This is a movie about Thailand (Siam) and its history that is rarely seen in English movies. Abandoning the minutiae added for plot rendering, the background is that the story takes place in Thailand at the beginning of the 19th century. At that time, Thailand survived between the British and French imperialist and colonial powers. The King of Siam attempted to adopt a policy of "civilization". Obtain the recognition of the Western world and continue the rule of the dynasty.
I liken this movie to the Thai version of "The Last Emperor" because both were shot for audiences in English-speaking countries. Just as Johnston did not have as many "plays" in the political arena of the late Qing Dynasty as in "The Last Emperor", Anna's influence on the King of Siam is naturally limited. What I have to say is that the indispensable cultural center of the English-speaking world can never be ruled out, even if a lot of dramas are added "out of thin air" in order to whitewash this point (even after the "washing", the king will always use "I am Siamese". "Our own national conditions are here" appeared). But no matter how the film wants to guide the narrative, how to "wash", the subject itself is the product of this colonial view, and adding the element of "washing" can only have the effect of concealing it, and it also reflects the side of its ears and bells. . The imperialists in the past believed that Thailand had no civilization. Now you think that Thailand has its own civilization and value system. However, whether people have civilization or not, what does it have to do with you British? Is it the drug ship that affected you, or the queen’s army?
There is also a movie with the same perspective, "The Last Samurai." Compared with the two movies mentioned above, we can give a ranking of the degree of cultural centralism in the three movies, namely: "Anna and the King"> "The Last Emperor"> "The Last Samurai". "Anna and the King" is completely a cliché of Western redemption theory, just whitewashing the yellow people; "The Last Emperor" Chinese and Westerners are observers, but there is a suspicion of distracting the guests; "The Last Samurai", the Chinese and Westerners are actually integrated into Japanese culture The side of the story, but it makes people doubt the authenticity of the story. In the final analysis, this is still a matter of cultural export. "If you don't have to do it, you will seek yourselves". If you don't speak, or say that other people can't hear or understand, there will be a self-righteous person who will "speak up" for you (like "Anna and the King"); if you say If they understand half of it, they will embezzle elements of your culture as embellishments, like various Chinese movies made in the West; if you say it, they basically understand it, then there can be masterpieces, like "The Matrix The Japanese dojo in ", even if it is more cleverly set up, rather than cultural appropriation. How to best cultural output so that outsiders can "hear" and "understand" is a university question, and of course there is no end to the discussion here. However, its importance cannot be overemphasized.
Although the film is sinister and the backward view is no longer popular, it needs to be admitted that the film's framing and setting, and the actors' acting skills are all of a standard. So, I still gave it a relatively good score.
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