I have a confession to make. I am hooked on Korean movies. So might be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the whole of Northeast India. I have heard it is way more in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It's been some time now since I watched my first Korean movie - it absolutely was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most popular and exportable Korean film in the history Korean film industry according to Wikipedia. So popular so it outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which ran at the same time. Dramacool It sold 4,852,845 tickets!) That has been around 2 yrs ago. By now I have watched scores of these - Windstruck, Sex is Zero (Korean version of American Pie?), My Wife is just 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 couple of!
I am completely totally hooked!
Each time a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly uncertain if I'd enjoy it. But the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine in that movie made me fall deeply in love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It's not particularly surprising in my experience that I fell deeply in love with Korean movies considering the fact I enjoy French movies. Korean movies have the same treatment of the 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 are the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I have 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 typical! In a more severe 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's really good to see one of your own (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 with the exception of 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 might be, race has a part here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are so similar! Their gestures and facial expressions are so similar to our expressions. The rather alien Punjabi or Bihari nuances of Bollywood deters me from so many good movies!
Korean movies will 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 an annual 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) paid for the right to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It's true that people, Northeasterners, love everything that's new to our 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 our recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it is a driving thing like teenage love affair. It offers cultural affinity overtones written throughout it. Bollywood must counter this onslaught of Korean movies with an increase of Chak De characters! It has already lost much audience to Korean film industry.
Several 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 friend of mine he remarked,"Are we in the incorrect country?" ;."Can you be happy if you are treated such as a guest in your country?" asks one of many two Northeast characters in Chak De India. For me it is bearable with assistance from 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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