Version: Korean / Japanese audio, English subtitles.
Its funny how things work out. I submitted a review for 'The Big Swindle' - a 2 hour long Korean heist move - and mentioned that I always seem to find winners while watching random Korean movies. I must have jinxed myself, as I ended up coming across this dud at a friends house. A bad Korean movie? I don't know what to believe in anymore.
"What if?" time! In '2009: Lost Memories', the assassination of Ito Hirobumi (a Japanese official in occupied Korea) was foiled, and the course of history takes a very alternate route. World War Two was never fought in the Pacific and Korea has remained as a Japanese territory until 2009. Masayuki Sakamoto (Dong-Kun Jang) and Shojiro Saigo (Tôru Nakamura) are JBI (Japanese Bureau of Investigation) agents investigating an apparent terrorist attack on a Japanese museum in Seoul. The objective of the attack was the Lunar Soul - or as I like to call it: "The Boomerang of Death", that way it doesn't sound like something stolen from a 'Final Fantasy' game - and it is up to Sakamoto and his plucky little sidekick to find out why the Haruseijin are desperate to steal the Boomerang of Death.
Like a few other Korean films floating around, '2009: Lost Memories' plays heavily to Korean nationalism: Seoul is presented as a very Japanese city, the Japanese characters appear good but are really evil, and vice-versa for the Korean characters. I'm sure '2009' would strike a chord with Korean viewers, but I was left stranded and constantly checking the time. 'Shiri', 'JSA, and 'Phantom: The Submarine' are all based in Korean nationalism. What makes them better than '2009'? Well, for one, they are not totally boring.
'2009: Lost Memories' seem to be lost in between drama and action. The first action sequence is heavy on melodrama. It tries to be powerful, but why should I care when I still don't know the names of the characters, let alone their motivations. The action scenes only get worse from then on. They're all very clunky and shot in slow-motion, and some of them display camera-work so poor that you can only be impressed. Like the rest of the movie, the action is over-powered by the strong orchestral score. Apparently when being shot at from all directions, you will be magically protected by violin music. If you have not fallen asleep by the 90 minute mark, you will be screaming "Yes, the main character cannot be killed by conventional weapons! I GET IT!". I know I was.
What links the drama with the action? Why, it must be the incessant tear-jerking! In dramatical scenes and gun-play scenes alike, '2009' is constantly trying to jerk tears. When people aren't dying, the film is trying hard to present a story that is lacking in logic and fairly predictable. If you're familiar with the history, you may find it hard to suspend disbelief about the whole what-if thing. It is predictable, so you don't need to pay too much attention to figure out what happens next. Most of time the only thing happening next is a cliché or a scene in which the film tries to make the viewer cry. I was so bored that I was crying.
I've seen another Korean movie about time-travel. It was a drama movie called 'Il Mare'. Strangely enough, I liked that, but '2009: Lost Memories' is incredibly boring. 'Nuff said - 1/10
Its funny how things work out. I submitted a review for 'The Big Swindle' - a 2 hour long Korean heist move - and mentioned that I always seem to find winners while watching random Korean movies. I must have jinxed myself, as I ended up coming across this dud at a friends house. A bad Korean movie? I don't know what to believe in anymore.
"What if?" time! In '2009: Lost Memories', the assassination of Ito Hirobumi (a Japanese official in occupied Korea) was foiled, and the course of history takes a very alternate route. World War Two was never fought in the Pacific and Korea has remained as a Japanese territory until 2009. Masayuki Sakamoto (Dong-Kun Jang) and Shojiro Saigo (Tôru Nakamura) are JBI (Japanese Bureau of Investigation) agents investigating an apparent terrorist attack on a Japanese museum in Seoul. The objective of the attack was the Lunar Soul - or as I like to call it: "The Boomerang of Death", that way it doesn't sound like something stolen from a 'Final Fantasy' game - and it is up to Sakamoto and his plucky little sidekick to find out why the Haruseijin are desperate to steal the Boomerang of Death.
Like a few other Korean films floating around, '2009: Lost Memories' plays heavily to Korean nationalism: Seoul is presented as a very Japanese city, the Japanese characters appear good but are really evil, and vice-versa for the Korean characters. I'm sure '2009' would strike a chord with Korean viewers, but I was left stranded and constantly checking the time. 'Shiri', 'JSA, and 'Phantom: The Submarine' are all based in Korean nationalism. What makes them better than '2009'? Well, for one, they are not totally boring.
'2009: Lost Memories' seem to be lost in between drama and action. The first action sequence is heavy on melodrama. It tries to be powerful, but why should I care when I still don't know the names of the characters, let alone their motivations. The action scenes only get worse from then on. They're all very clunky and shot in slow-motion, and some of them display camera-work so poor that you can only be impressed. Like the rest of the movie, the action is over-powered by the strong orchestral score. Apparently when being shot at from all directions, you will be magically protected by violin music. If you have not fallen asleep by the 90 minute mark, you will be screaming "Yes, the main character cannot be killed by conventional weapons! I GET IT!". I know I was.
What links the drama with the action? Why, it must be the incessant tear-jerking! In dramatical scenes and gun-play scenes alike, '2009' is constantly trying to jerk tears. When people aren't dying, the film is trying hard to present a story that is lacking in logic and fairly predictable. If you're familiar with the history, you may find it hard to suspend disbelief about the whole what-if thing. It is predictable, so you don't need to pay too much attention to figure out what happens next. Most of time the only thing happening next is a cliché or a scene in which the film tries to make the viewer cry. I was so bored that I was crying.
I've seen another Korean movie about time-travel. It was a drama movie called 'Il Mare'. Strangely enough, I liked that, but '2009: Lost Memories' is incredibly boring. 'Nuff said - 1/10