I've a confession to make. I am hooked on Korean movies. So can be thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically the complete of Northeast India. I've heard it is 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 had been My Sassy Girl. (Incidentally, My Sassy Girl was the most used and exportable Korean film in the real 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'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 am completely totally hooked!
When a friend first invited me to view My Sassy Girl I was frankly unsure if I would enjoy it. However the spunky, don't-care-a-damn-tomboy heroine in that movie made me fall deeply in love with Korean movies (and soaps even!). It's not particularly surprising if you ask me that I fell deeply in love with Korean movies considering the truth that I love French movies. Korean movies have exactly the same treatment of these subjects like that of French movies. I regularly watch TV5 French movies and Arirang TV whenever my cableguy allows me! Of course 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've said, are highly popular in the Northeastern states of India. Even yet in New Delhi there's a movie library or two where you are able to get Korean movies. You may be sure I am a regular! In a much more serious note, the question is why... why do the northeasterners love Korean movies?? Despite decades of Hindustanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons and Indian politics are we somewhat desiring HOME!
It's excellent 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 just 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 whole lot more urbane emotions are what attracted me to Korean and French movies. Maybe, just may be, race has a position here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are very similar! Their body language and facial expressions are very similar to our expressions. The rather alien Punjabi or Bihari nuances of Bollywood deters me from so many good movies!
Korean movies may also be technically more advanced than Bollywood movies and can 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. Actually 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 right to remake the Japanese movie The Ring.
It's 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 may be another reason for the recent addiction with Korean movies. But somehow I doubt it is a passing thing like teenage love affair. It has got cultural affinity overtones written throughout 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.
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 pal of mine he remarked,"Are we in the wrong country?" ;."Can you be happy if you are treated just like a guest in your own country?" asks among the two Northeast characters in Chak De India. As for me it is bearable with assistance from movies like My Sassy Girl and the like from our kin Korean film industry. Laugh your heart out and your investment troubles of the country until, needless to say, Chak De India has bigger roles for Northeasterners!
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