Film Review: Made In Korea (Tamil) Has Flimsy Premise But Simple Warmth

Some films are bereft of logic, but convey simple human warmth. Right in the beginning, we are told of a simple village girl (Priyanka Mohan) from Tamil Nadu’s Kollapur, who dreams of going to Korea one day. So much so that everyone calls her Shenba, the Korean character who inspired her in school. We are also told that a bunch of Koreans have come all the way to that tiny hamlet to see her.

Then comes the flashback: In a network-depleted area (that’s what we are told!), we see exposure to and later easy access to Korea on laptops, and later even calls happen easily from Korea to India! Shenba grows up and when her love story for a down-at-heel boyfriend, Mani (Rishikanth) comes out in the open, her father (Thirunavukkarasu) angrily slaps him. A furious Mani asks Shenba to elope with him to Chennai and says that they will fly to Korea to make a living. 

However, he dupes her and dumps her alone on a flight to Korea, heading to Mumbai with the money her father has given him to give her. And those are Sheba’s father’s life’s savings, so don’t ask inconvenient questions about how her father came to know her whereabouts in the city and why he did not call her to say that he was coming with the money!

Shenba comes to know of her boyfriend’s deceit and is miserable even as she reaches Seoul. But she does not seem to be bereft of money (Thanks, callous boyfriend!). She begins to make friends and arouse curious sympathy immediately and after finding that the job Mani had arranged for her is a scam, finds a position as a caretaker of an invalid old lady, Yeon-Ok (Park Hye-Jin), who cannot walk or talk. She has to feed, nurse and look after her while her son and daughter-in-law are out at work. What happens next?

The answer to that again is a crazy set of things where Shenba finds that the old lady is actually a feisty and fit woman pretending to be bedridden because her dreams are not allowed to be fulfilled by her son. But no one talks of any doctor visiting her for medical checkups.

Involved with Shenba and her adventures are also a set of young boys and girls who form a musical band, Shenba’s role in financing them, and back home, a natural act of God that devastates her village, a remorseful boyfriend who we are once told was in jail, and the aforesaid Korean group of youngsters visiting Shenba in her village. So will she move back to Korea? What happens to the old lady? Does Shenba forgive her boyfriend? 

Well, watch this film if you must. At less than two hours runtime, the film is a one-time watch if one does not exercise the gray matter at all on the questions and aspects described above. I have no clue what the many Korean on-screen and behind-the-screen artistes think of the script and film, but I for one enjoyed at least the stunning locales of Seoul shot so deliciously (can’t think of an apter term!) by Prasanna Kumar. Korean cinema remade here is mostly dark, so maybe they will find this Indian product refreshingly different!

Ra. Karthik, the director, seems to have been given carte blanche to make this film as he sees fit and, to give him his due, he makes the most of it, getting great work from Priyanka and also Park Hye-Jin who is cuter than so many Indian old charmers. The youngsters are good too, as are the actors playing Shenba’s folks back home.

If this film is worth a watch, it is entirely due to the sights of Seoul, Priyanka Mohan and Park Hye-Jin who make us sail cozily through this illogical itinerary!

Rating: **1/2

Netflix presents Rise East Entertainment’s Made In Korea Produced by: Sagar Pentela & Sreenidhi Sagar Written & Directed by: RA. Karthik  Music: Hesham Abdul Wahab, Simon K. King & Dharan Kumar Starring: Priyanka Mohan, Park Hye-Jin, Rishikanth, Si-hun Baek, Jae-hyeon Jang, Sori Kim, Ha-Ram Jo, Rok Kim, Min-Seok Jung, Thirunavukkarasu, Jenson Dhivakar, Dae-Kyeong Kim, Ryun-Hyung Kim & others

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