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 more so in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It has been sometime 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 real history Korean film industry according to Wikipedia. So popular that 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 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 couple of!
I am completely totally hooked!
Whenever a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly unsure if I would enjoy it. Nevertheless 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 if you ask me that I fell in love with Korean movies considering the fact that I enjoy French movies. Korean movies have 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 provide you with a different perspective on Korean movies. I do believe comedy is where Korean movies will be the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I've said, are very popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even in New Delhi there is a movie library or two where you could get Korean movies. You can be sure I am a regular! In a much 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 looking 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 oxygen 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 does have a position here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their body 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 are also technically better than Bollywood movies and can also contend with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even yet in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming an annual occurrence for the Korean film industry. In reality 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) taken care of the right to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It is true that individuals, Northeasterners, love everything that is new to your 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 may be another reason for the recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt it is a passing thing like teenage love affair. It has cultural affinity overtones written around it. Bollywood must counter this onslaught of Korean movies with an increase of Chak De characters! It has recently lost much audience to Korean film industry.
A few 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 pal of mine he remarked,"Are we in the wrong country?" ;."Will you be happy if you should be treated such as a guest in your own country?" asks one of the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. 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 your investment troubles with this country until, obviously, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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