2009 Lost Memories

2009 Lost Memories
Hangul	2009 로스트메모리즈
RR	2009 Loseutumemorijeu
MR	2009 Rosŭt‘ŭmemo-rijŭ
Directed by	Lee Si-myung
Produced by	Kim Yun-young Seo Jun-won
Written by	Lee Si-myung Lee Sang-hak
Starring	Jang Dong-gun Toru Nakamura
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date(s)	February 1, 2002 (South Korea)
Running time	135 min.
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean / Japanese
Budget	$7,000,000
Admissions	2,263,800
Gross revenue	$12,049,825

2009 Lost Memories is a 2002 South Korean science fiction action thriller film directed by Lee Si-myung. It was distributed by CJ Entertainment and was released on February 1, 2002.

Plot

In the year 2009, where Korea is still under Japanese rule, Japanese Bureau of Investigation (JBI) agents Masayuki Sakamoto and Shojiro Saigo thwart a hostage crisis at a museum in Keijo (Seoul) by a terrorist group known as the Hureisenjin. The exact motivation for the hostage situation is unknown, but during the investigation, Sakamoto discovers a museum artifact, a crescent-shaped rock known as the "Lunar Soul", found by one of the slain terrorists. After discovering a history of the Hureisenjin targeting the Inoue Foundation, a group founded around the artifacts collected by the second Resident-General of Korea, Sakamoto begins to suspect the Hureisenjin were attempting to stealing the Lunar Soul. The Hureisenjin ambush the convoy shipping the foundation's artifacts back to Japan and take the Lunar Soul. The terrorists confront Sakamoto and Saigo in a gunfight, where Sakamoto encounters Oh Hye-rin, the organization's female leader.

Sakamoto's questioning and accusations against the influential Inoue Foundation lead to him being thrown off the case, with the execution of Sakamoto's father as a traitor for aiding in a thwarted attack by the Hurisenjin on a cargo ship in Vladivostok in 1985 being cited by his suspicious superiors. Sakamoto pursues the investigation, traveling to Harbin to learn more about the Lunar Soul, and is then suspended from the JBI. That night, an unknown assailant murders Sakamoto's mentor, Takahashi, at his apartment and he is arrested for the crime. Sakamoto, however, escapes from the JBI with the help of Saigo, who vows to be his enemy the next time they meet.

A wounded Sakamoto stumbles into the Hureisenjin's hideout and Saigo is visited by the head of the Inoue Foundation, with both learning the truth: that he is living in an alternate timeline. Due to a large stone temple uncovered by a joint Chinese-Korean-Japanese archaeological expedition, with the ability to allow time travel, and its exploitation by the Japanese right-wing nationalist group Uyoku dantai, a man named Inoue prevents the assassination of Resident-General Itō Hirobumi on October 26, 1909. Itō's survival and Inoue's knowledge of future events allows for Japan, instead of being defeated with the other Axis Powers in the Second World War, to ally with United States against Nazi Germany. With the war ending in the atomic bombing of Berlin, rather than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan becomes a military and economic superpower with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, with its colonial empire intact. Inoue goes on to become the second Resident-General of Korea and his descendants found the Inoue Foundation, while a Korean female researcher who followed Inoue and attempted to stop him becomes the founder Hureisenjin and passes along the story of the truth of the altered timeline.

Knowing about the altered history, Sakamoto allies with the Hureisenjin, who have located the temple stone and are planning their final attack. However, the JBI raid their hideout and kill almost everyone before being wiped out by an improvised explosive. Carrying the Lunar Soul with them, Sakamoto and Hye-rin escape to a tanker ship where the Inoue Foundation's artifacts are being held. They find the temple stone and place the Lunar Soul in it, which activates in the middle of a gunfight with the JBI. Hye-rin is killed, leaving Sakamoto as the only person left to fix the timeline. Sakamoto sends himself to Harbin in 1909, but is pursued by Saigo, who wants to retain the current timeline (in order to prevent his wife's family from potentially perishing in the bombing of Hiroshima). Sakamoto wounds Saigo before heading to the railway station where the assassination is supposed to occur. He is about to stop Inoue from killing An, but Saigo once again confronts him. Sakamoto kills Inoue, then guns down Saigo to prevent him from shooting An. An assassinates Itō and history is reverted back to normal. Moments later, Sakamoto is seen planting explosives to destroy the temple stone, when he meets the female Korean researcher who had originally followed Inoue.

The film ends in the year 2009 at the Independence Hall of Korea, where a photo of Sakamoto and the woman is seen among the gallery of Korean heroes.

Cast

• Jang Dong-gun as Masayuki Sakamoto, a JBI agent of Japanese and Korean descent
• Toru Nakamura as Shojiro Saigo, Sakamoto's partner
• Seo Jin-ho as Oh Hye-rin, the female leader of the Korean terrorist group Hureisenjin
• Miki Yoshimura as Yuriko Saigo, Shojiro's wife
• Shin Goo as Takahashi, Sakamoto's mentor
• Ken Mitsuishi as Hideyo, a JBI employee who wears large eyeglasses
• Shōhei Imamura as a historian
• Kim Min-sun as a kindergarten teacher who appears in the end of the film
• Masaaki Daimon
• Nobuyuki Katsube
• Lee Sa-pi
• Woo Sang-jeon

Background

Timeline

The film's opening sequence shows the following differences in the historical timeline:

• 1909: An Jung-geun's assassination attempt against Itō Hirobumi is thwarted by Inoue.
• 1910: Japan annexes Korea as Choson Province
• 1919: The March 1st Movement protests are suppressed
• 1921: Inoue, Itō's savior, becomes Choson's second governor
• 1932: The Assassination of Yoshinori Shirakawa by Yoon Bong-Gil thwarted
• 1937: The United States and Japan enter World War II as allies
• 1943: Japan takes control of Manchuria
• 1945: Atomic bombs are dropped on Berlin, ending World War II.
• 1960: Japan becomes permanent member of UN Security Council
• 1965: Japan launches its first satellite, Sakura 1 (presumably as part of the Space Race)
• 1988: 1988 Summer Olympics held in Nagoya (instead of Nagoya losing by one vote to Seoul)
• 2002: World Cup tournament held in Japan (instead of both Korea and Japan)

Differences

• Korea is referred to as Chōsen in Japanese and Choseon in Korean, not as Hanguk (韓國), the name used by Republic of Korea. Seoul is referred to as Gyeongseong (경성,京城; Korean) / Keijō (京城,けいじょう; Japanese), an old name for Seoul that fell out of use after Korea gained independence from Japan in the actual timeline
• The Governor General Building still stands in front of Gyeongbok palace (instead of having been demolished in 1996).
• Gwanghwamun was never restored (instead of having been restored during Park Chung Hee's presidency).
• A statue of Toyotomi Hideyoshi on a horse in full samurai gear stands in downtown Seoul (instead of a statue of Yi Sun-sin, the man credited with defeating him).
• The Chungmuro district of Seoul, where Sakamoto lives, is still called Honmachi, as it was during the Japanese rule.
• Traffic flows on the left side, instead of on the right. Japanese, American and German cars are shown throughout the film, as Korean car manufacturers such as Hyundai do not exist.

Themes

According to Tom Vick, the theme of the film represents a desire in Korean cinema to "transcend time and memory" also reflected in other contemporary films such as Flower Island, Il Mare, and Bungee Jumping of Their Own.

See also

History of Korea Korean reunification List of Korean language films Cinema of Korea

Contemporary culture of South Korea List of Korea-related topics Time travel Alternate history

External links

• Official website (Archive copy at the Wayback Machine)
• 2009 Lost Memories at the Internet Movie Database
• 2009 Lost Memories at HanCinema
• 2009 Lost Memories, review at Asian Cinema.
• Korea That Might Have Been: Seoul as a Large Japanese City (movie review) by Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, May 20, 2005.
• Elley, Derek. 2009 -- Lost Memories (film review). Variety, July 9, 2002.
• Entry in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction