I've a confession to make. I am addicted to Korean movies. So are thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the complete of Northeast India. I've heard it is more so in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It's been sometime now since I watched my first Korean movie - it absolutely was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most used and exportable Korean film in the annals 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 couple of years ago. By now I've watched scores of them - Windstruck, Sex is Zero (Korean version of American Pie?), My Wife is really 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 a couple of!
I am completely totally hooked!
Whenever a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly uncertain 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 is not particularly surprising in my experience that I fell in love with Korean movies considering the truth that I love French movies. Korean movies have the exact same treatment of the subjects like that of French movies. I regularly watch TV5 French movies and Arirang TV whenever my cableguy allows me! Of course different genre of movies offer you a different perspective on Korean movies. I do believe comedy is where Korean movies are the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I've said, are very popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even yet in New Delhi there's a movie library or two where you are able to get Korean movies. You may be sure I am a regular! In a more serious note, the question is why... why do the northeasterners love Korean movies?? Even after decades of Hindustanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons and Indian politics are we somewhat looking 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 just like a breath of fresh air after so much stale Bollywood movies which I seldom watch aside from 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 may be, race has a position here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their body gestures and facial expressions are very 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 better than Bollywood movies and will even contend 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 individuals, Northeasterners, love everything that is new to the culture unlike our mainland Indians. We actually welcome change and changed we're to an extent. We effortlessly copy the western style of dressing jeans, T-shirts and et al. That could be another reason for the recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it is a driving thing like teenage love affair. It has cultural affinity overtones written around it. Bollywood must counter this onslaught of Korean movies with an increase of Chak De characters! It has recently lost much audience to Korean film industry.
Several weeks back whilst 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?" ;."Are you going to be happy if you are treated just like a guest is likely to country?" asks one of many two Northeast characters in Chak De India. As for me it is bearable with the aid of movies like My Sassy Girl and the like from our kin Korean film industry. Laugh your heart out and your investment troubles of this country until, of course, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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