BOGOTA; CITY OF OF THE LOST

Korea, 2024, 108 minutes, Colour.

Song Joong-ki, Lee Hee-joon, Kwon Hae-hyo.

Directed by Seong-je Kim.

Many audiences will be initially surprised to find that this is a Korean film rather than a Colombian production. 40% of the film was completed in Colombia before the Covid outbreak and the rest of the filming was finished in Korea. To that extent, exotic – and the information that the director’s mother-in-law is from Columbia. Which means there is a curiosity value before the film starts.

The film opens in the late 1990s, some turmoil in Korea, financial difficulties, the young man at the centre of the film leaving Korea with his family for Columbia, trying to set up a living there, his father a gambler and drinker and going into decline, support of his mother. The film shows the difficulty in getting jobs but the young man, shrewd, making connections with the Korean community in Bogota, ingratiating himself, succeeding in some jobs.

However, the section of the Korean community in Colombia that he connects with is the gangster connection, deals with locals, supervised by a veteran who has been in Colombia from Korea for a long time and has the connections. There is illicit trade, imports coming in by boat, distribution. The film shows a range of thugs, a range of clever business criminals.

In many ways, The Godfather is a useful reference. The young man goes on a kind of Michael Corleone a journey, some innocence at the beginning, greater involvement, loyalties to heads, some betrayals, his use of violence, within a short time becoming the capo, wealthy, well-dressed, connections, getting rid of opponents.

Clearly, of particular interest to a Korean audience, especially Koreans with relatives and connections abroad. Interesting for non-Koreans to look at this story of migration and the criminal connections, the rise of a young man is becoming gangster head.