Review of “Made in Korea”

Ra. Karthik’s directorial, Made in Korea, has hit the global number 1 spot on Netflix among non-English films – a huge feat achieved after more than 4 million views in its first five days.

Priyanka Mohan (Doctor, Don and Captain Miller) plays the lead role, supported by South Korean actors Park Hye-jin, Si-Hun Baek, Jo Ha-Ram, Jae-Hyeon Jang, Sori Kim, Rok Kim and Min-Seok Jung.  The Indian supporting cast includes Rishikanth, Thirunavukkarasu, Jenson Dhivakar, Jaya, Vidhesh Anand and Riya Manoj as the young Shenbagam.

The story deals with Shenbagam – played first by Riya Manoj and then by Priyanka Mohan – who is a girl from a small obscure town in Tamil Nadu. Like many young girls her age, Shenbagam is fascinated by Korean music, actors and culture, and dreams of one day going to South Korea. After crossing many hurdles, her dream is within reach but events do not go as planned, and she finds herself having to deal with a dream that has threatened to become her worst nightmare. How Shenbagam deals with her latest challenges form the rest of the story.

The film showed great promise in its opening shots, but fizzled out to become very much of a template-based movie. While its director Ra. Karthik has referenced Queen and English Vinglish in a recent interview, Tamil film fans will find many some similarities with R. Madhavan’s Nalla Dhamayanthi.

The use of a template is not necessarily a negative approach, but what weighs the film down is the very casual pace in many parts of the film. The charm and warmth seeps through in isolated scenes, but the lack of depth in the story and the stunted screenplay prevents the film from reaching the heights promised by the opening scenes.

Priyanka Mohan shoulders most of the film herself and plays what is easily her best and most memorable portrayal to date, combining strength and vulnerability in carefully measured proportions that give her character credible depth.

Rishikanth as Mani, Thirunavukkarasu as Shenbagam’s father and Jenson Dhivakar as Saamy shine in their respective roles. Si-Hun Baek playing Heo Jun-Jae and Jo Ha Ram playing Sung-Hun are both impressive, but the spirited performance by Park Hye-Jin eclipses both these performances.

Cinematography by Prasanna Kumar is his best effort to date, reaching new heights with framing and lighting.

The film has a lively soundtrack by Hesham Abdul Wahab, Dharan Kumar and Simon K King who impress with the varied songs and creative background scores.

Despite its structural and stylistic flaws, Made in Korea, has high entertainment value, stunning locations and some moving acting performances.

Made in Korea scores 7 points out of 10.