2009:Lost Memories

Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: 1909, Manchuria: An Chung-Gun assassinates Japanese statesman Ito Hirobumi, effectively giving birth to the Korean Nationalist movement. Oop - no he doesn't. In the opening scenes of 2009: Lost Memories, this pivotal moment in Korea's history is prevented, unleashing a chain of events that sees its neighbour, Japan, uniting with the USA and - eek! - winning the Second World War.
Skip forward to 2009, and the country doesn't even exist - it's a mere annex of the Land of the Rising Sun. Everyone's speaking Japanese, and the mere notion of "Korea" seems to have been forgotten by all but a rogue terrorist group known as the Hureisenjin. When the police foil an assault mounted by them, special agents Saigo Shinjiro (Toru Nakamura) and Sakamoto Masayuki (Jang Dong-Guen) are caught up in the investigation. Sakamoto, however, has a chequered past: he is of Korean descent, and his father, also a cop, was accused of corruption, and ultimately killed, whilst investigating the same group.
It's an interesting, not to mention controversial, pitch. Relations between Japan and Korea have never been less than strained, and the images of Seoul decked-out in Japanese signs probably caused quite a stir amongst this movie's domestic audience. Would that this had, in the vein of the Japanese anime Jin-Roh, been simply about historical revisionism. Instead, the makers of 2009 burden their creation with a cumbersome time travel conceit that, over the course of the film, inexorably undoes all the work they've done.
The opening stages are great: there's a visually spectacular firefight between terrorists and police, and the Korea-that-never-was is pretty well evoked. From thereon in, though, 2009 plunges on a downward spiral, from average to outright dire, ending in a denouement that reeks of weirdly nationalistic wish fulfilment. The action sequences, too, seem to get increasingly sloppy as the film goes on, making way for some singularly tacky special effects that would've been better left on the drawing board.
There's probably a great film waiting to be made out of the simmering animosity between Japan and Korea but, sitting through downright manipulative scenes such as when Nakamura's character is able to enjoy the fireworks with his daughter whilst a Korean kid is gunned down by a ruthless Japanese superintendent, it becomes painfully apparent that this ain't it. Quite simply, 2009 is very bad indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe if I lived there...
Review: I like the 'What if...' trend in books and movies.
'The Man in a High Castle' by Philipp Dick is a great work of fiction, and then there are entertainig works like Harry Turtledove books, 'Faterland' by Robert Harris (also a movie)...
Well, there are a lot of them.
BUT, one of the important points of the sub-genre, in my opinion, is if you can relate to the event, that separated the universe in question from ours. And here lies the thing that made 'Lost Memories' less interesting to me, then other alternate worlds - I have nearly no idea of Korea-Japan conflict.

So, the part dealing with the history of the world was nearly incomprehensable to me. Imagine watching a movie set in a world, where Hitler won WW2, without any knowledge that there even WAS such a war.

The action sequences were adeqate, but not really impressive for the most part.

If you want to try out Korean action cinema you'd better start with 'Shiri' or 'Nowhere to Run'. This movie, based on a subject nearly alien to Western viewers, will not make new converts to the army of asian cinema lovers. Those, who allready know Korean cinema, will find it enjoyable, but not to a great extent.

Rating:
Summary: A well-done drama
Review: I really liked the movie, but it may be incomprehensible or tedious to those who are not familiar with the Korean and Japanese history of the past one hundred years. What if the Japanese could go back to the past and change history so they emerged victorious from the WWII and still kept Korea as a colony to-date? Given the potential repercussions (e.g., Hiroshima and Nagasaki may remain intact), what would one do to change it back or keep the status quo? The film is mostly drama with some action sequences and a crucial sci-fi twist. The best scenes are between the two main actors (Dong-Kung Jang and Toru Nakamura) whose friendship feels so genuine that their inevitable end is more poignant for it. Their relationship puts a personal touch to an intergenerational conflict between the two countries.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting topic
Review: I rented this movie and enjoyed it enough to look in to buying it. If you're a sci-fi fan you'll like it. Some say you need an in-depth understanding of Japanese/Korean politics to grasp it but I don't think that's the case. I thoroughly enjoyed the flick and it actually inspired me to look up more information about the tense relationship between these 2 countries.

Rating:
Summary: A Smart Little Find.
Review: I very nicely shot film from the emerging South Korean movie industry. Using an Alternate Present setting to explore the tense history of Japanese/Korean relationships it draws the viewer into both an intense friendship, and powerful action sequences.

The weak point in the movie is certainly the gimic that allows the plot to take place, which exists but is never really explained well. I would also be hesitant to recommend it to anyone who hasn't at least a passing understanding of the Japanese/Korean history.

Rating:
Summary: Not too good, not too bad either...
Review: Imagine Japan allied herself with the US and won WII instead of losing it. Imagine the nuclear bombs being set upon Berlin instead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And a Korea which is not Korea as is now, but a colony of Japan. Lee Si-Myung's 2002 flick seems lost between an action thriller and a sci-fi flic, and for the most parts of the first half of the story, it spends pretending to be the former. If you haven't read this sypnosis or any other you'll be forgiven into thinking this just another plain action drama. There's a huge set piece at the start of the movie where the nationalist "terrorist" groups break in for a mission, but after that the story pewters off into more routine and leisurely pacing.

Masayuki Sakamoto (Jang Dong-Gun) and Shojiro Saigo (Toru Nakamura) are two cops who are investigating the Korean terrorist organization Hureisenjin's latest exploits. Sakamoto is really Korean, although he works for the Japanese government; he couldn't care less about the Korean nationalist movements, that is, until this case, when something sinister seems to be lurking beneath the surface, and which the Japs seem to be trying to cover up.

To be really honest, the film has a good premise, but unfortunately somewhere along the line, it lost its promise and became, very merely, one megabuster which is interesting while it lasts but not very brilliant or bright in execution. Lee's direction became predictable as time went on, as does the plot once the central story became known midway through the 2-hour long film. There's some soppy melodrama going on as well, as well as a good-bad schism which favors the Koreans over their Japanese counterparts. All in all, if you are a Korean patriot, you may approve of the screenplay, but I for one find the melding of sci-fi and action ultimately unconvincing. But still, it isn't that bad a movie, although I won't say it's fantastic either. An ammo-laden film.

Rating:
Summary: nova
Review: Sick movie. The dialogue might seems cheesy because you can't translate word for word and get the same understanding. But if you are interested in a sick action movie, go with it!