You won't be disappointed!

Crappy film

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Well, no actually I wasn't. Cutting room floor. I was teaching English in Korea at the time and somehow a group of us foreign teachers were asked if we wanted to be extras in a movie, so we said what the heck. We were driven out to the set which was on the same studio lot that the fake Panmunjom set from "JSA" was on. They put us in tuxedo's and we were in the art gallery where the commando's came down through the skylight and machine gunned everybody. Then later in the day they came up to me and said "your scene is now". I was like "huh?" Basically what they had me do was admire a large necklace hanging in a display case and say "it's very beautiful, what is it?" Kinda dumb, I know, but I was just doing what I was told. Then after they filmed it a few times (using a camera on a track which looked through the case from the rear), they told me they needed to get the audio so they could dub it over my lips so to speak. I repeated it several times into the Mic but they kept getting me to do it again and again because the pacing was off. And I guess in the end it just didn't fit, or else was one of those superfluous little scenes that they filmed several of and then decide which ones suit the flow of the scene. My movie career died before it began. :)

2009: Lost Memories has a lot of promise. A sci-fi action/mystery (mild on the sci-fi) set in an alternate universe where Japan sides with the Allies during World War II, Corea never gained independence from Japan and becomes part of the empire. Pretty cool setting, no? In fact, the first half of the movie, despite the occasional logical flub and inconsistency, manages to be quite interesting. And then you hit the midway mark and the film crashes into mindless melodrama and sinks to the point where even its otherwise gorgeous action sequences can't save it.But, it is quite a pretty film. Lots of wonderfully shot scenes grace this film, even if you can see strong traces of John Woo present in many of them. But this picture is cleaner and slicker than Woo's earlier productions. The sets and costumes are wonderful. The lighting and editing however does run a little heavy-handed. And in fact, the film's preoccupation with aesthetics, instead of strengthening its story, sinks the film. There's also a bit of a mood-killing plot twist halfway through the film as well, which really doesn't help.In terms of lighting, the film is shot dark and while it definitely makes things seem fairly "cool", at the same time, everything is so awash in blues most of the time that it's hard to keep believing in it. It tries a little too hard to be cool. There's also the obnoxious abuse of slow-motion and extreme close-up reaction shots. Honestly, during an action sequence, I really don't want to see 15-30 second bursts of watching as characters react to other insignificant characters' deaths. It frustrated me to no end. And then there's the logical jumps. Not only is one character's story not tied up, but it conflicts with itself logically and the film probably would have been helped having removed that character altogether.Because the film couldn't shore up its story and resorted to overenthusiastic melodrama and manipulation, it went from being quite interesting to a bit of a chore. I give it credit for great aesthetics and premise, even if in the end the story becomes chaotic and inconsistent, but the degree of the films abuse of melodrama to substitute for story keeps it from staying afloat. People that can get past story and enjoy the slick presentation and action, might enjoy this. Everyone else should consider giving it a pass. 6/10 (purely on the merits of its aesthetics and premise).

An hour and a half of practically dead air kill an interesting concept in this Korean action-drama. By the last 30 minutes I was looking for a hard surface to bash my head against while yelling at the actors to DO SOMETHING! *SPOILERS*Other than that, I laughed quite a bit throughout the film. It wasn't made to be a comedy, but it turned out that way. Even the WTF plot twist earned a chuckle from me. So this Japanese controlled Korea wasn't an alternate universe, but the work of an evil Japanese family/ corporation and some seemingly inept archaeologists? I don't know why the Koreans hated being under Japanese rule so much, it didn't seem any worse than having to worry about Kim Jong Il and communism. Whatever Korea.I really liked the two main characters police partners/ life partners dynamic (until the fem partner turned into an EVIL Japanese PIG, of course). Oh, and I can't forget the girl/boy/chimp (what was it?!). It was fun to watch everyone mow down everything with guns, but pause during the mayhem so the heroes could stop and grieve, or take a nap, or... just... stand... there... And the end. What? Why did...?Oh, never mind, this movie is just a jumbled mess of WTF moments, sheer hilarity and ZZZ's. Big fans of foreign films or B- Scifi's might enjoy it... but, I doubt it. Rent it to laugh your head off.

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