Parents' Guide to Bogota: City of the Lost

Song Joong-ki delivers a solid performance in this crime drama, but the rest of this movie doesn't match Song's compelling star power. Indeed, there are just too many problems in Bogota: City of the Lost that keep it from being a solid experience. While Song has an uncanny ability to convey a variety of emotions with just his face, the most this film asks of him is to look worried, brooding, or contemplative. Further, Song's Kook-hee is hard to get behind and root for because he becomes such a bland character. The movie actually starts off well, but by its middle, Kook-hee settles into the character he'll become, and he isn't interesting or compelling at all. Surrounding characters don't help, as everyone is just some kind of "crime boss" or "lieutenant," simply living for themselves.

Structurally the film feels more jumbled and confused while it tries to build toward dramatic moments. But when, for example, the first major dramatic moment happens, no real consequences occur. Imagine one character maybe finding out last-minute that he may have been betrayed or one-upped, and then when the reveal happens, both parties realize simply that well, it still makes sense to do business with one another, so onward we go! Also, a handful of scenes are so disruptively out of tune with the rest of the tone of the movie that they jarringly interrupt the seriousness of what this film seems to be going for. Whether it's weirdly dated musical accompaniment to various scenes or odd attempts at comic relief, the result is a film that needs some serious editing.