2009: Lost Memories story
2009: Lost Memories (Korean: 2009 로스트메모리즈; 2009 Loseutumemorijeu) is a 2002 South Korean science fiction action film directed by Lee Si-myung, adapted from the 1987 novel Looking for an Epitaph by Bok Geo-il. Synopsis: It is 2009 in an alternate timeline where the Korean Peninsula is still part of Imperial Japan due to a time travel incident in 1909.
23 total · 3 choice · 7 major · 13 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| alternate history | choice | The film presents an alternate timeline where the Empire of Japan emerged from the Pacific War with its colonial empire intact, and explores what contemporary Korea might have been like under Japanese colonial rule. |
| imperialism | choice | The story explores life in Seoul in an alternate future where Imperial Japan has annexed the Korea Peninsula. |
| independence struggle | choice | The story follows the Hureisenjin rebels as they fight to free Korea from being a colony of the Empire of Japan. |
| friendship | major | Central to the story were the buddy cops Masayuki Sakamoto and Shojiro Saigo finding themselves on opposite sides of a Korean/Japanese conflict. |
| having a preconception challenged | major | Masayuki Sakamoto increasingly came to see over the course of the film that not everything was hunky-dory with the Korean Peninsula being a colony of the Japanese Empire. In the end, he traveled back in time and set things right from his point of view. |
| humans in pairs | major | Central to the story was the relationship between Masayuki Sakamoto and his partner at the Japanese Bureau of Investigation Shojiro Saigo. |
| law enforcement | major | The story follows the Japanese Bureau of Investigation agents Masayuki Sakamoto and Shojiro Saigo as they investigate a terrorist organization. |
| terrorist or freedom fighter | major | The Korean nationalist Hureisenjin rebels were seen as criminal terrorists by the Japanese authorities and a band of people opposing Japanese imperial rule by some portion of the indigenous Korean population. |
| the need for cultural heritage | major | The story follows the Japanese Bureau of Investigation agent Masayuki Sakamoto, as he comes to learn about, and ultimate value his Korean roots. |
| time traveler meddling in history | major | Central to the plot was the Japanese right-wing nationalist Inoue traveling back in time to the year 1909 to prevent the assassination of Resident-General of Korea Ito Hirobumi. This he did knowing it would trigger a series of events resulting in Imperial Japan coming out of World War II with its colonial empire intact. |