Is ‘Hawa’ a copy of ‘Sea Fog’?

Acclaimed Bangladeshi director and musician Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s debut feature film ‘Hawa’ is breaking records at home and abroad since its release on July 29. The film, starring big names like Chanchal Chowdhury, Sariful Razz, Nazifa Tushi, Shohel Mondol, Nasir Uddin Khan and Sumon Anowar, depicts the story of a deep sea fishing trawler caught up in a mysterious chain of events. It had mostly been praised both by the critics and the audience alike.

Yet, many netizens have claimed that the film is actually a copy of the famous 2014 South Korean film ‘Sea Fog’ directed by Sung-bo Shim and written by ‘Parasite’ famed director Bong Joon-ho. The Business Post looked into both films to analyse this debate. Before reading further ahead we must warn that this article might have some spoilers of both films for analytical purposes. Here is what we found.

Where from such comparison comes

The first social media post we could find online that claimed ‘Hawa’ was not an original film came from a Facebook page called Dhallywood Barta. The page’s about section claims that it is a Dhallywood-based news outlet which regularly shares news and insights on mainstream Bangladeshi films. Though most of the posts on the page are updates about Shakib Khan’s latest projects and whereabouts. On July 31, they posted a status update on their Facebook page which surprisingly claimed that the film was an exact copy of the 1984 film ‘Abhijan’, directed by legendary Bangladeshi actor Abdur Razzak. The post did not mention any details or analysis of this claim and said that Abdul Aziz, owner of Jaaz Multimedia was a liar for claiming to make an original film. However, Jaaz Multimedia is only the local distributor of ‘Hawa’ and not the production company of the film. The film was produced by Sun Music and Motion Pictures Ltd.

‘Abhijan’ starred Ilias Kanchan, Anjana Sultana, Jashim, Abdur Razzak and Rozina in lead roles. The film also had a similar scene where Rozina’s character was caught in the net of a fishing boat and pulled up by the fishermen. In ‘Hawa,’ Nazifa Tushi’s mysterious water gipsy character called ‘Gulti’ was also pulled up by the fishermen while fishing in the deep sea. That is the only similarity we could find between the two films.

Later on, several posts popped up in Bangladeshi film enthusiast Facebook groups that ‘Hawa’ was copied from ‘Sea Fog.’ That accusation spread like wildfire throughout Bangladeshi virtual arena.

Director’s defence

‘Hawa’ director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon was quiet during the whole post release promotion campaign. However, he talked to several media outlets when the accusations were being reported on mainstream media. He requested audience to watch both films before making such claims on social media.

‘Hawa’ vs ‘Sea Fog’

Upon closer inspection, we see that the acclaimed 2014 South Korean film ‘Sea Fog’ was indeed a story about a deep-sea fishing boat set in the South Korean coastal region.

The film centers on Captain Kang and his fishing crew. Kang is about to lose his fishing boat due to lack of finances so in an act of desperation he agrees to a job of smuggling Chinese and North Korean immigrants into the country. His crew was unaware of the fact until they are deep into the sea. But things don’t go according to plan when the fishing ship called Jeonjinho encounters heavy fog, rain and waves on its return journey, while also being chased by a ship from the South Korean Maritime Police. On order from the captain, several crew members hide the illegal immigrants inside the fishing tank, where they are in danger of suffocating to death. Amid the chaos, the youngest crew member Dong-sik tries to protect a young female migrant with whom he’d fallen in love.

On the other hand, ‘Hawa’ also revolves around Chanchal Chowdhury’s character ‘Chaan Majhi’ who is the captain of his fishing trawler. Their fishing net catches ‘Gulti,’ played by Nazifa Tushi, in deep sea. After her arrival on the boat a series of mysterious and supernatural events begins and crew members begin to die one by one.

Final verdict

After analysing both films, we can say that a few shots of ‘Hawa’ might be inspired from ‘Sea Fog.’ Both film has a fishing boat which gets stuck in deep sea and has a central female character. Apart from that both films are completely different from each other.

‘Hawa’ is a fantasy or horror which takes inspiration from Bangladeshi coastal region folklore and mythology. It also uses magic realism as a storytelling tool.

Whereas, ‘Sea Fog’ is a gritty drama which depicts the stories of Chinese and North Korean migrants risking their lives to try to enter South Korea in hopes of a better life.

The ongoing social media debate of ‘Hawa’ being a copy of ‘Sea Fog,’ which made its international premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, is completely baseless.