School TV drama sets Thai censors' pulses racing

From the opening episode it becomes clear why Hormones, a drama of daily life at a Bangkok high school, has become the most talked about programme on Thai television.

Within the first few minutes, there is the sneaky cigarette during morning register, the bathroom quickie during break time, the mindless chatter about who likes whom, the agony of a boring lecture, and the impending suspension of a handsome bad boy.

Day-to-day life in Thailand is still largely conservative, with programming revolving around game shows and anodyne soap operas, and sex education predicated on abstinence over birth control. That is why Hormones has struck a nerve in Thailand, where fans appreciate its honesty and critics lambast its "reckless" scenes of youths smoking and kissing on-screen.

Officials have even called for outright censorship, but its director, Songyos Sugmakanan, says the series plays an integral part in Thailand's culture, primarily because the issues it touches upon, like teenage sex, drugs and general hormonal confusion, are not usually discussed at home or in school.

"Thai society has been closed for a long time," says Sugmakanan, 39. "In my day adults chose not to teach us about sex in the classroom because they feared it would lead to us having sex, when actually it just forced kids to go out and learn on their own."

Thailand has the second-highest number of teenage pregnancies in the world, year-on-year increasing rates of STD infection among its youth, and the highest rate of HIV/Aids in Asia.