Bogota, City of the Lost Review: Even Song Joong-ki can't save this formulaic and predictable crime drama

It’s Song Joong-ki’s trademark now: Playing the anti-hero, a character filled with so many dubious greys, that you are never really sure whether you should root for him. And the good part is, it’s usually worked. From the stony, vengeful outing in The Innocent Man, to the deadpan Vincenzo who ‘rids the trash from the earth’ in the most gruesome way possible, he has always succeeded. However, despite a noteworthy and similar portrayal, in the recent Bogota: City of the Lost, it still doesn’t save the film from landing with a thud.

It’s an enticing premise: Joong-ki plays Kook-hee, a young man who has had to move to Bogota with his family, in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He is looking to turn things around, but obviously that doesn’t happen, as tragedy strikes, leaving him in a worse situation than before. So strapped for cash, he decides to accept a rather shady smuggling job. He climbs the ladder to become the the kingpin in the black market, entangled in the dangerous underworld, duping people, evading police----you know the drill. He transforms from a introverted, frightened immigrant into a hardened criminal during the course of the film, and the meaning of loyalty is slowly stripped away.

Cue violence, explosions and gunshots. And, there’s a lot of that, to the point it gets miserably tedious and dull.

Corruption lurks in every corner of the film, yet the storytelling fails to capitalise on its potential. Instead of delving deeper into the complexities of this theme, the narrative feels oversimplified, as if it’s being dumbed down for the audience. The film misses an opportunity to explore the nuances of corruption, leaving it feeling predictable and underwhelming, rather than the gripping and morally ambiguous exploration it could have been. The film tries to follow every beat of a regular crime drama, without really caring if you are along for the ride, and this sentiment shows in the execution.  The pacing turns sluggish towards the last part of the film, and we edge slowly towards a finale that we saw coming. Joong-ki does the best he can do, as plays a man wrestling with his inner turmoil, but unfortunately the dialogue writing lets him down, making you heartily wish for him to just channel Vincenzo, because this is the least magnetic the actor has ever been. There are plenty of other characters too, played by good actors like  Kwon Hae-hyo, Park Ji-wan, and Kim Jong-soo, but they too, are let down by formulaic storytelling and staid dialogues.

If you want to watch a crime film, you can try Bogota. But there’s nothing worth writing home about.

The film is streaming on Netflix.