Thursday, June 19, 2008

Korean movies, north-east youth and some thoughts

We have been watching a lot of Korean movies of late that S and I joke that we may start talking to each other in Korean. When I went home, I could see the youths trying to ape them rather than the Indian movie stars. Hindi movies and channels are banned by the militants and a famous Korean channel is watched in most households and loved. One thing could be because of our looks that the youths can identify with them more than the Hindi movie stars. Even after being with India for this long, we continue to search our identity. I feel they are right in some ways in trying to ape some other country. We are often not accepted. I hate it when colleagues ask me where my state is and what is its capital. Furthermore, some of them think we eat all kinds of living things.

Sometimes I ask them, “Were you fishing when your teacher taught Geography? Atleast know that I am from the north-east even if you don’t know which state, having said that I am an Indian.” I am more Indian in many ways than them morons. I am not saying this is all bad though. You are different; therefore you can be interesting too. I feel I have managed to remove many prejudices from the minds of those people who know me well.

Coming back to the Korean movies, I realise it is not just S and I who have been watching these movies but bollywood too. Welcome is copied from a movie called Marrying the Mafia. The revenge of Sanjay Dutt, Zinda was also copied from another Korean movie. There is another Korean movie on teenage pregnancy called Jenny and Juno and though the story is different, the subject is the same as Juno. So, I thought maybe, Hollywood was also inspired by this. Juno was a much better movie than the Korean, Jenny and Juno. I have a nagging feeling that You, Me aur Hum is also copied from A moment to Remember, but there are lot of other Hollywood movies on Alzheimers. I have watched the Notebook based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel and then there is Away from her for which Julie Christie was nominated for the Oscars. I wish to watch A memoir of Irish Murdoch. Read all the actors (Jim Broadbent, Judi Dench and Kate Winslet) got nominated for the Academy and Golden Globe.

A Moment to Remember has Son Ye-jin as the lead. The Classic was the first Korean movie that I watched starring this lady some years back. After that, I watched My Sassy Girl and now, I have lost count. Till now, I find A Moment to Remember to be the best movie on Alzheimers, Holly Bolly Tolly Golly, all the Woods considered. Some of the Korean movies are quite good. They have their own American Pies and American Gangsters. I remember one funny dialogue from one such movie. It is a movie on Gangsters. One of the brothers is always found with women instead of gang wars. So, the elder brother scolded him. The sub-title read,” You are always clinging to breasts. Are you a calf?

15 comments:

austere said...

Give it time, Arunima. Yes, there are genetic differences- but there are similarities too.
Will take time to reach mainstream. In time, you may have a Balaji-kind of serial featuring a North East family.
I can understand where this is coming from.

v said...

it's not just movies, the song- 'pehli nazar mein' from race is also copied from a korean movie.Copying a track and not mentioning it in the credits is pathetic i tell you!! u can watch it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcgqBcpR9hw&feature=related

Anonymous said...

i knw those ppl who dont hv any clue abt north east states... stupids they are...education ka paani kar diya.

i can understand ppl from village querying abt these states.in my village they dont even knw where tamil nadu is... but educated lots should be more responsible.

btw pritam picks all of his songs from korean movies... and some more music directors as well.

claytonia vices said...

I guess prejudice is the next level of ignorance...

Pallavi said...

hahaha !!! reading subtitles is fun..
For Atta boy they wrote " thats a boy" and well I think I should actually document some of them.. they are so funny.. specially english movies with english subtitles.. LOLOL..

sanguine said...

zinda is a copy of old boy ... the grossiest movie ever made , or at least i have ever seen .
it kinda put me off korean flicks .

"I am more Indian in many ways than them morons. I am not saying this is all bad though. You are different; therefore you can be interesting too." well said {{hugs}}

Mizohican said...

hehehe Korean movies! :-)

I used to watch "My Sassy girl", "A moment to remember" and "My girlfriend is a gangster" but after a couple of more Korean movies, I couldn't take it any longer. Most of them have the same mushy love story... and the heroes are usually... effeminate, which makes it quite uncomfortable for a guy to watch... hehe.

But I still have quite a collection of Korean movies in my DVD rack. Haven't watched most of them but its good to have it as a collection. Sometimes it is put to good use when friends visit.

TheExperimentalMom said...

Forgive me for being ignorant about my own country, but Militants have banned hindi channels there came to me as a shock. I knew the problems facing the north east were grave, but this is much worse.

Is the north-eastern life-style more similar to Korean, as compared to the Hindi-speaking parts of India? curious...

Vivek Malewar said...

What I don't understand about Korean movies is that .... why do they always kill the girl at the end of the movie !!!! :)

DewdropDream said...

I watched a bit of some Korean show on youtube ages ago... I LOVED the way the language sounds and I thought Koreans are very beautiful!!

And about that 'are you Indian enough' stuff... I have a friend who is chinese but was born and brought up in India... she speaks fluent hindi and is in every imaginable way Indian... but no one cuts her any slack on that count just because she looks chinese. People suck sometimes

Unknown said...

Hey... That was an awesome post after a long gap. I hope the NDA parade was good although the Defence minister fainted and all that!!!! Was looking forward to a call from u but I guess u were really tied up!

I have never seen a Korean movie... But now maybe I will start...since what u've written is so interesting.

As for the North East issue, I think mainland Indians are moronic to the point of being ludicrous. When hubby and I were going to Nagaland a few years ago, people told us to beware from eating chicken there, coz it could be "dog meat". After we spent two weeks in Dimapur and Kohima and also visited shillong and Cherrapunji etc we realised how idiotic some of the things we'd heard were!

Thank God we made that trip. Our respect for each corner of our beautiful motherland increased manifold....

manuscrypts said...

hmm, pity that the hindi channels are getting blocked... it only widens whatever perceived 'gap' there is... one of the reasons why i like virtuality :)

Anonymous said...

United we fought for freedom and got it. But our minds are still slaves of discriminations and discrepancies...will another 200 years under some foreign nation will be enough to make us united…we are so away from each others another now if some one invade us it will take us more than 200 yrs to unite and face them…we fight for water…fight for languages…kill for political views and differences…when it was supposed to be constrictive as that’s the pillar of our most celebrated democracy…I wish some dictator take charge and crush us deep down till our hatred and difference wash off with our bleedings…and we unite…

hnarsana said...

Don't see the movie, read the book: "Elegy for Iris". It's mindblowing, and written by her husband. One of the best memoirs I've read.

As for Korean movies, I loved My sassy girl and Il Mare, not to mentioned Windstruck (which is like a precursor to My sassy girl).

I am yet to watch many more.. their comedies are hilarious yet adult rated. :)

hitchhiker said...

they are actually pretty bad at geography.. ask them what the capital of uttaranchal is, or Chattisgarh, for that matter, and they are sure to be stumped..
I guess it is difficult to relate to a geographical place if it is not culturally/linguistically 'big'.. for people who are not there in the North-east, it is difficult to distinguish between a Naga and a Manipuri, but much easier to distinguish between a Gujarati and a Punjabi..