2009: Lost Memories

2002
Starring
Dong-Kun Jang as Masayuki Sakamoto
Tooru Nakamura as Shojiro Saiko

Japan is the reigning Asian Power after controlling Korea and China since the early 20th century. How did this come to pass? Well, in 1909, the Assassination of Chosun Governor Ito Hirobumi by Cheong-Kun Ahn was prevented. And that lead to greater Japanese dominance of the entire region. Suddenly history is different:

1910 Takeover of Chosun (Korean Penninsula)
1919 Illegal gathering in Pagoda Park dispearsed
1921 Second Governor of Chosun appointed (Inoeu)
1932 BG Yoon killed in Honxiao Park, Shanghai
1936 Japan and US soldiers fight as allies in WW2 (wait a min…)
1943 Japan takes over Manchuria
1946 Atomic bombs dropped over Berlin ends WW2 (Now WAIT a min!)
1960 Japan accepted in the UN as a permanent member of the Security Council
1965 Sakura I satellite goes into orbit
1988 Olympic games in Nagoya
2002 Soccer World Cup held in Japan

Hey, sort of slanted against South Korea’s accomplishments at the end there…

It is now 2009 and in Seoul, where the Colonial Building still stands, the cars drive on the wrong side, and all the businesses are advertising in Japanese, an art show is going on at the Colonial Building. Suddenly……GLIDER ATTACK!!! It seems all is not happy in the land beneath the feet of the Rising Sun. Terrorist group HureiSenJin wants Korean independence. Luckily, the JBI shows up (Yes, the Japanese Bureau of Investigation) and their star officers pull up to the sound of dramatic music, and Sakamoto and Saiko exit. Sakamoto is Korean (except his name isn’t….), and Saiko is Japanese. A HureiSenJin guy tries to sneak out with a crescent moon rock, but is caught and shot, as are all of the terrorists and many many police, excuse me, JBI officers.

Later, Sakamoto is writing up the report on the case and trying to figure out what HureiSenJin was trying to accomplish. The artifacts in the museum belonged to the Inoue Foundation, which was founded by the second governor of Chosun (remember above?) and is currently run by his descendent, conveniently played by the same actor (Inoue shot the assassin in the beginning.) Sakamoto’s father was a police officer, who was killed by another police officer. The Art Exhibit is cancelled, and the stuff is sent packing in a truck convoy. And the HureiSenJin attack! They get the crescent moon rock they have a hard on for, but not before Our Heroes arrive. Terrorists die left and right once Sakamoto and Saigo start popping caps into them. But there is a chick terrorist who points a gun at Sakamoto but cannot bring herself to fire, and he cannot shoot her, either. She prevents him from being killed by the Head Terrorist, and the terrorists escape. We then find out the rock is the Lunar Soul, which was found in 1932 and was used in ceremonies for the Sun God in ancient Korea.


Sakamoto tries to investigate the Inoue Foundation to find out more about the Lunar Soul, but is blocked by the Captain, and the Foundation is too powerful for him to do anything. He is taken off of the case, and then his mentor is killed, and Sakamoto blamed. “You’ll find lots of friends in jail, since most of them are Korean.” But Sakamoto figures out it was some guy at work who changed his glasses and kills him while escaping police– I mean JBI custody. Saiko helps him escape, but warns when next they meet they will be enemies. Sakamoto was shot, and wanders into a bar he saw the Chick Terrorist working at and passes out.


He wakes up in an underground bunker where a small boy is looking at him. This boy looks amazingly like a girl, and it wasn’t until they referred to him as a “he” that I found out it was a boy. He has the same syndrome as the kid from Road Warrior and the Hanson kids that they are boys that look like girls. But back to the story, it turns out that in 2008, a united Korea became an economic threat to Japan, so some ultraconservative Japanese wackos used the Lunar Soul to go back in time and change history so Japan was powerful. (The Police, excuse me, JBI Chief also tells Saiko at this time). But a Korean researcher was also brought back accidentally, and founded the resistance movement HureiSenJin that is fighting for Korean Independence. The JBI attacks the underground bunker, killing everyone while Sakamoto just cries alot. Even the girlish boy gets killed. Sakamoto finally has enough and grabs a gun and wastes like 50 JBI guys. Sakamoto and the Girl Terrorist escape with the Lunar Soul.




Sakamoto and Girl Terrorist must sneak onto a cargo vessel that has the Lunar Soul’s alter and go back in time to stop Inoue. JBI goons including Saiko show up to stop them. Girl Terrorist gets killed, and Sakamoto goes back, but Saiko follows. Sakamoto manages to kill Inoue and Saiko thus restoring history, and then we find out the Korean Researcher that was sent back was Girl Terrorist from the real reality, and her and Sakamoto hook up and fight the Japanese in the Korean Underground.


Overall this is a pretty slick action flick, with a neat premise (altered history) and is the type of altered history you don’t usually see (only a few things have altered Japan, and none of them really deal with Korea at the time). Just ignore the nationalist Pro-Korean stuff, as they paint the Japanese in a very bad light, despite specifically stating that it was only a super-conservative group that altered the history.

Rated 8/10 Laser Sightings