I've a confession to make. I'm dependent on Korean movies. So are thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the complete of Northeast India. I've heard it's much more in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It's been sometime now since I watched my first Korean movie - it had been My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was typically 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 was around two years ago. By now I've watched scores of them - Windstruck, Sex is Zero (Korean version of American Pie?), My Wife is 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'm completely totally hooked!
Each time a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly unsure if I would enjoy it. But 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 really like 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! Of course different genre of movies offer you 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 video library or two where you can get Korean movies. You can be sure I'm a regular! In a much more serious note, the question is why... why do the northeasterners love Korean movies?? Even with decades of Hindustanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons and Indian politics are we somewhat wanting for 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 like a breath of oxygen 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 great deal more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just might be, race does have a role here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their body language 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 are also technically superior to Bollywood movies and can also compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even yet in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming an annually 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 proper to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It's true that individuals, Northeasterners, love everything that is new to the 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 the recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt that it is a driving thing like teenage love affair. It has cultural affinity overtones written throughout it. Bollywood must counter this onslaught of Korean movies with more Chak De characters! It has lost much audience to Korean film industry.
A couple of 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?" ;."Do you want to be happy if you're treated like a guest in your country?" asks among the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. In terms of me it's 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, needless to say, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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