Anna And The King (1999) **

Directed by Andy Tennant. With Chow Yun-Fat and Jodie Foster. The fourth motion picture based on Anna Leonowens' memoirs as a governess in the court of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s. While the sets and the costumes are very beautiful, the script is horribly dated, even racist. By the standards of her times, Anna Leonowens was certainly a very progressive, almost feminist heroine. But today, her memoirs' blatantly Eurocentric perspective is much harder to swallow.