I've a confession to make. I am hooked on Korean movies. So might be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the complete of Northeast India. I've heard it's way 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 absolutely was My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most used and exportable Korean film in the history Korean film industry in accordance with 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 was around couple of years ago. By now I've watched scores of them - 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 are my Sunshine, Silmido, etc to name but several!
I am completely totally hooked!
Whenever a friend first invited me to watch My Sassy Girl I was frankly uncertain if I'd enjoy it. But the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine for the reason that movie made me fall in deep love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It is not particularly surprising in my experience that I fell in deep love with Korean movies considering the fact I love French movies. Korean movies have exactly the same treatment of their subjects that way 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 think comedy is where Korean movies would be the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I've said, are highly popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even yet in New Delhi there's a video library or two where you could get Korean movies. You can be sure I am a typical! 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 is great 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 like a breath of outdoors after so much stale Bollywood movies which I seldom watch except for Ram Gopal Verma movies. The intricate plots of twists and turns and much 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 your expressions. The rather alien Punjabi or Bihari nuances of Bollywood deters me from so many good movies!
Korean movies will also be technically more advanced than Bollywood movies and can also compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even yet in the Cannes Film Festival are becoming a yearly 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 best 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're 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 has got cultural affinity overtones written around 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 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 friend of mine he remarked,"Are we in the incorrect country?" ;."Do you want to be happy if you are treated like a guest in your own country?" asks among 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 the country until, obviously, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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