An exciting series returns to entertain Myanmar television audiences, tackling real life justice issues with romance and drama.
MyJustice is an executive producer of a major Myanmar television drama series The Sun, the Moon and the Truth, Season 2. The drama, along with an upcoming national justice campaign Pwal Kya Mal (Lets talk: for change, for truth, for everyone) is an effort by the programme to engage a mainstream audience on key justice issues in Myanmar, using popular cultural and entertainment platforms. The ten-episode drama with intrigue, heartbreak and the triumph of truth went on air on MRTV from the 5th of September 2018 on primetime. It has subsequently started airing on Mizzima TV, DVB TV and Myawaddy Digital.
The first season of The Sun, The Moon and The Truth aired in 2015. Focused on a fictional Justice Centre, the series combines entertainment and legal education. In 2016 MyJustice agreed to join the consortium to support production of a second season of the drama as part of the programme goal to use mainstream media to promote broad-based legal awareness. The drama has been produced by a consortium that includes, apart from MyJustice, popular mainstream media personalities such as Daw Grace Swe Zin Htaik from the Communications Services group (CSG) who produced the series and U Aung Ko Latt a well-known Myanmar movie director. The Myanmar Justice Survey (MJS) 2017 (full report forthcoming in October 2018, click here for the policy brief) confirmed that people regard television as the most trusted source for information on rights and legal options, followed by Facebook and radio. MyJustice support to the production included the script-development, direction and post-production of the series.
Season 2 consists of ten 30-minute episodes, covering a range of commonly experienced problems that people of Myanmar face, including: exploitative moneylending, corruption in government, gender-based violence, drug related issues, trafficking and land-grabbing. MyJustice and several other programme partners provided technical advise throughout the intensive script-writing process, during which young Myanmar script writers were mentored by Yangon Film Services. This resulted in extremely entertaining and engaging content with messaging on key justice issues. To hear more about the script writing process, please watch these videos available at this link.
The series is set in a small fictional community, but was shot mainly around Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Region in early 2018. An all-star cast returned to Season 2, including: May Hnin Si, a hard working Justice Centre lawyer, played by Hsu Pan Htwar; Sai Thura, an honest and dedicated police officer with some secrets in his past, played by Moe Yan Zun; Nay Min Htike, a successful lawyer working for a crony who still holds feelings for May, played by Hpone Htaik; and Khin Khin, the former school teacher from Season 1 who is now a member of parliament with a passion for fighting corruption and doing what’s right for her community, played by Khin Zar Chi Kyaw. Together they stand up for justice and fair treatment for all, so that the law can work for everyone in their town.
The premiere of the drama was held on the 31st of August 2018, in Junction City Cinema in Yangon, at a star-studded affair. H. E. Kristian Schmidt, the Ambassador of the European Union in his remarks said, ‘in a democracy, the law should be about what is fair and right, not who is the strongest or the richest. For such a democratic system to function, people need to know their rights, and by whom and where they will be protected. The Sun, The Moon and The Truth is an excellent way to discuss these issues, and the European Union is proud to support it.’
MyJustice will seek to enhance the impact of the drama series by holding community screenings in mobile vans and converting the scripts into community theatre and graphic novellas in order to engage people in a dialogue on justice issues as part of its justice campaign, Pyaw Kya Mal (Let’s talk).
See here the trailer of The Sun, the Moon and the Truth, Season 2.