I have a confession to make. I am addicted to Korean movies. So are thousands in Mizoram, Manipur. Well basically all of Northeast India. I have heard that it is more so in countries like Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, etc.
It’s been some time since I saw my first Korean movie, it was My Sassy Girl. (By the way, My Sassy Girl was the most popular and exportable Korean film in the history of the Korean film industry according to Wikipedia. So popular that it outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, which both aired at the same time. 4,852,845 entries!) That was about two years ago. By now I’ve seen dozens 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 are my Sunshine, Silmido, etc, to name just a few!
I am completely hooked!
When a friend first invited me to see My Sassy Girl, I was frankly not sure if I would enjoy it. But the brave, nevermind-a-damn-tomboy heroine of that movie made me fall in love with Korean movies (and even soap operas!). I’m not particularly surprised that I fell in love with Korean movies considering the fact that I love French movies. Korean movies have the same treatment of their subject matter as French movies. I regularly watch French movies from TV5 and Arirang TV whenever my cable allows it! Of course, the different movie genres give you a different perspective on Korean movies. I think comedy is where Korean movies are the best.
Now Korean movies and soap operas, as I 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 that I am a regular! On a more serious note, the question is why … why do Northeastern people love Korean movies? Even after decades of indostanization with Bollywood, Hindi lessons, and Indian politics, we are yearning for a HOME!
It’s really cool to see one of yours (read chinkies?) On screen after so many decades of being filled with Bollywood Amitabhs and Khans and Roshans. Korean dramas are like a breath of fresh air after so many stale Bollywood movies that I rarely watch except Ram Gopal Verma movies. The intricate plots of twists and turns and much more urban thrills are what drew me to Korean and French movies. Perhaps, it can only be, race has a role here. Being racially similar, our habits and cultural nuances are so similar! Their body language and facial expressions are very similar to our expressions. The rather odd nuances of Bollywood’s Punjabi or Bihari put me off so many good movies!
Korean movies are also technically superior to Bollywood movies and can even compete with Hollywood movies. Awards and accolades, including at the Cannes Film Festival, are becoming an annual event for the Korean film industry. In fact, Hollywood greats Dreamworks have paid $ 2 million (US) for a remake of the 2003 Janghwa suspense thriller Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters), compare it to $ 1 million ( USA) Paid for the right to remake the Japanese film The Ring.
It is true that we, the people of the Northeast, love everything that is new in our culture, unlike our Indians on the mainland. In fact, we welcome change and have changed to some extent. We effortlessly copy the western style of wearing jeans, t-shirts and et al. That may be another reason for our recent addiction to Korean movies. But somehow I doubt it’s a passing thing like a teenage love story. It has hints of cultural affinity written all over it. Bollywood will have to counter this flood of Korean movies with more Chak De characters! It has already lost a lot of audience for the Korean film industry.
A couple of weeks ago, while we were having a chat about our lives in New Delhi, the awkward stares, the patronizing insults and the abuse in the workplace, with a friend he commented to me, “Are we in the wrong country?” “Will you be happy if you are treated like a guest in your own country?” asks one of the two characters from the northeast in Chak De India. As for me, it is bearable with the help of movies like My Sassy Girl and the like from our Korean film industry. Laugh out loud and forget about the troubles of this country until, of course, Chak De India has more important roles for the people of the north!