2009: Lost Memories (2002)

A failed assassination attempt in Harbin, China in 1909 changes the course of history. Now two JBI agents must find the connections between it and an ancient Korean artifact.

Director:

Si-myung Lee

Writers:

Sang-hak Lee, Si-myung Lee

Stars:

Kil-Kang Ahn, Masaaki Daimon, Shôhei Imamura

5 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kil-Kang Ahn	...	Myung-Hak Lee
Masaaki Daimon
Shôhei Imamura
Dong-gun Jang	...	Masayuki Sakamoto
Nobuyuki Katsube
Gyu-ri Kim	...	Kindergarten teacher (as Min-sun Kim)
Sa-Pi Lee
Ken Mitsuishi	...	Hideyo
Tôru Nakamura	...	Shojiro Saigo
Jin-ho Seo	...	Hye-Rin Oh
Goo Shin	...	Takahashi
Sang-Jeon Woo
Miki Yoshimura	...	Yuriko Saigo

Storyline

There are breakpoints in the history, the result of a single event may change the whole course... In 1909, an assassination attempt of a Japanese governor fails - the assassin was shot by a soldier. Now, in 2009, Korea is just another state of the Japan Empire and Seoul has become a major city. A Korean resistance group called Hureisenjin is formed to fight for liberty and independence. Two cops, a Japanese and a Korean (who denies his heritage) are investigating the actions of this "terrorist" group. And their work lead them to an artifact of the ancient Korean religion of "Sun and Moon".

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Plot Keywords:

korean | japan | artifact | resistance | japanese | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive strong violence

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean Japanese

Release Date:

1 February 2002 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

2009 Memórias Perdidas

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CJ Entertainment, Indecom Cinema, Tube Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Sakamoto has several spots of blood on his shirt including one on his left shoulder. After Saigo helps him escape, as he walks down the street, the spot of blood on his left shoulder is gone.

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Connections

References Uisa Ahn Jung-geun (1972)

User Reviews

Slam-bang action thriller one of the best yet from Korea

2009 LOST MEMORIES (2002): Fantastic action thriller set in an deliberately-created alternate future in which Korea is just another Japanese state, and Koreans have largely lost their identity. A Korean-blooded, Japanese-named cop slowly realizes that the terrorists he's paid to wipe out are actually Korean freedom-fighters trying to restore the timeline to its proper state.

This film gets slagged nearly everywhere, so I defend it whenever possible. It's a big, loud, arguably overblown "blockbuster" that deals with a very sensitive subject: Korean identity. People have, I believe, unfairly examined and criticized this film on two fronts:

one, it's inherent patriotism, which is an element of Korean cinema that seems to alienate so many non-Korean viewers and yet is a fundamental part of the culture, probably more so than in any other Asian country (let alone much of the world). And two, the historical events behind its "science fiction," which nearly everybody I've read gets wrong. The key plot device of the film is NOT simply that Japan won World War II, but that the legendary Korean patriot Ahn Chung-gun FAILED in his assassination of Japanese foreign minister Ito Hirobumi in China in 1909 (thus, sort of, the point of the title being 100 years later). This single event is extremely important to the Korean culture and not only is their a gigantic memorial named after Ahn, but also a form of Tae Kwon Do. Looking these two names up on the internet greatly aids in understanding the deeper messages this film offers. I give it a 9.