If I made my money killing a whole bunch of people for the government, I'd probably want to forget it too. I'm curious as to whether PTSD and amnesia are totally unrelated conditions, or if there's some linkage there in neuroscience since soldiers seem to suffer from the former all the time.
This is the best bad idea we have sir. By far.

unknown

It's an MKUltra control function.
"They sucked his brains out!"

I forget why

The whole niche is that they're "programmed" assasins; programmed to kill and also programmed to forget. The logic behind this is that if the assasin is ever put in a vulnerable position, they won't be able to incriminate any of the major players. Once the completed mission is over, they have to contact their base, for mental maintenance checks.

the Long Kiss God Night may be the first of this genre
You were saying?
http://www.imdb.com/board/10094791/?ref_=nv_sr_2
That came out in 1988. The novel it is based on came out in 1980.
All your base are belong to us.

Hah, I was just thinking the same thing.
the Long Kiss God Night may be the first of this genre, but other films like the Bourne series and Conspiracy Theory were better.
Now that I think about it, La Femme Nikita may be the first of this genre.

I think its because their jobs are so dangerous that they're more prone to having enough extensive damage that would cause them to lose their memory.
Only the shell, the perishable passes away. The spirit is without end. Eternal. Deathless.

In some cases, like this movie, it adds character depth like what could have been if they had not become assissins in other cases it can use flashbacks to develop the characters with out the need for a formally structured story line..
My favorite is GhostDog, even though he had no memory loss I like how the flashbacks showed the point of views of both him and Louie (who's life was at stake / where the gun was pointed), and how he lived by the Hagakure (read pg. 172 in the one with the black cover)
and the final scene was great, along with Leon's in The Professional
Kind of like "Today I bring death, tomorrow I recieve it"
"America it is you and I who are perfect, not the next world" -Ginsberg

oops ok i figured out the thread now. all these answers (kill bill, ghost dog, the killer etc.) are responses to rubycalaberxx's post

I think they were listing movies featuring assassins who hadn't lost their memory, just to illustrate that not all assassin movies are about amnesia.

"Knowing how the world works
Is not knowing how to work the world"

Uma Thurman never lost her memory in Kill Bill. She was only in a coma.

I don't recall (heh) there being any memory loss in the Killer. I am assuming you are refering to the Chow Yun Fat film. If there is another Killer film, then my mistake. CYF did lose his memory and revert to a child-like state in God of Gamblers, but he wasn't an assassin.
Also La Femme Nikita/Point of No Return/Black Cat had the main character not remembering killing the cop at the begining but that was due to drug use, not amnesia per say.

Kill Bill

Total Recall

Ghost Dog.
Collateral.
The Killer.
Nikita.
among others

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You know, I've never known an assassin who
hasnt
lost their memory.
Somthing in the water?

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