Phiang Jai Thi Phukphan

“Phiang Jai Thi Phukphan” is a romantic drama about a childhood bond that survives separation, class differences, and the passage of ten long years.
Mukpisut (Nong Muk) returns to Thailand after living in England with her musician father for ten years. She comes back for her mother’s funeral, and at the airport she is met by her older half-brother and half-sister — as well as Payak (Phi Suea), who also comes to receive her. Muk is the daughter of an old and influential provincial family with extensive business interests. Her mother was a member of parliament who won election time and time again.
Payak, by contrast, comes from a painful background. He is the son of a young woman who became pregnant at fourteen by a foreign teacher visiting Thailand, bringing disgrace upon her parents. Her father drank himself to death from heartbreak. After giving birth, Payak’s mother never cared for him and handed him over to her disabled younger brother, leaving the boy to be raised by his uncle, aunt, and grandmother while she drifted from man to man and only returned when she needed money.
By the time Payak is nine, he is already helping support the family by raising guppies and selling them at weekend markets with his uncle. One day, during the province’s annual children’s art competition — a contest he had always won in the past — he comes in second place, losing to Nong Muk, who also enters. He is furious, believing he did not lose because of talent, but because of favoritism: Muk’s mother is a powerful MP, and the judges are afraid of her influence.
Because the first- and second-place winners must attend a two-day art camp together, Payak initially refuses to go. But a teacher he deeply respects persuades him. At camp, he constantly mocks and taunts Muk. On the final morning, the students are taken on a trip to see pearl cultivation, and each child is allowed to choose half a pearl oyster to take home. Payak gets a pink pearl, which Muk secretly wants very badly but does not dare ask for. Later, after lunch, Payak sees Muk’s caretaker trying to snatch the oyster away from her. He steps in, protects Muk, and takes her off to paint together.
There, for the first time, Payak learns that Muk is constantly mistreated — by her caretaker, by her half-sister, and even by her own mother. He begins to pity her. As they paint, he gives Muk one of his drawings, and in return Muk gives him the pearl oyster. At that moment, Payak promises that when they grow up, he will return the pearl to her — and it will be a pink one.
After that, they part ways — but not for long.
Every Sunday, Payak and his uncle sell fish at the market, and soon Muk begins showing up as his “special customer.” She helps him sell fish until the market closes and even buys a balloon molly fish, naming it Rot Tang. This becomes their routine every weekend until school reopens. Before they part, Payak advises her to find something she truly loves — like music — so that when people criticize her, she will no longer care about what they say.
By the next school break, Muk returns to the market and excitedly tells Payak that she has started playing the violin, even performing for him. She comes to see him every Sunday. One day, she invites him to the birthday party of her older sister Ploypisut. At the party, however, Ploypisut and her friends humiliate and bully Payak. When Muk sees what they are doing, she becomes furious at her sister for hurting her beloved Phi Suea.
The next day, Muk goes to Payak’s house to apologize. She brings with her the doll that Payak had given Ploypisut as a present, but Ploypisut had rejected it. When Payak finds out, he tells Muk to throw it away, but she asks to keep it herself, and he lets her.
Muk spends the afternoon playing at Payak’s house. That Sunday, her oldest brother Phetpisut is the one who takes her to see Payak at the market, and she promises that from now on she will come help Phi Suea sell things every single Sunday.
But life changes suddenly.
On the last Sunday before school starts again, Muk comes to say goodbye. Her parents have divorced, and it has been decided that she will go live with her father in Hong Kong. Through tears, she begs Payak not to forget her.
And so the two children part — for ten years.
What will become of their bond after such a long separation?
Will Phi Suea forget Nong Muk?
How much will both their lives change in ten years?
And how will the little boy who once sold fish in the market struggle his way up to become the wealthy “Sia Payak” he is now?
Follow the story of Phi Suea and Nong Muk in “Phiang Jai Thi Phukphan” (A Bonded Heart / Only a Heart That Remains Tied), adapted from the novel by Kingchat, airing every Friday at 8:30 PM and Saturday–Sunday at 8:15 PM on Thai TV Channel 3, beginning with its first episode on Sunday, July 25.