I've a confession to make. I'm addicted to Korean movies. So might be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the complete 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 absolutely was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was typically the most popular and exportable Korean film in the history Korean film industry in accordance with Wikipedia. So popular that it outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which ran at exactly the same time. Dramacool It sold 4,852,845 tickets!) Which was around two years ago. By now I've watched scores of these - 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 mention 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. However 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 fact I love French movies. Korean movies have exactly the same treatment of their subjects like this of French movies. I regularly watch TV5 French movies and Arirang TV whenever my cableguy allows me! Needless to say different genre of movies give you a different perspective on Korean movies. I do believe 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's a video library or two where you are able to get Korean movies. You can be sure I'm a typical! In a more severe 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 desiring HOME!
It is great 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 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 comes with a role here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their gestures and facial expressions are very similar to your 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 may also contend with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming a yearly 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 right to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It is true that people, Northeasterners, love everything that is new to your 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 could be another reason for the recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it's a driving thing like teenage love affair. It has got cultural affinity overtones written all over it. Bollywood will need to counter this onslaught of Korean movies with an increase of Chak De characters! It has recently 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 friend of mine he remarked,"Are we in the incorrect country?" ;."Do you want to be happy if you are treated like a guest in your own country?" asks one of the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. In terms of me it's 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 of this country until, needless to say, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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