Nabi, (The Butterfly) (2001)

Kim Ho-jung, Kang Hea-jung, Jang Hyun-sung, Hyun-sung Kim, Kang Hae-Jung ... see more  , Hyeong-seong Jang , Hye-jeong Kang , Ho-jung Kim , Hyun Sung Kim

What if you had the option to lose all of your memories? Moon Seung-wook poses this question with this follow-up to his 1997 directorial debut Taekwondo. The setting is Korea in the near future, which... read more  is plagued with a series of environmental calamities including corrosive acid rain and rampant lead poisoning. There is also a bizarre virus that causes the victim to lose all memories. A tourist industry soon develops around people who flock to Seoul hoping to purge themselves of their past. One of these tourists is Anna (Kim Ho-jung), a Korean woman living in Germany who cannot get over the stillbirth of her baby. Buoyant young tour guide Yuki, who is desperately trying to hide her own pregnancy from her boss and from the authoritarian state, greets her at the airport. In spite of herself, Anna takes a shine to her thoroughly inept guide, making her question whether or not she wants to dump all of her memories. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi