Plot
In the year 2009, where Korea is still under Japanese rule, Japanese Bureau of Investigation (JBI) agents Masayuki Sakamoto and Shojiro Saigo thwart a hostage crisis at a museum in Keijo (Seoul) by a terrorist group known as the Hureisenjin. The exact motivation for the hostage situation is unknown, but during the investigation, Sakamoto discovers a museum artifact, a crescent-shaped rock known as the "Lunar Soul", found by one of the slain terrorists. After discovering a history of the Hureisenjin targeting the Inoue Foundation, a group founded around the artifacts collected by the second Resident-General of Korea, Sakamoto begins to suspect the Hureisenjin were attempting to stealing the Lunar Soul. The Hureisenjin ambush the convoy shipping the foundation's artifacts back to Japan and take the Lunar Soul. The terrorists confront Sakamoto and Saigo in a gunfight, where Sakamoto encounters Oh Hye-rin, the organization's female leader.
Sakamoto's questioning and accusations against the influential Inoue Foundation lead to him being thrown off the case, with the execution of Sakamoto's father as a traitor for aiding in a thwarted attack by the Hurisenjin on a cargo ship in Vladivostok in 1985 being cited by his suspicious superiors. Sakamoto pursues the investigation, traveling to Harbin to learn more about the Lunar Soul, and is then suspended from the JBI. That night, an unknown assailant murders Sakamoto's mentor, Takahashi, at his apartment and he is arrested for the crime. Sakamoto, however, escapes from the JBI with the help of Saigo, who vows to be his enemy the next time they meet.
A wounded Sakamoto stumbles into the Hureisenjin's hideout and Saigo is visited by the head of the Inoue Foundation, with both learning the truth: that he is living in an alternate timeline. Due to a large stone temple uncovered by a joint Chinese-Korean-Japanese archaeological expedition, with the ability to allow time travel, and its exploitation by the Japanese right-wing nationalist group Uyoku dantai, a man named Inoue prevents the assassination of Resident-General Itō Hirobumi on October 26, 1909. Itō's survival and Inoue's knowledge of future events allows for Japan, instead of being defeated with the other Axis Powers in the Second World War, to ally with United States against Nazi Germany. With the war ending in the atomic bombing of Berlin, rather than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan becomes a military and economic superpower with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, with its colonial empire intact. Inoue goes on to become the second Resident-General of Korea and his descendants found the Inoue Foundation, while a Korean female researcher who followed Inoue and attempted to stop him becomes the founder Hureisenjin and passes along the story of the truth of the altered timeline.
Knowing about the altered history, Sakamoto allies with the Hureisenjin, who have located the temple stone and are planning their final attack. However, the JBI raid their hideout and kill almost everyone before being wiped out by an improvised explosive. Carrying the Lunar Soul with them, Sakamoto and Hye-rin escape to a tanker ship where the Inoue Foundation's artifacts are being held. They find the temple stone and place the Lunar Soul in it, which activates in the middle of a gunfight with the JBI. Hye-rin is killed, leaving Sakamoto as the only person left to fix the timeline. Sakamoto sends himself to Harbin in 1909, but is pursued by Saigo, who wants to retain the current timeline (in order to prevent his wife's family from potentially perishing in the bombing of Hiroshima). Sakamoto wounds Saigo before heading to the railway station where the assassination is supposed to occur. He is about to stop Inoue from killing An, but Saigo once again confronts him. Sakamoto kills Inoue, then guns down Saigo to prevent him from shooting An. An assassinates Itō and history is reverted back to normal. Moments later, Sakamoto is seen planting explosives to destroy the temple stone, when he meets the female Korean researcher who had originally followed Inoue.
The film ends in the year 2009 at the Independence Hall of Korea, where a photo of Sakamoto and the woman is seen among the gallery of Korean heroes.
Read more about this topic: 2009 Lost Memories
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“But, when to Sin our byast Nature leans,
The careful Devil is still at hand with means;
And providently Pimps for ill desires:
The Good Old Cause, reviv’d, a Plot requires,
Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
To raise up Common-wealths and ruine Kings.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“Those blessed structures, plot and rhyme—
why are they no help to me now
I want to make
something imagined, not recalled?”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
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—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)