Synopsis

In an alternate 2009, Korea remains part of the Japanese Empire after a time traveler prevents the 1909 assassination of Ito Hirobumi. JBI agent Masayuki Sakamoto investigates a Korean resistance group pursuing an ancient artifact linked to the altered timeline. As he uncovers the truth, Sakamoto must choose between the world he knows and restoring Korea's erased history.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was released in South Korea on February 1, 2002, and runs approximately 136 minutes.

• Its alternate history hinges on a failed assassination attempt against Ito Hirobumi in Harbin in 1909. The title refers to the story reaching its imagined centennial point in 2009.

• The production was a South Korean-Japanese co-production released during the year of the Japan-South Korea FIFA World Cup. The film deliberately contrasts that real-world event with an alternate version in which the tournament is associated with Japan alone.

• The screenplay was adapted from Bok Geo-il's 1987 novel "Looking for an Epitaph." The novelist later rejected the finished film and successfully sued to have his name removed from the credits.

• The movie combines political alternate history with science fiction, action, and police-thriller elements. Its central idea is that national identity can be reshaped when public history itself is changed.

• The production had an estimated budget of $7 million and reported worldwide gross earnings of approximately $12 million.

• The film's historical premise draws on the Japanese annexation of Korea and the legacy of Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun, whose assassination of Ito Hirobumi is a pivotal event in the real historical timeline.