I have a confession to make. I'm hooked on Korean movies. So might be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the entire of Northeast India. I have heard it is more so in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It's been a while now since I watched my first Korean movie - it absolutely was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most popular and exportable Korean film in the annals Korean film industry in accordance with Wikipedia. So popular that it outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which ran at the exact same time. Dramacool It sold 4,852,845 tickets!) That was around two years ago. By now I have watched scores of these - Windstruck, Sex is Zero (Korean version of American Pie?), My Wife is just a Gangster 1, 2 & 3, The Classic, Daisy, A Moment to Remember, Joint Security Area, My Little Bride, A Dirty Carnival, You are my Sunshine, Silmido, etc to name but a few!
I'm completely totally hooked!
When a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly not sure if I would enjoy it. But the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine for the reason that movie made me fall in love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It's not particularly surprising in my experience that I fell in love with Korean movies considering the truth that I really like French movies. Korean movies have the exact same treatment of the subjects that way of French movies. I regularly watch TV5 French movies and Arirang TV whenever my cableguy allows me! Obviously different genre of movies give you a different perspective on Korean movies. I believe comedy is where Korean movies are the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I have said, are very popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even yet in New Delhi there is a movie library or two where you could get Korean movies. You can be sure I'm a typical! In a more serious note, the question is why... why do the northeasterners love Korean movies?? Even with decades of Hindustanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons and Indian politics are we somewhat longing for HOME!
It's really good to see one of your (read chinkies?) on the screen after so many decades of it being filled by the Amitabhs and the Khans and the Roshans of Bollywood. Korean dramas are like a breath of oxygen after so much stale Bollywood movies which I seldom watch with the exception of Ram Gopal Verma movies. The intricate plots of twists and turns and a great deal more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just might be, race comes with a function here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are so similar! Their body language and facial expressions are so similar to our expressions. The rather alien Punjabi or Bihari nuances of Bollywood deters me from so many good movies!
Korean movies are also technically more advanced than Bollywood movies and will even contend with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming a yearly occurrence for the Korean film industry. In reality Hollywood biggies Dreamworks has paid $2 million (US) for a remake of the 2003 suspense thriller Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters) compare that to $1 million (US) covered the best to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It's true that individuals, Northeasterners, love everything that's new to our culture unlike our mainland Indians. We actually welcome change and changed we are to an extent. We effortlessly copy the western type of dressing jeans, T-shirts and et al. That may be another reason for our recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it is a driving thing like teenage love affair. It has got cultural affinity overtones written all over it. Bollywood must counter this onslaught of Korean movies with an increase of Chak De characters! It has lost much audience to Korean film industry.
Several weeks back while having a chit-chat about our lives in New Delhi - the awkward stares, the down right patronising calling of names and the abuses in workplaces - with a friend of mine he remarked,"Are we in the wrong country?" ;."Can you be happy if you are treated like a guest is likely to country?" asks among the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. In terms of me it is bearable with the aid of movies like My Sassy Girl and such from our kin Korean film industry. Laugh your heart out and forget the troubles with this country until, obviously, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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