Movie Review - 2009: Lost Memories (2002)

I remember back in 2005 while scanning the aisles for the Zorro sequel and sundry other movies, I found this foreign film.  It was telling when I did not say "seen it", "own it" or "LAME" at 2009: Lost Memories--a movie I had never heard of before. I write this review in 2011, two years after the events were to take place in the film, and I can say that this movie is proof as to why you never date your films in the title.  Then again, this is an Asian movie, and the thinking of its people is most evident in their film-making.

The Japanese are a different breed of thinker as a result of being isolated on an island and from their World War II involvement in China and Korea. This has led to many a weird, bloody movie (Audition, Ichi the Killer, Tetsuo the Iron Man, The Locker) and movies on the opposite end of the spectrum (StereoFuture, Samurai Fiction, Tampopo, Dreams). Imagine if such a Japan did not exist: no major loss to nuclear weapons, no crazy movies...no Korean War. Such a world exists in the alternate version of 2009, but a terrorist group called the Fureisenjin seeks to change that by stealing an artifact called the "Lunar Soul" from the Inoue Foundation. Luckily, two agents of the Japanese Bureau of Investigation (JBI) are on the case.
Best friends and JBI agents Sakamoto (Dong-Kun Jang) and Saigo (Tohru Nakamura) stop the theft of the Lunar Soul and find out that the Inoue Foundation is hiding... something... about the case. In order to solve the case, Sakamoto digs deep and finds himself confronted with the female leader of the Fureisenjin, Hye-Rin Oh (Jin-ho Seo)--a woman that haunts his dreams before he's even met her.
Presented with contradictory events of history from the turn of the 20th Century on, Sakamoto begins to see a puzzle in which he is but a small piece. When all the pieces of the puzzle come together, the solution is a world-shattering one for both Sakamoto and Saigo, tearing apart a friendship and forcing a battle for the fate of the land and people of Korea.

Now, I've seen good Japanese action/sci-fi and I've seen bad Japanese action/sci-fi. This movie breaks the mold in Japanese action/sci-fi in that it's actually a Korean production. The last Korean movie I watched was The Good, The Bad, The Weird, only because the cover looked interesting. Now I feel comfortable enough to watch a Korean film because their film industry is capable of masterpieces like this. This officially makes up for Yonggary and the English dub of Volcano High, so thank you Korea. You are forgiven and blessed.
CHOICE CUTS:

• A disturbing number of head-shots in gunfights.
• The juxtaposition of peaceful things for the Japanese as they wreak violence on Koreans in cut scenes.
• The amount of violence and hate reserved for Koreans by the Japanese; I did not know it was that bad or that open. Black people in America have a lot to be thankful for--namely not being a Korean in Japan.
• For a second, I thought this movie was gonna be a rip-off of Infernal Affairs (with "Western Ending"). Once you get past a certain point, it's gold.

If Korea keeps this up, Japan might actually have to make a movie with substance again that doesn't involve schoolgirls or anime to stay relevant. 2009: Lost Memories gets a rating of 8.