2009: Lost Memories (2002)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Si-myung Lee

Writers:

Sang-hak Lee (writer)
Si-myung Lee (writer)

Release Date:

1 February 2002 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Korean | Artifact | 1909 | Japan | Korea

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Kil-Kang Ahn	...	Myung-Hak Lee
Masaaki Daimon
Shohei Imamura
Dong-Kun Jang	...	Masayuki Sakamoto
Nobuyuki Katsube
Min-sun Kim	...	Kindergarten teacher
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

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong violence.

Runtime:

136 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:M | Germany:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Singapore:PG (cut) | South Korea:12 | USA:R

Company:

CJ Entertainment

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Sakamoto dives behind the couch you can see that next to his gun holster, on the back of the couch, there is a mound exactly where the squib for the gunshot is going to go off.

Movie Connections:

References Uisa Ahn Jung-geun (1972)

A First Class Asian Thriller!!!

Hollywood has made loads of Asian remakes recently, and this would probably be another contender for their interest... although an American remake might have to be *extremely* bold. 2009: Lost Memories is one of the best Asian action films I've seen... period.

First of all, get those Hollywood tendencies out of your head. This is a film whose story, far fetched though it may be, seems to convey some very genuine, weighted, and apparent contemporary sentiment about a significant event in modern Asian history. Since the event and players around which the film is centered are indeed VERY real - make Wikipedia your friend ;) - I would urge people from other parts of the world watching this film to try and imagine if something in their own histories had followed a similar plot; to better appreciate the film from the vantage point of the storyteller. DO NOT watch this film if you're only looking for some John Woo style action. It's really not about the action at all.

I'm a typical non-Asian: very limited knowledge of Asian history, and absolutely no implicit understanding of Asian culture, or the mark that such history has had on modern Asian convention. I think this film (among many) offers a few clue-ins about the inward tensions concerning the past between Asians that are completely unknown to the rest of the world. It may seem deliberate as a matter of course to people from the region, most oblivious outsiders would still be guessing.

In short, it is about an alternate reality in which Korea never gained independence from it's status as a Japanese protectorate. Now add time travel... and enjoy the film.

Although it's a little on the long side, it was fun all the way through. The storyline never dropped or suddenly got slow, and there was nothing that could be completely lost in translation as I find is often the case with a lot of other trans-continental cinema. There's PLENTY of gun action for such aficionados. It was coherent, and very suspenseful from start to finish. Even the music played to great effect; perfect at certain instances like you see in film from time to time. All in all, a fully enjoyable feature.

I liked this film, not for the time travel sci-fi, gun fights or adequate special effects, but for letting me see someone else (besides Hollywood) pay homage to their own heroes. In Japan this might be a horror film.