2009 loseuteu maemorijeu

An interesting opening and superb ending make up for a few less than stellar plot transitions as Lost Memories is one Action Drama that I won't soon forget. The music really complements this film and allows the slow motion sequences to make an impact. As for action its fairly standard and the acting is good but not award caliber. A solid Action drama with a few brief Science Fiction moments. Mixing Both Japanese (mostly the first half) and Korean the rest of the way, Lost Memories2009 is amongst a growing wave of multicultural/national Pan Asian films that could find an audience outside of Asia with a bit more exposure.

If a 100 is Perfect 81/100

This movie is the newest success of the rising Korean film industry. It's got drama, plot, action, emotions, and nice acting all rolled into one, on the background of a fantastical assumption on a twist of real history.

Note on the title. The setting is the year 2009, and the film is based on the assumption that Korea is still a colony of Japan, as it had been for the past 100 years, because a single assassination attempt back in 1909, which succeeded in real life, failed and changed the whole course of history for the past 100 years in this alternative story. A Korean-born special agent tries to set the history right, and his colleague, a Japanese-born and a friend of his, tries to stop him.

Although made in Korea, dialogues are about 70% Japanese, and you have to have some knowledge in the history of the two countries to fully understand this movie, but the setting and basis is very imaginative and fascinating, that anybody can appreciate it. The two stars of the movie, Dong-Kun Jang and Toru Nakamura, who are Korean and Japanese in real life, are very fine, and make up a nice team. The action scenes, which are plenty in this movie, are nicely choreographed and serve to contribute to the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The Korean film industry is growing, so the next time you catch a Korean movie, it could be this one!

LOST MEMORIES is the second South Korean time travel movie I have seen. I don't know if there has been others, but I'm only familiar with this one and the romance IL MARE.

Time travel movies are risky, and the plot invariably gets badly convoluted in an attempt to explain everything. Some films just ignore explanations, but the good ones take the chance. LOST MEMORIES uses a more "parallel world" angle, but it's still all about time travel.

Don't let the South Korea/Japan collaboration fool you. The film is all South Korean, with nearly every single Japanese character coming across as incredibly evil. Cartoonishly so, in fact. If not for this, I would have given LOST MEMORIES a better grade. AS it stands, it's just too cartoonish, too crude, and too loud for its own good. Also, the music is quite terrible.

The best part of the film is the leading male, who seems to be channeling Chow Yun Fat. An incredible starring turn, and I look forward to seeing him in other movies.

6 out of 10.

This movie has a semi interesting plot. Not very new or original, neither very bad or too obvious. As usual when it comes to South Korean popular movie industry the craftsmanship is next to flawless. The lighting and the scenery are beautiful, the soundtrack is very sentimental and bordering to über-cheese but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone with the slightest experience in Asian movies. The acting is also good though the English dub doesn't seem to even try to do any lip sync and brings down the overall impression. The special effects are functional but not really that spectacular. Also, the action scenes have way to much slow motion for my taste. Though, I guess this is made in order to boost the sense of patriotism. And, this is where I have my main criticism.

It contains about all components of the propaganda the nationalistic parts of South Korean society likes to flatter itself with. Embarrassingly obvious, even more than usual. North and South Korea are united because they really are brothers. No Korean would harm another Korean. Japan is an enemy, has always been and will always be. Japanese people are not to be trusted, not even those you consider close friends. The Korean on the other hand are brave and self sacrificing with a pure heart. The key to the entire plot comes from the superior ancient culture and system of worship from the Korean peninsula. There are so many subtle details that are being pushed in that mean really a lot if you have an understanding of Korean culture, like the Korean main character has become so Japanese he doesn't even eat Kimchi (!).

I agree that the patriotism is so much an undisputed part of Korean culture even today that it should not come as a surprise, and I have enough experience of South Korea to be very aware of this when watching this movie. The problem here is that this script is so saturated with nationalistic propaganda that I feel it being written for this very purpose. It can sometimes lead to (umm...) interesting results, though seldom to properly good ones.

It's the equivalent of the American action movie where all baddies have a "foreign" accent, smoke cigarettes and the bad guy boss has a hint of latent homosexuality. Just translate those components into Korean values. Enjoy it as no-brainer entertainment for killing some time, or more interestingly for understanding the components of Korean nationalism and the grudge toward Japan in a commercial movie production. If you want to see a really good Korean movie, for there are lots of them, pick another one.

No, we are not talking about another Matrix-esque film where the world is really a virtual reality dream/nightmare...this is a film that takes a serious look at one of the many great "what if's" in history and shows how the world would have been. One of my favorite things about this film is that it shows the extremes of what people will do to either keep that history or change it. Its race against race; father against son; and friend against friend in a race for a nation's identity. Who will win, who will lose, and who will ultimately decide the fate of the world? Fantastic action sequences that seem almost too real. The bloodshed abounds in this film as we see repeated scenes of terrorists face off against police forces in shoot-outs that can only end with the annihilation of one group or the other. The battle scenes are realistic in that you don't see your standard "good guys never miss while bad guys can't hit the broad side of a barn" routine, these are truly horrific battles with a large casualty count from both sides.

The film, however, isn't all about action. The story itself stands on its own as you try to piece together the jigsaw of clues and dead-ends to find out what in the world is the truth. Even when you arrive at the climax of the whole story you are left on one cliff-hanger after another, wondering if this will be the final bullet to decide it all...and at the ending there is no cliff hanging, the writers have thrown you off the cliff and you wonder what awaits you at the bottom.

Despite this nail biting ending, the film had is draw backs: 1) a plot that progresses like a starting train, VERY slow at first before gaining tremendous steam at the end; 2)lots and lots of blood, not for the squeamish; 3)the ending had a loose end that was never explained; and 4)you will want more character background and insight from the two main characters.

A very good film that had plenty of room for improvement.