I have a confession to make. I am hooked on Korean movies. So can be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the entire of Northeast India. I have heard it is much more 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 was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most popular and exportable Korean film in the history Korean film industry according to 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!) Which was around 2 yrs ago. Right 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 call but several!
I am completely totally hooked!
When a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly unsure if I would enjoy it. But the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine for the reason that movie made me fall in deep love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It is not particularly surprising in my experience that I fell in deep love with Korean movies considering the fact I really like French movies. Korean movies have the exact same treatment of their subjects like this of French movies. I regularly watch TV5 French movies and Arirang TV whenever my cableguy allows me! Obviously different genre of movies offer you a different perspective on Korean movies. I think comedy is where Korean movies would be the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I have said, are 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 am a typical! In a much more serious note, the question is why... why do the northeasterners love Korean movies?? Despite decades of Hindustanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons and Indian politics are we somewhat longing for HOME!
It is excellent to see one of your personal (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 much more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just might be, race has a role here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are so similar! Their body gestures and facial expressions are so similar to the expressions. The rather alien Punjabi or Bihari nuances of Bollywood deters me from so many good movies!
Korean movies may also be technically superior to Bollywood movies and can also compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even yet in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming an annual 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) taken care of the best to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It is true that people, Northeasterners, love everything that's new to the culture unlike our mainland Indians. We actually welcome change and changed we're to an extent. We effortlessly copy the western design 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's a driving thing like teenage love affair. It has cultural affinity overtones written all over it. Bollywood will have to counter this onslaught of Korean movies with increased Chak De characters! It has already lost much audience to Korean film industry.
A couple of 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?" ;."Will you be happy if you're treated like a guest in your own country?" asks one of the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. For me it is bearable with assistance from movies like My Sassy Girl and the like from our kin Korean film industry. Laugh your heart out and forget the troubles of this country until, needless to say, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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