I have a confession to make. I'm dependent on Korean movies. So are thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the complete of Northeast India. I have heard it's much more 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 had been 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 exactly the same time. Dramacool It sold 4,852,845 tickets!) That has been around couple of years 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 call but a few!
I'm 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 in that movie made me fall in love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It's not particularly surprising if you ask me that I fell in love with Korean movies considering the fact I enjoy French movies. Korean movies have exactly the same treatment of their subjects like that 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 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 is a movie library or two where you could get Korean movies. You can be sure I'm a typical! In a 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 desiring HOME!
It's really good 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 for instance 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 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 superior to Bollywood movies and will even compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming a yearly 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's true that we, 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 may be another reason for our recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it's a passing thing like teenage love affair. It has got cultural affinity overtones written around it. Bollywood will need to 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 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 buddy of mine he remarked,"Are we in the incorrect country?" ;."Are you going to be happy if you are treated such as for instance a guest is likely to country?" asks one of the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. In terms of me it's bearable with the aid 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, needless to say, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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