2009 loseuteu maemorijeu

In an alternate time-line, in the near future(with some nifty tech), a young cop finds himself questioning why he and his men are fighting a group of... well, are they terrorists or are they freedom fighters? The story-line is nice and does get resolved, if there are subplots and events that either don't affect anything or, at least to me with my Western eyes, looked strange and unexplained. Maybe it would help if I knew more about Korea, because this is definitely a jingoistic piece on there, from there. Japan has taken over the aforementioned country, and is suppressing their independence. This leads to some melodrama, and though the two hour, 14 minute running time sans credits would be shorter if these instances were mercifully removed, this does really get to you, you find yourself caring and feeling the impact of bullets, and the grip of tension. The acting is pretty good. I watched this with subtitles, not dubbed, and while I had to read along to understand what they were saying, the power of the way they deliver the lines came through quite clearly. The action is all shoot-outs, it's quite well-choreographed, it's stylized(with slow-motion, and "frame-chopping") and it's cool. This has some well-done visuals. The FX are reasonable. There is a lot of bloody violence in this. The DVD comes with 8 and a half minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and four trailers. I recommend this to fans of Asian cinema, and John Woo type flicks. 7/10

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

I didn't really know what this movie was about when I started it. I wasn't disappointed. The movie takes place in an alternate timeline where Japan owns Seoul and the rest of Korea. Korean terrorists wreak havoc in a fancy building for some as-yet unclear reason, and it's the job of two cops (one Japanese, the other Korean) to find out what's going on. What follows is one hell of a ride. Make sure you're resting while watching this movie, because you wouldn't want to get hurt.

The first action sequence at the beginning of the movie sets the tone for the rest of the flick. The shoot-out has this incredible intensity and never lets up. The rest of the movie follows suit. You don't really know what's going on at first, but you know it's going to be explained, and that it's going to be worth it. The shoot-outs that follow only top one another, which, after seeing the first 15 minutes, is quite hard to believe. They're so incredible. They might not have the scale as 'Heat' or the budget of 'The Rock' but they sure as hell are as intense (if not more), and as good, if not better, than whatever comes out of Hollywood.

As with 'Shiri', the action in this movie rests on one great story. Throughout the movie, the characters become more and more like real people. No one is a hero, no one is Superman here. The characters are thrust into improbably situations, but they always stay rather believable. When they're not shooting guns, the drama part of the story takes over, and you're actually as impressed with what happens. You feel for the characters, and you're actually kind of glad you don't have to make the decisions they have to make. I could kind of see where some of the relationships were going, and I didn't really want them to go there, but I suppose they had to. The story, on the other hand, is a complete mystery. I never knew where it was going.

This movie actually says something, as well. Just like in 'Shiri', it's not action for the sake of action - it's action for the sake of actually saying something. It's slightly on the nationalistic side, but that doesn't really bother me, the message that the movie portrays is definitely worth the moments spent nationalism. It's really not as bad as some other movies I've seen. The movie is insanely political, I was actually very surprised. No Hollywood studio would have the guts to do something like this. I suppose the implications of the movie are universal, but they chose to have Japan control Korea. It's quite refreshing to see a movie, an action movie no less, with a thoughtful story.

The cinematography is gorgeous. I've seen all of 3 Korean movies and they all had this incredible visual style. This one is obviously included. Most of the movie is shot with a lot of blues and grays. It creates this nice, calm atmosphere among the instances of carnage. Add to that some great, invigorating music (which also reminded of the music in 'Shiri', but that's probably due to the fact that the same composer scored both movies), and the entire mood is perfectly set.

An amazing movie with brains and brawn, everybody should enjoy this movie.

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.

2009 LOST MEMORIES (2002): Fantastic action thriller set in an deliberately-created alternate future in which Korea is just another Japanese state, and Koreans have largely lost their identity. A Korean-blooded, Japanese-named cop slowly realizes that the terrorists he's paid to wipe out are actually Korean freedom-fighters trying to restore the timeline to its proper state.

This film gets slagged nearly everywhere, so I defend it whenever possible. It's a big, loud, arguably overblown "blockbuster" that deals with a very sensitive subject: Korean identity. People have, I believe, unfairly examined and criticized this film on two fronts:

one, it's inherent patriotism, which is an element of Korean cinema that seems to alienate so many non-Korean viewers and yet is a fundamental part of the culture, probably more so than in any other Asian country (let alone much of the world). And two, the historical events behind its "science fiction," which nearly everybody I've read gets wrong. The key plot device of the film is NOT simply that Japan won World War II, but that the legendary Korean patriot Ahn Chung-gun FAILED in his assassination of Japanese foreign minister Ito Hirobumi in China in 1909 (thus, sort of, the point of the title being 100 years later). This single event is extremely important to the Korean culture and not only is their a gigantic memorial named after Ahn, but also a form of Tae Kwon Do. Looking these two names up on the internet greatly aids in understanding the deeper messages this film offers. I give it a 9.