I have a confession to make. I am dependent on Korean movies. So can be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the whole of Northeast India. I have 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 the most popular and exportable Korean film in the real history Korean film industry based on 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 was around 2 yrs ago. Right 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're my Sunshine, Silmido, etc to name but a couple of!
I am completely totally hooked!
Each time a friend first invited me to watch My Sassy Girl I was frankly unsure if I'd enjoy it. Nevertheless the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine because movie made me fall deeply in love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It is not particularly surprising to me that I fell deeply in love with Korean movies considering the truth that I love French movies. Korean movies have the same treatment of these subjects that way 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 believe comedy is where Korean movies are the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I have said, are extremely popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even in New Delhi there's a movie library or two where you are able to get Korean movies. You can be sure I am a regular! 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 is 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 like a breath of outdoors 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 lot more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just may be, race comes with a part here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are so similar! Their body language 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 are also technically superior to Bollywood movies and will even 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 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 people, Northeasterners, love everything that is new to our 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 the recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it's a driving thing like teenage love affair. It offers cultural affinity overtones written all over it. Bollywood must counter this onslaught of Korean movies with increased Chak De characters! It has already 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 buddy of mine he remarked,"Are we in the wrong country?" ;."Can you be happy if you are treated like a guest in your own country?" asks one of many two Northeast characters in Chak De India. In terms of me it is bearable with the help 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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