I've a confession to make. I'm hooked on Korean movies. So can be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the entire of Northeast India. I've heard it's way more in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It has been time now since I watched my first Korean movie - it had been My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most popular and exportable Korean film in the real history Korean film industry according to Wikipedia. So popular so it outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which ran at exactly the same time. Dramacool It sold 4,852,845 tickets!) That has been around two years ago. Right 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're my Sunshine, Silmido, etc to call but a few!
I'm completely totally hooked!
Whenever a friend first invited me to watch My Sassy Girl I was frankly not sure if I'd 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 to me that I fell in love with Korean movies considering the truth that I really like French movies. Korean movies have exactly the 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 think comedy is where Korean movies would be the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I've said, are remarkably 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 regular! In a 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 desiring HOME!
It is really good 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 such as for instance a breath of outdoors after so much stale Bollywood movies which I seldom watch except for 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 comes with a part here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their body language 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 more advanced than Bollywood movies and may even compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming an annually occurrence for the Korean film industry. Actually 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 is true that we, Northeasterners, love everything that's new to the culture unlike our mainland Indians. We actually welcome change and changed we are to an extent. We effortlessly copy the western style of dressing jeans, T-shirts and et al. That could be another reason for our recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt it is a passing 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.
A couple of 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 buddy of mine he remarked,"Are we in the incorrect country?" ;."Will you be happy if you are treated such as for instance a guest in your country?" asks one of the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. As for me it's bearable with the help of movies like My Sassy Girl and such from our kin Korean film industry. Laugh your heart out and forget the troubles of this country until, of course, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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