Asian Drama

He was a writer. He thought he wrote about the future but it really was the past. In his novel, a mysterious train left for 2046 every once in a while. Everyone who went there had the same intention... to recapture their lost memories. It was said that in 2046, nothing ever changed. Nobody knew for sure if it was true, because nobody who went there had ever come back- except for one. He was there. He chose to leave. He wanted to change.

2046 is a 2004 Hong Kong film (filmed in Shanghai) written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. It is a loose sequel to the 1991 Hong Kong film Days of Being Wild and the 2000 Hong Kong film In the Mood for Love. It follows the aftermath of Chow Mo-wan's unconsummated affair with Su Li-Zhen in 1960s Hong Kong but also includes some science fiction elements.

Nothing is more symbolic of the division of Korea into two countries as the 'Bridge of No Return' in Panmunjom, the demilitarized zone on the border between the two states. One day, a border guard is killed by a rifle bullet; the suspected marksman is a South Korean soldier, who is found wounded in the middle of no-man's-land. This incident will have grave repercussions. Both North and South Korea regard the incident as an act of deliberate provocation. The North accuses the South of having committed a 'terrorist attack', whilst South Korea suspects the North of having attempted an 'abduction'. Both sides appeal to the authorities of the neutral states (NNSC) for help and ask them to investigate the affair.

A female Swiss army captain of Korean descent is then sent to Panmunjom to investigate the death of the North Korean border guard, apparently shot in the line of duty by a South Korean guard. At first, neither army officers from the South nor communist officials from the North will cooperate - until it is obvious to all that the truth must come out to defuse a potentially explosive international incident.

Two teenagers, Masami and Tomoko, talk about a videotape recorded by a boy in Izu which is fabled to bear a curse that kills the viewer seven days after watching. Tomoko reveals that a week ago, she and three of her friends watched a weird tape and received a call after watching. Tomoko goes downstairs and witnesses her TV turn on by itself. She later hears startling noises and turns around, only to be killed by an unseen force.

Days later, Asakawa Reiko, a reporter investigating the popularity of the video curse, discovers that her niece Tomoko, and her three other friends, mysteriously died at the same time, on the same night, with their faces twisted in fear. She also discovers that Masami became insane from witnessing Tomoko's death and is institutionalized in a mental hospital. After stumbling upon Tomoko's photos from the past week, Reiko finds that the four teenagers stayed in a rental cabin in Izu.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Suzuki Koji (鈴木光司).