2009 Lost Memories

Description

What if Japan allied with the United States during WWII? What if nuclear bombs were dropped on Berlin instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What if the sovereign nation of Korea never existed? To J.B.I. agent Masayuki Sakamoto these questions aren't speculation-they're history. During a routine investigation, he uncovers a web of intrigue that will turn his world inside out.

Customer Reviews:

2009 Lost Memories.......2007-01-10

I'll make it short and sweet. This was a really good movie. The english track was a plus. It was put together good and the plot kept me on my seat and the end was a twist. I can't wait till more Asian/futuristic action packed movies are re-released into english tracks. I own a couple of movies like this one that has the english track and they are great. The american market is flooded with the same plots.. Movies like this one give you a different outlook on the way it is made...which makes it an all around good movie.. A must get.

ENTERTAINING MOVIE: WORTH A WATCH.......2006-08-25

First of all, either you will like this movie or you won't. The movie reminded me alot of Philip K. Dick's "THE MAN IN A HIGH CASTLE" I found it very entertaining, not the best time travel movie, but entertaining enough to rent the film at least. In the film, the J.B.I. (Japanese Bureau Of Investigation) based in Seoul are combating a terrorist group trying to gain independence from Japan: As Japan in this alternate future allied itself with the USA, and helped to defeat the axis powers. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been erased from the past, and Berlin, Germany was the recipient of the first atomic bombing.

Enter two JBI agents, Sakamoto Masayuki (Jan Dong-gun) and Saigo Shojiro (Toru Nakamura) After the agents are assigned to investigate the Korean terrorist organization responsible for the latest attack on a corporation, one of the agents, Sakamoto, begins his own internal research on the corportion. He discovers that an artifact is what the terrorists are after. Sakamoto is of Korean descent, and during his investigation the mega-corporation he is investiganting goes after him.

Apparently the artifact holds the key to events that occurred in the year 1909, which affected the future: The foiled assassination of one man which has altered the future. The movie shifts to events in 1909, which show how history was altered. It is now up to Sakamoto to go back in time and put the past in it's proper sequence, in order for Korea to get back on it's true path. The movie was entertaining, and I would recommend at least renting the film.

Attempts to be intellectial - but achieves only cliche.......2006-06-21

The course of Korean history has been damaged through time travel! That is the secret of the whole film. I would have put up a spoiler warning, but if your read the back of the box, watch the opening credits, or read the product discription, you already know the BIG SECRET. The movie wants to be a very high minded affair, but you don't feel enough of the time changes (most of the over the top action gets in the way) so that you have a lot of sympathy for what is going on. The movie is also hurt by the fact it falls into every Asian movie cliche that doesn't involve a sword and martial arts.

Hero sees person they care for killed and becomes so overcome with grief they must kill 100 people. Check. Best friends end up opposing each other. Check. Symetry scene between best friends going through similar experiences at different locations. Check. Flashback to unimportant person who now give film emotional meaning. Check. Slow action to a crawl to add emotional drama. Check. Two characters pointing pistols at the others head. Check.

Not a bad flick, but not worth $20+ either.

Feels very Philip K Dick.......2006-06-02

Shortly after seeing Vincenzo Natali's CYPHER, I became aware of two other films that appeared to have been cut from a Philip K. Dick cloth; Min Byung-chun's NATURAL CITY and Lee Si-myung's 2009: LOST MEMORIES. Where CYPHER felt close to Dick's "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" and NATURAL CITY his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, 2009 was under threat of falling through the cracks as it smacked of a Dick novel that has yet to have an "official" adaptation, The Man in the High Castle.

What if the Axis powers had won WWII? That's been a question long posed in alternative versions of history. 2009: LOST MEMORIES goes back further to the 1909 assassination of Chosun Governor Ito by Choong-Kum Ahn, proposing that this event could have sparked a flurry of dramatic shifts in history. No longer enemies, the United States and Japan would have fought as allies in World War II, atomic bombs would have been dropped on Britain, and "The Great East Asian Union" would serve as the second largest superpower in the world.

The majority of the movie takes place in Seoul--third largest city in the Japanese Empire. When the Korean Republican Army (also known as the Hureisenjin) take over Ito Hall, Japanese Bureau of Investigation agents Sakamoto Masayuki (Jang Dong-gun) and Saigo Shojiro (Toru Nakamura) are called in to diffuse the situation. Like their American counterparts, the JBI tends to shoot first and never ask questions later. The sole exception to this is Sakamoto who insists on digging into the KRA's activities.

Sakamoto uses his Japanese moniker despite being a Korean. In this brave new world, Korea is merely an extension of the East Asian Union's territory. Korea's cultural history and language have long ago been officially dissolved and its citizens are second class at best. When Sakamoto's investigation into the KRA threatens to rock the foundation of the illustrious and mysterious Inoue Foundation, he's framed for murder and told by his superiors, "You'll find lots of friends in jail since most of them are Korean."

While Dick's use of an alternative future is far from wholly original, The Man in the High Castle is a highly satisfactory science fiction tale. Dick's novel lacks an organized rebellion to the alternate timeline but has The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, an underground novel which paints a much more familiar world in which the Axis powers fell. 2009: LOST MEMORIES also owes a debt to Chris Marker's LA JETTEE in Sakamoto's future/past dream.

Moreover, director Lee Si-myung appears to be aping the style of John Woo just as Jang Dong-gun shares quite a few facial expressions with Chow Yun Fat. Additionally, the relationship between Sakamoto and Saigo recalls the tempestuous alliance between many of Woo's characters. It's ironic, then, that the disassociative plot of 2009: LOST MEMORIES should so strongly recall the work of Philip K. Dick when Woo would later helm the adaptation of Dick's "Paycheck."

Rather than tracking down the overlong 2009: LOST MEMORIES, I recommend sticking with Peter Hyams' TIMECOP for a much better time travel adventure film.

Mind Numbingly Violent! Dopey Screenplay! Every Problem Solved By Blowing Someone's Head Off!!.......2006-02-09

Science Fiction is my favorite genre! I view, each, and every film with an open mind. There's a lot going on here about Korean hatred of Japan, which is based on historical events. The premise is interesting: Japan sides with us in World War 2 and the Bomb is dropped on Germany, instead. As a result, Korea then permanently becomes a part of Japan. This is similar to what the American government did to Hawaii.

Yes, we Americans really did overthrow the legitimate government of the Hawaiian nation, in 1898, at the point of a gun, for both economic and military reasons. (A literal example of Gunboat Diplomacy!) Too bad some filmmaker doesn't do a "time machine" movie about freeing Hawaii! But I digress - this could have been a great movie with such an original premise! Alas, it was not to be!

Instead, the constant, and graphic showing of heads being blown off makes this a terrorist war-porn movie under the guise of Science Fiction! Slaughtering people, with cameras carefully lingering over the corpses, is not my idea of a good time. If it's yours, perhaps you should consider seeing a psychiatrist!

This is absolutely the very worst "time machine" movie ever done. It gives Science Fiction a really bad name, and the filmmakers should truly be ashamed of themselves. I will certainly stay clear of any Korean filmmakers in the future!

Average customer rating:

2009: Lost Memories/Yesterday
Starring: 2009 Lost Memories , and Yesterday
Manufacturer: Adv Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Two of the biggest action movies to come out of are now available in a super-set priced to sell through! YESTERDAY features a hard-boiled cop in a grisly near future Asia. 2009 Lost Memories is a thriller combining sci-fi, political intrigue, and plenty of gunplay.

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