This is damn ugly patch if you need to update it, see PHP_5_2 branch version to
understand what this patch is supposed to do as in 5.3 the ini section is
enabled only if mysqlnd driver is enabled which makes the contexts really
small.

--- php-5.3.1/ext/pdo_mysql/mysql_driver.c~	2010-02-20 01:08:04.000000000 +0200
+++ php-5.3.1/ext/pdo_mysql/mysql_driver.c	2010-02-20 01:08:52.982186037 +0200
@@ -436,6 +436,7 @@
 	pdo_mysql_db_handle *H;
 	int i, ret = 0;
 	char *host = NULL, *unix_socket = NULL;
+	char *connect_charset = NULL;
 	unsigned int port = 3306;
 	char *dbname;
 	struct pdo_data_src_parser vars[] = {
@@ -731,6 +731,12 @@
 		password_len = strlen(dbh->password);
 	}
 
+	connect_charset = PDO_MYSQL_G(connect_charset);
+
+	if (connect_charset != NULL) {
+		mysql_options(H->server, MYSQL_SET_CHARSET_NAME, connect_charset);
+	}
+
 	if (mysqlnd_connect(H->server, host, dbh->username, dbh->password, password_len, dbname, dbname_len,
 						port, unix_socket, connect_opts, PDO_MYSQL_G(mysqlnd_thd_zval_cache) TSRMLS_CC) == NULL) {
 #else
--- php-5.3.3/ext/pdo_mysql/pdo_mysql.c~	2010-07-24 19:23:14.000000000 +0300
+++ php-5.3.3/ext/pdo_mysql/pdo_mysql.c	2010-07-24 19:24:48.363581841 +0300
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@
 #if PDO_DBG_ENABLED
 	STD_PHP_INI_ENTRY("pdo_mysql.debug",	NULL, PHP_INI_SYSTEM, OnUpdateString, debug, zend_pdo_mysql_globals, pdo_mysql_globals)
 #endif
+	STD_PHP_INI_ENTRY("pdo_mysql.connect_charset",	NULL,	PHP_INI_ALL,	OnUpdateString,	connect_charset,	zend_pdo_mysql_globals,	pdo_mysql_globals)
 PHP_INI_END()
 /* }}} */
 
@@ -89,9 +90,7 @@
 static PHP_MSHUTDOWN_FUNCTION(pdo_mysql)
 {
 	php_pdo_unregister_driver(&pdo_mysql_driver);
-#if PDO_USE_MYSQLND
 	UNREGISTER_INI_ENTRIES();
-#endif
 
 	return SUCCESS;
 }
@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@
 	pdo_mysql_globals->debug = NULL;	/* The actual string */
 	pdo_mysql_globals->dbg = NULL;	/* The DBG object*/
 #endif
+	pdo_mysql_globals->connect_charset = NULL;
 }
 /* }}} */
 
--- php-5.3.2RC3/ext/pdo_mysql/php_pdo_mysql_int.h~	2010-02-04 11:37:38.000000000 +0200
+++ php-5.3.2RC3/ext/pdo_mysql/php_pdo_mysql_int.h	2010-02-26 19:11:47.484055898 +0200
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@
 	char          *debug; /* The actual string */
 	MYSQLND_DEBUG *dbg;	/* The DBG object */
 #endif
+	char          *connect_charset;
 #if defined(PHP_WIN32) && !PDO_DBG_ENABLED
 	/* dummy member so we get at least one member in the struct
 	 * and avoids build errors.