heard that a lot of money was spent to rebuild the siam palace which is golden and looks just as the real one that i have visited in bangkok. i am a little bit disappointed by george fenton's score 'cause i expected even more though it got nominated in golden globe.
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the problem of anna and the king is the story and the script that has a fuzzy focus (there are too many unnecessary subplots) so that the audience would just forget everything right after the end credit rolls. and also the chemistry between chow and foster, to me, is just unbelievable.
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can the great-looking spectacle outweighs the unfocused plot? for me, both are equally important. but i know that this movie could have been so much more.
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