Lost Memories 2009 - My review

Imagine if the history of the world was diffrent. Japan instead of losing WW2, allied with US and nuclear bomb was droped on Berlin. With time Japan became a world super power both financial and military, and with that came the expansion. Korea and possibly China became one with Japan, as united country. Lost Memories explores this possibility and tells the story of friendship, freedom and sacrifice.

The film starts with a small prologue set in China, in the year of 1909, when during the visit of Japanese ambasador, Korean terrorist tries and fails in assasination mission. This is a very important moment in the history, and later in the film, the truth is revealed about the importance of this day, and how it changed the future history.

After that, movie takes us to the year 2009. South Korean Capitol, Seoul is a part of Japan, and Japanese influences are evident everywhere. Cars, architechture, even language heard is Japanese. Koreans are minority, and somewhat looked down upon.

There is a big reception in the Museum of Arts, with the display of ancient relics collected by the famous Japanese Businessman and Politician. And at the cover of the night, a group of armed men, lands their hand gliders on the top of the building. After a firefight with guards inside, they seize control of the museum and all the guests inside. Outside, military and police plans on attacking the building and freeing the hostages inside. Japanese defence organization JBI, sends their team, and 2 of the best field agents Sakamoto(who is half Japanese/half Korean) and Saigo to lead the SWAT team inside. Two agents who are close friends since school are the film's leading characters. The team goes in, and after intence and long firefight, all the hostages are safe, and terrorist group destroyed. After the event, Sakomoto starts the investigation on why did Korean Liberation Army, will try to attack the Museum exhibition. His father who also was a cop, was named a criminal before his death, and now Sakamoto living with shame inside, and trying to show that he can succede and not end up like his father. And as he goes deeper into his investigation, more facts come up, more dangerous it becomes. He gets framed for the murder of his friend, and has to escape from the JBI, with a little help from Saigo, who helps him, but also warns him that they will become enemies next time around. Wounded and on the run, Sakomoto flees to the bar that he thinks belongs to the rebelion group, and there he learns the actual truth of the events of last 100 years, and what really had happened. He also learns the truth about his father, and who he was. After the hideout gets attacked by JBI forces, its up to Sakomoto now, to change to history, and Saigo is the only one who can stop him. Friend against friend, both fighting for the future of their countries and their ideals.

It was an interesting take on the time travel/ what if type of story. Even without the knowledge of Korean and Japanese history of 20th century, it still very interesting to watch. Sure, you can see few resemblance to some US movies, like Terminator, or Total Recall, but the characters have a good explanation and depth. Both main characters have a deep stories, and as the film progresses, you will feel what they feel, and understand them. It also touches subject of friendship and duty, and what would you do if you would have to choose between your family and your friendship.

Production values are very high. The direction is excelent, and so is camerawork. Actors, both Korean and Japanese did a great job, in dramatic parts, and during intence and plentiful action scenes.

Few words about action scenes. They were excellent. Lots of explosions and gunfire. The beginning gunfight is very long and extremely violent. Lots of cool weapons used: rifles, machine guns, heavy shotguns, and even rocket launchers. All of the fans of SWAT action, and military tactical combat will be happy. But I will have to warn you, there are quite of few moments of slow motion used during the film's action scenes, so if you are not a big fan of that techique, you might find it little annoying. There are no hand fighting, stricktly gun action, so dont expect to see martial arts battles.

Special FX, and there are lots of them were done very nicely, and on the level of current big Hollywood productions. I also enjoyed the film's music score. It felt little over patriotic in parts, but with this film being a pretty much story of fighting for Korean independance, I understand its patriotic overtones.

The dvd I got and that is the only one currently available is 2 disk LE edition. Its Region 3 coded, so you will need a dvd player that either supports that region code or Region Free. The dvd quality is excellent, which pretty much goes for most of the Korean dvd releases. Its packed with extras such as trailers, documentaries, etc. Unfortunately I havent had time to watch any of those yet, so I cantr comment on those. The sound is also booming, with support of DTS and Dolby 5.1 This set is also comes with big Making of Book, which is mostly in Korean, and follows the film storyline, and making process with many pictures, facts and stories(none of which are in English unfortunately ) Currently, its the only version available and its retails for about $30 and comes in big(bigger than PC game box) box, which is quite heavy. Once this LE edion goes OOP, the regular edtion will come out, but it might take a while.

At the end, I will recomend this film to all of the fans of Asian, and Action films. Its got a good deep story, excellent action scenes, cool SFX and was very fun to watch. Since the LE edition is little pricey(PokerIndustries selling it for $45, but they got Free Shipping for orders over $50, and have 10% cupons), you might try to wait up for the regular edition, but if you in the mood to watch good action film now, get it.