Directed by: Lee Si-myung (이시면) Starring: Jang Dong-gun (장동건), Nakamura Toru, Seo Jin-ho (서진호), Cheon Ho-jin (천호진), Ahn Gil-Gang (안길강) Release Date: February 1st, 2002
2009: Lost Memories is a futuristic sci-fi action and drama film, adapted from the 1987 novel, “In Search of the Epitaph” by Bok Geo-il, that takes place in a distorted future reality created after time travelers altered the past. Nothing short of ambitious, the film was jointly produced by Korea and Japan to set be released during their historic co-hosting of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. While the finished product saw the author from whose book the film was based on sue to have his name removed from the film in the end, its safe to say that 2009: Lost Memories didn’t draw the kind of attendance numbers that the soccer stadiums saw that year. But its next-level ambition speaks volumes of a budding South Korean film industy. And although not possible back in 2002, a project like this needed something like a Netflix series to allow the necessary time and space for the story and characters to breathe within. The end result saw the intriguing concepts at the core of 2009: Lost Memories take a backseat to its general entertainment approach that left audiences underwhelmed and moderately confused.
The prevention of one man’s assassination in 1909 triggers a ripple effect through time that changes major historical events to set up an alternate reality in 2009. This new history includes the United States teaming up with Japan during World War II that saw atomic bombs dropped on Germany, as well as Japan entering the UN to become a major world power that ultimately ended up pioneering the space race. This also means that Japan’s annexation of Korea, or Joseon as it was known then, never ended. Thus, the Korean peninsula effectively became part of Japan so downtown Seoul looks like downtown Tokyo in 2009.
With Korean culture having virtually disappeared and public interest in the old heritage of the land now at all time low, those who still retain pride and allegiance to Joseon find themselves part of a fringe group of sophisticated resistance fighters. Nowadays, they’ve resorted to extreme acts of terrorism to make their voices heard. As the most notorious organization to crashes Japanese cultural events and assassinates high profile figures, ace counter-terrorism negotiators, the Korean speaking Sakamoto (Jang Dong Gun) and Saigo (Nakamura Toru) are brought in help seek a resolution.
So if you know your Korean history and the city of Seoul well, the opening of 2009: Lost Memories should begin with shock to see famous parts of the city reimagined as if it were under Japanese influence for so long. This could stir up a lot of emotion in those still very sensitive to Japanese Korean relationship dynamics considering the actual history. But those unaware of the current Korean cityscape or the true history, including the legendary assassination the film opens with, may be slow to adjust to the alternate reality that 2009: Lost Memories hopes to establish.
But even so, 2009: Lost Memories struggles on other levels to create a believable world for itself. For instance, the terrorism threat is established to have plagued the city over the years but authorities claim ignorance as to the motivations behind it due to language barriers. The film seems to be taking the position that the Japanese are in blind denial of their takeover and culture washing of the peninsula, or they have rewritten the history books (plausible and arguably evidence for it already exists but any notion of this is either implied or not brought up in the film). But even so, it’s hard to square the lead character Sakamoto played by Jang Dong-gun (Rampant) , the ethnic Korean police agent on the case, as only now becoming aware of the plight of his people.
Immediately after the opening incident, the agent Sakamoto is clearly stirred by the words of the terrorist claiming to be morally fighting to retake his country. And if we’re to believe that he’s only one capable of understanding the Korean language shouted by the terrorist, his conflicted state of emotions causes him to not share the terrorist’s motives with the lead investigators. So by this early time in the film, it becomes quite clear that it will take some major story surprises for 2009: Lost Memories to end up differently than one will immediately be able to predict (Sakamoto will sympathize with the movement and help the insurgents to somehow reclaim their rightful land).
Luckily, 2009: Lost Memories offers a few surprises by centering the terrorist activity around the heists of ancient artifacts associated with ancient religious and mystical properties rumored to be capable of opening doorways through time. Lead investigator Sakamoto also becomes mysteriously haunted by the visions of an unknown time and place, including a woman whose face he can’t make out. This is where I wish 2009: Lost Memories had more time to expand upon as the ideas here feel fresh and speak more to the film’s identity as a whole.
2009: Lost Memories feels overly long with a runtime of 135 minutes. There’s also a bit of an unusual pacing to the movie that sees spikes of intense violence and action intertwined with slower melodramatic character building scenes reminiscent of a TV drama. However, 2009: Lost Memories feels more in its element during these slower moments since the action sequences are so uninspired. The back and forth tactical shootouts using high-tech weaponry are mostly engaging, but many of the biggest set pieces look to have been systematically modeled after bigger Hollywood actioners and buddy-cop movies that tend come across as awkwardly staged or overplayed. Moments like these make it hard to stay immersed in the more interesting and original X-Files-esque side of 2009: Lost Memories that deals with time travel and ancient artifacts.
2009: Lost Memories was one of the first sort of nationalistic rallying cry type Korean blockbusters that plays into the lingering post-occupation trauma still very much felt by many Koreans today. I was kind of confused by this during my initial viewing of the film many years back due to my naivety of the emotional history built into the story. Some bigger and more recent films that beat a similar drum include Assassination (2015), and The Battleship Island (2017).
Also, much of the important subtleties found in 2009: Lost Memories may end up lost on those unable to distinguish the spoken Japanese from the Korean, relying on English subtitles for example for both languages. It would be nice if a future blu-ray would include different color subtitles like we saw in Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece The Handmaiden (2016), that used yellow for one language and white for the other. Those that have seen it know just how important a quick change in language can be to control information flow between characters or to emphasize certain dramatic points.
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