Allow film, star urges Thai royals
Superstar Chow Yun-fat appealed yesterday to the Thai royal family to allow his film Anna and the King to be screened in Thailand.
Speaking before the film's Hong Kong gala premiere tonight, he said the crew had made every effort to make the film historically authentic, and he had spent months mastering Thai.
'It's a difficult language and I probably mispronounce many words, but my Thai is passable now,' said Chow, recently voted the sexiest action star by People magazine in the United States. 'People would appreciate the efforts we have made in our portrayal of King Mongkut.' The film's director, Andy Tennant, said the screen version of the film was shown to the royal family at the weekend and he hoped they would approve.
'The script we first showed them was not perfect but when they [Thai censors] rejected it, we refined it and kept at it,' he said. 'It was certainly an improvement on Yul Brynner's buffoonish king saying 'et cetera et cetera',' he said referring to the musical The King and I, which is banned in Thailand.
The new film, based on the story of English teacher Anna Leonowens - played by Jodie Foster - who became tutor to King Mongkut's court between 1862 and 1867, was sixth in the US box office ratings last week.
Anna and the King will be shown in Hong Kong from Thursday. Historians regard King Mongkut as the first Thai ruler to modernise the country and something of a philosopher-king, and consider Leonowens' account of her influence at court to be fraudulent.
Thai film censors have published a book defending their decision to ban the shooting in Thailand of Anna and the King. The film was shot in Malaysia.
