BOGOTA: CITY OF THE LOST (보고타: 마지막 기회의 땅) (NETFLIX) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: After moving to Bogotá for a chance at a better life, a young Korean man rises through the Colombian black market — risking peril for a shot at success.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Brotherhood. Betrayal. Revenge. These are the basic thematic themes of Bogota: City of the Lost starring the incredible boyish and popular Song Joong-ki.

The story has it that Kook-hee (Song), a young man who moves to Colombia, Bogota with his parents in search of a better life. Seeking the help of his dad’s so-called army buddy, Sergeant Park (Kwon Hae-hyo), Kook-hee begins his new life smuggling lingerie and parkas across police checkpoints and borders.

Did we just made a typo error? Lingerie and parkas? Isn’t it suppose to be drugs or money laundering or something along this line? Nope, Bogota: City of the Lost is indeed set in the Colombian black market smuggling scene. Anyway, together with his new friend, Soo-yeong (Lee Hee-joon), Kook-hee begins to climb up the corporate ladder aka bribing his way to the top aiming to open up a legit shopping mall one day and discarding the old ways of doing things.

Bogota: City of the Lost takes a long time to get things started and even then, things are too muddled to engage the audiences. We have totally no idea how the smuggling works in the end or made a profit given the constant bribing of armed guards and border police. The involvement of a local business rival contributes to more double crossing as if there isn’t enough drama between the Koreans themselves.

Not to mention, Kook-hee’s father who appears out of the sudden to rob his own son and the eventual fallout of Kook-hee and his associates. Director and co-writer Kim Seong-je should be praised for attempting something different but the execution, direction and pacing is totally not in sync with the layered narrative and excitement you expect from the movie.

While the movie is partly shot in Colombia, the entire experience feels more like a cheap flat telemovie. There are a couple of car chases, gun shots and explosions that are generically choreographed without much energy put in. Still, there are veteran actors liked Kwon Hae-hyo and Park Ji-hwan bringing some zest to the dour story.

Song Joong-ki is impressive nonetheless. The problem lies mainly with the story which fails to establish convincingly how his character rises to the top. Mostly, there isn’t much context and emotional added to it. The power struggles and betrayal seems to happen in a blink of an eye and things start to get a bit twisty in the final act. Sadly, there is a great movie lying somewhere but I guess it’s lost in Bogota.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee