The King And I
17 Jun 2010
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1955 this lavish production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway hit The King and I, starring Yul Brynner as the King of Siam and Deborah Kerr as the governess sent to look after his children, was the most expensive film ever mounted by 20th Century Fox. The 40 sets in ripe decors by Walter M Scott and Paul S Fox included a ballroom of black marble with jade and silk tapestries and a banqueting scene with a table that gives the impression of stretching to infini… More >>
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June 17th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
In Siamese collectivistic culture, especially at that time of period (1862), I suppose one of the biggest damaging cultural stereotypes is about Thais having conservative views. The movie artistically uses its scenes to show us this cultural stereotype. The scene in which King’s children are being taught geography is a good example for this damaging stereotype of Thai culture at that time. Ethnocentrism, parochialism, and the lack of scientific knowledge of Siamese people are all shown with the map and the lecture of the Siamese lady (an unscientific map and the comparison between the King of Siam and the King of Burma): “Siam is the biggest and richest country in the world”. However, it doesn’t mean that Siamese people can’t be scientific or they can’t learn sciences. The hierarchy in Asian country doesn’t give the people freedom, but on the other hand, it makes the country, politics, and culture follow the traditional value. In fact, the true historical King Rama IV who was really a man of Renaissance, he knew several Western languages and studied political science, hard sciences, western cultures, and colonialism. He wanted to bring Siam into the Modern world. In this situation, there appeared an advantage in Siamese culture. It is that the hierarchy in Siam played a very important role to keep the country’s society and its political situation stable for Thailand to modernize.
Rating: 4 / 5
June 17th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Firstly, I suppose the portrait of English people in the film of that time is absolutely made true to life. I still remember their appearance in the very first scene: they are sophisticated dressed and enamored in opera. Besides, in their relationship and communication, they are more open with each other (evidence: the early scene when the English teacher was singing opera and dancing with her son on the ship). In short, it is possible to say that the portrait of English people in the movie is the symbol of English culture as well as Western culture at that time period. In contrary, most Siamese people in the film appeared with less clothes, which is specifically characteristic for a tropical country. Moreover, as we can see, men wear earrings, also a characteristic of Siamese culture. In Siamese’s relationship, we can easily realize the hierarchy in every field of this culture. The magnificent King’s palace and royal housing are shown as evidences of the political hierarchy in Siam. We can see that the higher class often beat the labor people (the scene when the Prime Minister beats his employee). Besides, there also exists the hierarchy in terms of gender. For example: the King has a lot of wives and children. In general, the hierarchy which is shown in some early scenes is one phenomenon in Thai culture as well as in Asian culture. In my opinion, these basic differences between these two cultures are major reasons that caused facts of the case.
Secondly, those basic differences above directly caused a lot of conflicts in the relationship and communication between the English teacher and Siamese people. When English people freely use verbal language to communicate, Siamese are quite severe in that case and they mostly use non-verbal communication styles. There is a scene when the English teacher enters the palace for the first time. She is not allowed to see the King’s face while the King just waves his finger to call her. To show each other respect and submission, Siamese usually lie flat on the ground. Those evidences showed the English teacher could not easily match the Siamese royal environment at the first place. I can remember the King said to her: “You are not afraid of King”, and later on, he said: “You are a difficult woman”. Via conflicts in communication styles in some early scenes, we can clearly recognize the big gap between the individualism of the West and collectivism of the East.
Delving into Siamese collectivist culture, especially at that time of period, I suppose one of the biggest damaging cultural stereotypes is about Thais having conservative views. The movie artistically uses its scenes to show us this cultural stereotype. The scene in which King’s children are being taught geography is a good example for this damaging stereotype of Thai culture at that time. Ethnocentrism, parochialism, and the lack of scientific knowledge of Siamese people are all shown with the map and the lecture of the Siamese lady (an unscientific map and the comparison between the King of Siam and the King of Burma): “Siam is the biggest country in the world”. However, it doesn’t mean that Siamese people can’t be scientific or they can’t learn sciences. The hierarchy in Asian country doesn’t give the people freedom, but on the other hand, it makes the country, politics, and culture follow the traditional value. In fact, King Rama IV who was really a Renaissance man, he knew several Western languages and studied political science, hard sciences, western cultures, and colonialism. He wanted to bring Siam into the Modern world. In this situation, the hierarchy in Siam played a very important role to keep the country’s society and its political situation stable for Thailand to modernize.
Rating: 4 / 5
June 18th, 2010 at 12:27 am
Firstly, I suppose the portrait of English people in the film of that time is absolutely made true to life. I still remember their appearance in the very first scene: they are sophisticated dressed and enamored in opera. Besides, in their relationship and communication, they are more open with each other (evidence: the early scene when the English teacher was singing opera and dancing with her son on the ship). In short, it is possible to say that the portrait of English people in the movie is the symbol of English culture as well as Western culture at that time period. In contrary, most Siamese people in the film appeared with less clothes, which is specifically characteristic for a tropical country. Moreover, as we can see, men wear earrings, also a characteristic of Siamese culture. In Siamese’s relationship, we can easily realize the hierarchy in every field of this culture. The magnificent King’s palace and royal housing are shown as evidences of the political hierarchy in Siam. We can see that the higher class often beat the labor people (the scene when the Prime Minister beats his employee). Besides, there also exists the hierarchy in terms of gender. For example: the King has a lot of wives and children. In general, the hierarchy which is shown in some early scenes is one phenomenon in Thai culture as well as in Asian culture. In my opinion, these basic differences between these two cultures are major reasons that caused facts of the case.
Secondly, those basic differences above directly caused a lot of conflicts in the relationship and communication between the English teacher and Siamese people. When English people freely use verbal language to communicate, Siamese are quite severe in that case and they mostly use non-verbal communication styles. There is a scene when the English teacher enters the palace for the first time. She is not allowed to see the King’s face while the King just waves his finger to call her. To show each other respect and submission, Siamese usually lie flat on the ground. Those evidences showed the English teacher could not easily match the Siamese royal environment at the first place. I can remember the King said to her: “You are not afraid of King”, and later on, he said: “You are a difficult woman”. Via conflicts in communication styles in some early scenes, we can clearly recognize the big gap between the individualism of the West and collectivism of the East.
Delving into Siamese collectivist culture, especially at that time of period, I suppose one of the biggest damaging cultural stereotypes is about Thais having conservative views. The movie artistically uses its scenes to show us this cultural stereotype. The scene in which King’s children are being taught geography is a good example for this damaging stereotype of Thai culture at that time. Ethnocentrism, parochialism, and the lack of scientific knowledge of Siamese people are all shown with the map and the lecture of the Siamese lady (an unscientific map and the comparison between the King of Siam and the King of Burma): “Siam is the biggest country in the world”. However, it doesn’t mean that Siamese people can’t be scientific or they can’t learn sciences. The hierarchy in Asian country doesn’t give the people freedom, but on the other hand, it makes the country, politics, and culture follow the traditional value. In fact, King Rama IV who was really a Renaissance man, he knew several Western languages and studied political science, hard sciences, western cultures, and colonialism. He wanted to bring Siam into the Modern world. In this situation, the hierarchy in Siam played a very important role to keep the country’s society and its political situation stable for Thailand to modernize.
Rating: 4 / 5
June 18th, 2010 at 3:19 am
This is a delightful film to watch and listen to. Beautiful costumes, colour and songs for the perfect Sunday afternoon veiwing. This film is not just a musical, it is loosely based on the story of Anna and the King which makes it full of morals and very srong characters. Although it is a weepy I would advise that you save some tissues till the end.
Rating: 4 / 5
June 18th, 2010 at 6:12 am
In Siamese collectivistic culture, especially at that time of period (1862), I suppose one of the biggest damaging cultural stereotypes is about Thais having conservative views. The movie artistically uses its scenes to show us this cultural stereotype. The scene in which King’s children are being taught geography is a good example for this damaging stereotype of Thai culture at that time. Ethnocentrism, parochialism, and the lack of scientific knowledge of Siamese people are all shown with the map and the lecture of the Siamese lady (an unscientific map and the comparison between the King of Siam and the King of Burma): “Siam is the biggest and richest country in the world”. However, it doesn’t mean that Siamese people can’t be scientific or they can’t learn sciences. The hierarchy in Asian country doesn’t give the people freedom, but on the other hand, it makes the country, politics, and culture follow the traditional value. In fact, the true historical King Rama IV who was really a man of Renaissance, he knew several Western languages and studied political science, hard sciences, western cultures, and colonialism. He wanted to bring Siam into the Modern world. In this situation, there appeared an advantage in Siamese culture. It is that the hierarchy in Siam played a very important role to keep the country’s society and its political situation stable for Thailand to modernize. In general, I think beside the love story and the music, cultural issues are also interesting aspects of the movie.
Rating: 4 / 5