I've a confession to make. I am addicted to Korean movies. So are thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the entire of Northeast India. I've heard it is moreso 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 was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most used and exportable Korean film in the annals Korean film industry based on Wikipedia. So popular so 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. Right 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 name but a few!
I am completely totally hooked!
When a friend first invited me to watch My Sassy Girl I was frankly not sure if I would enjoy it. However the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine because 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 fact that I love French movies. Korean movies have the exact same treatment of these 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 provide you with 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 highly popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even yet in New Delhi there's a video library or two where you can get Korean movies. You may be sure I am a typical! In a much 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 longing for HOME!
It's great 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 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 a great deal 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 so similar! Their body language 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 will also be technically more advanced than Bollywood movies and will even compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming an annually occurrence for the Korean film industry. In fact 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 proper to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It's true that people, 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 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 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 more Chak De characters! It has already 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 wrong country?" ;."Can you be happy if you're treated such as a guest in your own country?" asks one of many two Northeast characters in Chak De India. As for me it is bearable with the help of 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, obviously, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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