What Happens in 125 Years Memory?
The complete story of 125 Years Memory, from the first scene to the last, in 364 words (about 2 minutes). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
In the night of 16 September 1890, while returning from a goodwill visit to Japan, the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Kushimoto, Wakayama. Hearing an alarm bell, the villagers of Kashino, a poor fishing village on Kushimoto’s island of Kii Oshima, rush to the shore. They are confronted with the grisly spectacle of vast numbers of dead and dying. With more than 500 crew members dead, it is one of the largest sea accidents in history at that time. Risking their own lives, the villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Tamura (Seiyo Uchino), a doctor living in Kashino village, and his assistant Haru (Shioli Kutsuna) treat the injured. In the wake of her life rescuing efforts Haru builds a special bond with Mustafa (Kenan Ece), an officer on the Ertuğrul. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away and give them shelter in their small village of only 60 households.
In the year 1985, during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraq announces an indiscriminate attack and to shoot down any aircraft over Iranian air space. Japanese Ambassador Yutaka Nomura (Toshiyuki Nagashima) requests rescue flights from Japan, but is told that a quick response is not possible. While evacuation flights from other nations are arriving, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. Harumi (Shioli Kutsuna), a teacher at the Tehran Japanese School, prevails upon Nomura to ask the Turkish ambassador for help. Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Özal (Deniz Oral) decides to evacuate the Japanese. In the morning of 19 March, only a few hours before Iraq’s ultimatum expires, a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran. Not only is Tehran already under heavy rocket fire, but the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won’t be able to board their own country’s evacuation flight. That’s when Turkish embassy staff Murat (Kenan Ece) starts speaking out to his fellow citizens about the compassion and sacrifice Japanese villagers had shown to Turkish sailors shipwrecked far away a long time ago.
