PhetchTaMeowmeow

I mean the time period and Khun Yai's position as a royal guard is like having a character buying a ticket for the Titanic -- you know something very big is going to happen. But I'm also the most invested in this part of the story, so I'm perfectly happy with everything else rotating around it. Ymmv.

It's an actual and well-known historical event for the domestic audience, though they've changed a few names and other details (and added characters, of course).

There's also a clip on the Idol Factory YT channel with Babe practicing with his teacher that you can watch. Something else that could be useful is looking at/learning about Thai mural painting, especially the ones at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. If you start thinking about the curved lines and poses and such in the art, the dance will probably start to make more sense.

This dance is called Chuichai Phram, and it's a staple of the classical repertoire. It was composed by the king Khun Yai serves, Rama VI. It's actually an excerpt from a play, where the dance is performed by a charming young male incarnation of the god Vishnu to bring the goddess Uma out of her rage and restore her usual benevolent nature. It is now a general symbol of Thai tradition, as well as a common thanksgiving offering to deities and spirits. If you look up ฉุยฉายพราหมณ์ on YouTube you can find many many full performances of the dance. Note that Thai court dance belongs to an aesthetic system where naturalism is the opposite of artistry; it IS a very different approach to beauty if you're not from an Indian-influenced culture, but it's worth working through that feeling of weirdness.

Yeah, the makeup is actually pretty accurate, though the white face powder probably would have been even thicker and more masklike. The style of that particular chuychay is considered to be a blend of masculine and feminine styles of movement, though it became more feminine in the 1930s. Women weren't banned from the stage, but (especially in elite settings) troupes were either all male or all female. It was a sensation in 1920 when the king himself introduced and performed in a western-style play where men played men and women played women.

Interestingly enough, this particular dance wasn't performed by women until the 1930s, so that part is actually anachronistic. 😅 But I'm willing to forgive all kinds of things with this series, and it's not common knowledge anyway!

Khun Yai is Sophee's adopted brother, but we don't know exactly what that means yet. Was it just a patronage thing, with the assumption always being that he would "repay" the kindness of his benefactor by marrying his daughter, or is it something weird and inappropriate that Sophee came up with herself? In this time period (and elite social milieu) the rules about who was and wasn't an appropriate marriage partner were in flux so there are a lot of ways this could go.

If anyone's confused by the sudden political stuff in ep 7, it's a reference to the Palace Revolt of 1912, which was a failed attempt at assassinating the king by a group of (mostly) military officers. The Thai Wikipedia page is a better overview than the English one, but it's a really complicated and controversial topic in Thai history.

Ep 8 ETA: they're not exactly referring to them as that, but notice that most of them are wearing military uniforms and there are national flags in their lair.

All of ep 7 was in their previous life in 1912.

According to the end credits it's Leelawadee/ลีลาวดี by Thitikarn Taithaisong

The specific dance he does is called chuichai phram/ฉุยฉายพราหมณ์ . It's part of a play composed by the king who Khun Yai serves (very closely, based on his "name"). The performance history that led to its use in Interminable is REALLY interesting.

It is! User colourme-feral on Tumblr identified it as Bangyang Colonial in Samut Sakhon.

I still consider myself a fan of this series, but I know that I'm coming at it from a very weird angle. I'm not interested in romance, so I expect that aspect to be boring. I read the novels before watching the series; the ending there was MUCH stronger, but it also isn't something that they could have shown on TV for political reasons. In general, I find the distance between the novels and the show fascinating. TNP got me back into fanfic writing after a break of almost 20 years as it falls perfectly into the slot of "compelling but frustrating" that makes you (me) want to fix it with fanworks.

One thing worth noting is that these kind of narratives about succession struggles in "cardboard kingdoms" are practically a mini genre in the Thai media landscape in a way that they haven't been in the English speaking world since WWII. Most of the senior actors (like not the BL couples) are actually reprising earlier roles here. I have a running list of these series here on MDL if anyone's curious.

There's a class (and, based on the hair thing, ethnic) dimension here to the relations between 1913 Sophee and Kaewta (which, for her, carry on into the "present"). Sophee is the daughter of a noble of the highest rank in a society where that really really matters. Being a dancer or actor was traditionally a disreputable job, so she would see him as equivalent to a servant. Being polite or reserved around him would be a sign of respect -- clearly the last thing she's interested in!