“Bogotá: City of the Lost” (보고타: 마지막 기회의 땅)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
December 31, 2024

☆☆ (out of ☆☆☆☆)
Guk-hee (played by Song Joong-ki)
Soo-yeong (played by Lee Hee-joon)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

There was a lot of anticipation for this latest Song Joong-ki film. But while “Bogotá: City of the Lost” had an exciting premise, it ultimately fell flat.

The film begins after the Asian Financial Crisis (ca. 1997-1998) had wreaked havoc throughout East Asia. Seeking a better life for his family, Guk-hee’s father decides to start anew in Colombia. The plan is to open a shop in Bogota for a few years, earn more money and then immigrate to the United States.

Their first day in Bogotá sets the tone for what their life will become (and what viewers can expect). Robbed by an armed thief who steals all their money and legal documents, they end up worse off than when they were in South Korea. But now they’re in a country where they have no friends or relatives, and have to rely on Jang-soo (Kwon Hae-hyo), who had served in Vietnam with Guk-hee’s father, and is the king of Bogotá’s closely-knit Koreatown.

Song, who was in his late 30s when he starred in this film, is a good actor. However, asking him to portray Guk-hee from the time he’s 19 through his 30s is a stretch. The film would’ve benefitted by casting a younger actor for the first third of the movie.

Starting off as a shy and smart 19 year old, Guk-hee doesn’t seem like he could grow up to be a fearless and cold-blooded mob boss. But when his father deals with their squalid life by turning to alcohol and squandering away their meager earnings, the boy makes the decision to better their lives at the expense of others. He starts off working in the Colombian black market, smuggling in undergarments from Korea.

As different factions fight over their respective fiefdoms, there is a lot of underhanded subterfuge. Whereas good films can make audiences care about horrible characters, that kind of relief doesn’t exist in “Bogotá,” where the backstories aren’t strong enough to make us root for them … any of them. (Honestly? You can get more of a cinematic experience watching Song’s superb K-dramas “Vincenzo” and “Reborn Rich.”)

It’s not out of the question to ask why this family didn’t just return to Korea. But that’s one part of the film that felt truthful. They stayed for the same reason many immigrants remain, rather than returning home. Despite all the hardships, it’s still a better life than the one they left behind.

There is a lot going on in this film — shootings, explosions, backstabbing and double-crossings. But when it’s all over, you realize that it was mostly much ado about nothing.

Airdates: After premiering at the Busan International Film Festival on October 3, 2024, this 108-minute debuted in South Korean movie theatres on December 31, 2024. (I watched this on Netflix.)

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