I have a confession to make. I'm hooked on Korean movies. So can be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the whole of Northeast India. I have heard it's way 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 typically 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!) Which was around two years ago. By now I have 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 are my Sunshine, Silmido, etc to call but a couple of!
I'm completely totally hooked!
When a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly not sure if I would enjoy it. Nevertheless the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine because movie made me fall in deep love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It is not particularly surprising to me that I fell in deep love with Korean movies considering the truth that I enjoy French movies. Korean movies have exactly the same treatment of these subjects like this 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 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's a video library or two where you could get Korean movies. You can be sure I'm a regular! In a more severe 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 wanting for 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 such as 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 a whole lot more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just may be, race has a role here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their 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 more advanced 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. 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 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 that it is a passing 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 recently 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 buddy of mine he remarked,"Are we in the wrong country?" ;."Are you going to be happy if you're treated such as a guest is likely to country?" asks among the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. As for me it's 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 with this country until, needless to say, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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