Information About Mhom Ped Sawan
With Thailand's longest GL series set to come out on November 17, I'd thought I'd share a few pieces of information about the show, including interviews with the cast and crew, especially since sometimes it's hard to find stuff about it in English.
Feel free to correct me if I accidentally got anything wrong- I did my best to compile as much as the information as possible that was already available.
Mhom Ped Sawan will air on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on Thai PBS for 26 episodes, starting at 8:30 pm.
There will be a special episode on November 16 that goes more in-depth on the background of the series.
Aside from PBS, the series can be watched for free on the streaming service VIPA.
The production company has confirmed that there will be English subtitles, although they aren't sure how long they will take (there might be substantial delays).
Mhom Ped Sawan will have a strong historical focus, since it's based off a poem that was written in the 1830-40s by Khun Sawan, a female poet who was interested in telling stories about palace life (1, 2).
The poem is one of the earliest works in Thailand to mention/feature LGBTQ+ characters.
According to the Bangkok Post, which briefly discussed the story's context in an article from 2022:
Murals appearing on a temple wall at Wat Khongkharam in Ratchaburi [in the past] depict pairs of female concubines making out and that's called "len puen" (play friend), a byword for homosexual activities.
[A researcher named Rome Bonnag] also quoted a poem named Mhom Ped Sawan, written by Suwan Ratchanikulbangchang, a noted female poet who narrated the famous lesbian relationship between Lady Sud and Lady Khum while [also presenting/describing] their discreet sexual activities [in a more comedic and satirical way].
Rome added that "len puen", wasn't regarded as a strict taboo. Instead, it was humorously seen as a way of life, resulting from the unnatural confinement of female concubines in the royal palace, where they were prohibited from associating with outsiders or men. Situational homosexuality comes to mind. However, homosexual behaviour was contrary to palace law, section 124, paragraph two, which stated that those who commit len puen will be whipped 50 times and shame-paraded around the palace.
Based on the tagline of the series, "a testament to love amidst the constraints of inequality," it's clear that Thai PBS wants to use Khun Sawan's story to advocate for acceptance (so please don't be scared to watch the show based on some of the historical information provided above!).
Character map provided by VIPA
The two main characters of the series are Mhom Ped/Mhom Kham (played by Tubtim) and Mhom Sut/Khun Mong (played by Film).
Tubtim and Film gave an interview recently in English for MagaZinema in which they described the plot of the show and shared some details about their characters.
Film describes Khun Mong as:
"Strong, clever, [and]...sensitive [at times]...She differs from [others]...in the same period because she had [the] chance to learn. She can read, she can write." (6:53).
Tubtim describes Mhom Kham as:
"A religious girl that [comes] from Ampoa and Samut. She has the chance to stay in the front palace as [someone who took care of] all the meals for her boss and everyone in [the same place]" (7:28).
According the interview, as well as a post from the GL Reddit:
Both characters were originally "concubines of the Prince Viceroy. After their husband’s death, they [needed to find someone else to take care of them, and so they] came to work as ladies-in-waiting of Princess Apsara Sudadeva or Princess Wilas, the King’s favorite daughter."
In the series, the love story between the two continues throughout the move between palaces: for Mhom Kham, her sense of love grows more slowly, but for Khun Mong, it's more like love at first sight (10:45); ("the first day that [Mhom Kham] came to the palace, KM started falling in love [and flirting] with [her]").
Character posters for Khun Mong and Mhom Kham
In the interview, Tubtim and Film also shared that they were super excited to be part of a project that was so meaningful, and that was the first GL series to air on Thai PBS (2:15).
They highlighted how special it was to be able to bring historical characters to life (47:45), and how in some ways working on the series was like "a dream come true" (Film shared that she had wanted to work on a GL or a LGBTQ+ project for a long period of time [5:11]).
Character posters for Prajong and Khwan
Aside from Film and Tubtim, I was also able to find some interviews with Max (Prajong) and Kaownah (Khwan), who play a secondary BL couple in the series.
Prajong is a police officer during the era of King Rama III who values righteousness (4). From the trailer, Khwan seems to be an actor.
During one of the pre-premiere events, Max revealed that:
Prajong and Khwan don't really "like each other at first," but eventually they come across each other more and more often over the course of the series.
Prajong feels "heartbroken because of someone" before Khwan comes into his life, and in some sense there's something a little "bit like a love triangle."
This is because a character named Khun Phra Jenaphibal, a police officer, has "a special love line with Prajong," which complicates things.
(Translation by @sunshineept0810 on Twitter: 3, 4)
I'm very excited to be able to watch the series sometime soon!
If you're looking for more information about it/more things to read, I highly recommend watching the full interview in-depth (I left out a ton of things, but both Tubtim and Film seem like really amazing people who are super passionate about the show), or this post from the GL Reddit (it's such a great resource, and it shares different details about some of the characters).
Special thanks for these sources and all of the other ones I was able to pull from for being so amazing (especially because it can be super difficult sometimes to find information about the show in English).
Again, if I apologize if I accidentally got anything wrong- feel free to correct me if you notice any mistakes or issues!
To conclude the post and end on a final fun fact, in the third week of October Mhom Ped Sawan was the fifth-most highly searched for Thai drama on Google, which indicates that interest in the series is already high- something that's super exciting!
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