I've a confession to make. I'm hooked on Korean movies. So are thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the whole of Northeast India. I've heard it's moreso in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.
It has been a while 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 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 couple of years ago. Right now I've watched scores of these - Windstruck, Sex is Zero (Korean version of American Pie?), My Wife is just 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 several!
I'm completely totally hooked!
Each time a friend first invited me to watch My Sassy Girl I was frankly uncertain if I would enjoy it. However the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine for the reason that movie made me fall deeply in love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It is not particularly surprising in my experience that I fell deeply in love with Korean movies considering the fact that I enjoy 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! Obviously different genre of movies provide you with a different perspective on Korean movies. I think comedy is where Korean movies are the best.
Now the Korean movies and soaps, as I've said, are highly popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even in New Delhi there is a video 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 with decades of Hindustanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons and Indian politics are we somewhat desiring HOME!
It is really good 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 much more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just might be, race has a role here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are so similar! Their gestures 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 may also contend with Hollywood movies. Awards and recognition even 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 right to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It is true that people, 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 driving thing like teenage love affair. It has got cultural affinity overtones written throughout it. Bollywood will need to counter this onslaught of Korean movies with increased Chak De characters! It has 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 buddy of mine he remarked,"Are we in the incorrect country?" ;."Can you be happy if you are treated like a guest in your country?" asks one of many two Northeast characters in Chak De India. For me it's bearable with the aid of movies like My Sassy Girl and such from our kin Korean film industry. Laugh your heart out and forget the troubles of the country until, of course, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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