there's a growing trend in the film industry. Realism. Take a real story, add a bit of drama and complement it with the most accurate backgrounds,
costumes and props possible. First there was Titanic, then Saving Private Ryan. Now, Anna and the King is making the attempt.
The story of Anna and the King is based on the true-life adventures of Anna Leonowens, who was hired by the 19th-century King of Siam (now called Thailand) to educate his 58 children. Soon after arriving in Thailand, Anna (Jodie Foster) finds herself engaged in a battle of wits with the strong-willed ruler (Chow Yun-Fat).
Unlike the previous productions of this story, the filmmakers hired Thai consultants to ensure that their love story portrays King Mongkut the way Thai historians do: as a visionary who fended off colonialism by launching his country's modernism.

Director Andy Tennant (Ever After, Fools Rush In) originally intended to shoot this in Thailand wanting desperately to show the story in its original setting. Twentieth Century Fox submitted revised scripts to the National Film Board in Thailand hoping for its approval. However, after five rejected scripts, Fox reluctantly moved the filming to Malaysia.

Chow Yun-Fat made his name playing tough villains, gangsters and assassins in Hong Kong and American action movies such as The Replacement Killer and Hard Boiled. Playing the proud, and at times buffoonish, King Mongkut in this romance film may seem beyond his scope, but Yun-Fat has many talents. His past roles in drama and comedy are usually overshadowed by the present hype of his action characters.
Yun-Fat started his acting career in 1974 at age 18, working for a television studio in Hong Kong. He ended up staying there for 14 years, completing numerous films and over 1,000 episodes in various series; playing rolls in soap operas, dramas and comedies. By the mid 1980s, he was awarded with several best actor awards.

Yun-Fat did not play the gunslinging character most westerners know him by until 1986 when he hooked up with director John Woo (Face Off, Broken Arrow). By 1995, he had appeared in 71 movies.

Born to a family of farmers, Yun-Fat's personality is a contrast to the characters he plays. He has no ego and is very humble. "Some day, somehow, if I'm not in this business," he says, "I really want to go back to being a farmer again."

                                                                                                                 Jane Sanderson