2009 Lost Memories?

[Cathleen Keyser]

Markus - your description is perfect -- good memory ^^

and I think you bring up the interesting point of nationalism.  While I 
was watching it, I thought it might delve more into civil rights as 
well, but it only briefly touched on this (e.g.  how the main character 
was taken off the case because he was Korean).  I imagine that the 
portrayal of these "strong" Koreans with such a powerful feeling for 
their country might have been a reason why the film did so well.  

I'm curious as to how this film was received in Japan.  I would have to 
say that if this film was about white Americans and African-Americans 
instead of Japanese and Koreans, I think there would be a huge fervor 
about it.

and yes, the film definitely had a very Hollywood feel -- the huge 
explosions, the soundtrack -- lots of familiar elements there.   But 
I'm not sure what I think causes this.  Whether this is due to the 
attempt to compete with American films (e.g. showing the validity of 
Korean cinema and how this can compete on the same level as American 
cinema) or just another result of the globalization in entertainment is 
hard to determine.  I think is very interesting that this film is about 
the power of nationalism and yet, it seems very Hollywood-ish, almost 
the antithesis of the theme of the movie.

Thoughts/Comments?


-Cathleen 


Quoting Mark Nornes <amnornes at umich.edu>:

> For those who haven't seen this yet, this is a time travel narrative
> 
> that imagines what would have happened if Ito Hirobumi had not been 
> assassinated in Korea. It's complicated, and it's been a long time,
> but 
> if memory serves the basic idea is thus: Ito's killing was the main 
> pretext Japan used to annex the peninsula and is the "birth" of the 
> Korean nationalist resistance that results in independence followed
> by 
> war and the north/south separation.
> 
> A crafty Japanese politico uses an ancient device to travel back in 
> time to stop the assassination in the nick of time; Ito survives,
> Korea 
> still ends up colonized, but Japan ends up an ally of the US and 
> Germany ends up the target of atomic warfare. Japan thus retains its
> 
> Great Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and Korea is a colony.
> 
> The main character of the film discovers his nascent "Korean-ness"
> and 
> travels back in time to ensure Ito gets bagged and in this way
> restores 
> Korea's _true_ and _natural_ history as a unified and sovereign
> nation 
> state.
> 
> I immediate gave this thing to our Korean historian Henry Em, and we
> 
> had a great time talking it up. The film would be rich material for 
> teaching nationalism and history. It's also very fun to see Koreans 
> imagine what Seoul would be like under a 21st century colonial 
> condition. A must see film!
> 
> Markus
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Jul 26, 2004, at 10:07 PM, zaki jaihutan wrote:
> 
> > I see this film more on the point that it was a 'very
> > audacious' movie for an Asian movie....the opening
> > action sequence in the museum is quite on the same
> > level with Hollywood standard, though the movement
> > still look very 'directed'. As for the movie it self,
> > the last half of the movie, like many Korean movies,
> > are overly dramatic. However, i see this movie as an
> > important effort to put Asian movie in a respectable
> > level with other countries' movies, especially
> > Hollywood movies, and with their own flavour of course.
> > Korean, Japan and even Thailand, are definitely going
> > somewhere with their movies.
> >
> > On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 21:37:02 -0400, Cathleen Keyser
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> I finally got a chance to see "2009 Lost Memories" and
> >> was curious to
> >> see what were everyone's thoughts on it.  I don't
> >> recall seeing this
> >> so far on the list.  Although this is a Korean film, I
> >> thought it
> >> might be interesting to discuss this film since the
> >> picture of Japan
> >> it portrayed was very interesting.  Thoughts/Comments
> >> in general on
> >> the film?
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >>> Regards,
> >> Cathleen Keyser
> >
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