Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera

Okay, so have you lot seen the various versions of Anna and the King? Also might be known as The King and I or even Anna and the King of Siam? Yeah, ya'll know which films I am referring to right?

Basic storyline : British woman comes to Siam to teach King Mongkut's children English and she is appalled by his 'foreign' behavior and wishes to 'correct' him and in some versions they fall in love "etcetera etcetera etcetera"? <--If you haven't seen the 1950s version you wouldn't understand my etcetera joke.

Anyways, it doesn't matter because I hate them.

ALL OF THEM.

They're all stupid.

Why?

Because these are films that are Hollywoodized.

In other words, films that the Western world think ancient Thailand was supposed to be like. I mean seriously, if you watched the older versions you'll probably agree that they completely insulted the Thai royal family along with its people.

I can't stand it when directors from the West try to make films about Asia. It's too, I don't know, Hollywood?

Maybe I've been watching too many South East Asian films in my class.

But this Anna and the King bothered me the most because there are so many versions to it and when one compares and contrasts over the decades of versions made, STILL ANNOYING.

First of all, the King is not even Thai. In fact, 90% aren't even Thai. Hence their Thai accents are AWFUL. I am not a Thai but I've seen Thai films and you can totally tell in all these films that these people aren't Thai.

Specifically referring to the 1999 version (which was shot in Malaysia) I'd like to ask, how the hell can Chow Yun Fat play the king? His Thai accent is so off I almost wanted to puke. Even when he speaks English as the King of Mongkut I can still tell that he's not Thai! It's like some Hong Kong superstar trying to speak Thai with a Chinese accent!...Wait a minute...IT IS!

ERGH.

And what annoys me more is that there are Malaysian actors in the 1999 version. And even they didn't get the Thai accent too right. Apa ni wey? Neighboring country's accent also cannot imitate ah?

Fine fine fine. Thai IS a hard accent to acquire. It is so soft and languid even I don't think I can imitate it and as far as I know I am pretty darn good at imitating accents. So maybe we should ask Thai actors to remake the film. Would that then do justice to the horrendous versions of these films for the past decades? Most likely.

But the problem is: I don't think the Thai people are too happy about the storyline in the first place. Because it basically shows King Mongkut trying to be a kiss ass to the West, a womanizer, "etcetera, etcetera, etcetera".

In fact, the 1999 version was banned in Thailand . Heh.

So how lah?

Jawapannya : DON'T EVER MAKE ANY MORE VERSIONS TO THIS FILM! EVER. SERIOUSLY, NO MORE HOLLYWOOD, NO MORE!

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