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The film should be just named Song Joong-ki in Colombia…

It was just a normal wednesday evening when I decided that I would watch a movie. I knew about this piece for some time and it also has been in top 10 in my country so i just clicked on it and now Im disappointed.

But for the start lets name the positives of Bogota: City of the lost …
The sets overall look really aesthetic - the colours, the wild streets full of people and so on. The movie works very well with making the movie feel like it was a real Colombia (as far as I can tell). The main thing of the movie - the leading Song Jong-ki also didn’t disappoint with his skills in the “thriller”, “crime” genre. And that is about it if you ask me.

At the other hand if you tell me to imagine a “mid” movie this would be as of now on the top of my list.

Let me start with the bad aspect that in my opinion go hand in hand with the positives I named:

First the looks of the set made a good impression on me however the camera did not. It is a thing that I certainly really care about more than many people but hear me out. Every shot felt soooo boring, aside from few exceptions. The camera was still, and just wasn’t playfull at all - just concentrated on the people talking, and when they moved the camera moved and that’s it. If you have such a rich background why don’t you just film it properly? That is such a wasted potential - there were many repetitive smoking scenes, which could be at least filmed differently. Also sometimes I couldn’t just shake off the k-drama feeling - it was filmed just the same. Don’t take this the wrong way but I expect a bit more from a high-budget movie.

Next the screenwriting. I just got bored. The dialogues have no emotions in them, they just swear a lot and think this is the peak of acting as a gangster. The repetition of some words or phrases feels just forced - they always have to just remind us that we are in a Colombia, ok sherlock I had no bloody idea! The big flaw is also that the characters are flat as a piece of paper and I mean a white paper without any text on it. The screenwriter just relies on the actors but they have frankly nothing much to work with in my opinion - the actors in this movie feel like a single person, they all have kind of the same non-existent personality. Even the male lead dosen’t have chance to truly present himself and for me non of them felt relateable. Maybe that was because their whole personality was being a korean smuggler / seller in Colombia!

The story is nothing outstanding. It doesen’t even feel like the film has it honestly. There are few series of events that relate to each other but I don’t know if i can call it a proper story. That is the most evident flaw for me personally - the movie skips the most important events. Spoiler alert! For example the male leads father just becomec a hopless alcoholic but like when did it and why did it happen? Also male lead had grown into a very talented and powerfull smuggler with a load of conections on hand. When? Who knows, they even added a time skip in this case!
Maybe it is just me not really finding the movie interesting but the decisions of the characters are kind of a mystery unsolved and make no sense to me sometimes.

Lastly let’s just say it is a film you watch when you don’t want to think much. From this perespective it is fine I guess but from my perespective it has too many flaws, for a movie that i would call good. So do I think you should watch it? No, I can’t think of a audience this was meant for - the action is boring, the movie is filmed badly, the caharacters are non-existent, etc. I didn’t even need to deeply analyze this movie to tell that it is not the sharpest pencil in the case.

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Wasted opportunity...

I get why everyone is so upset with the show and how it all turned out but I still think that there are things that should be appreciated and people seem to miss that fact... (So I really felt the urge to write a review for the first time)

I watched this show in a marathon yesterday and I didn't get bored. That for me means that the story is catchy and that itself is a great thing in kdrama. I personally loved the atmosphere, cherry blossoms, red and yellow ... the scenery, and the work with a camera made the drama look like a high-quality drama. It is overall darker than season 1 but I honestly didn't mind that much.
So now the highlights in the cast. Many people were disappointed that Hye Yong didn't get enough screen time, well he got more than what I expected in the second season! So if you are team Hye Yong you should watch it. I honestly fell in love with Jung Ga Rams acting and I will be waiting to see him again in another drama. The next character that grew on me is Gul Mi. I think she made big progress from being a school bitch to a more responsible and appreciatable person.

Another thing that caught my eye is how writers tried to put reality into the story as well, like how people who like each other don't need to stay that way forever, that people can change. Also, I'm glad that they tried to avoid some cliches (- Gul Mi and Dok Gu for example don't end up together like in a fairy tale). There were some wise words that made me think too. The story itself is good.
And the most important thing... Have you ever seen a kdrama in which the second male lead doesn't end up being the second male lead at the end? I have never seen a thing like that and the writers have my respect for that decision because that really blew my mind! I have never expected it to turn that way ... BUT

A the same time (this morning when I got over the fact that my boy won) I realized how messed up this thing is and how they could have done a much better job when they kept us waiting for 2 BLOODY YEARS!

I will keep it short because many reviews basically already said what I had to say.
First thing, I am a Hye Yong stan but for the whole time, I felt so sorry for Sun Oh. They made him look like a wreck. He got only a little screentime, much less than he deserved. Also how he ended up was literary sad, he seemed forced into a relationship that didn't work for already a really long time, and in my opinion, he didn't look happy at all!
The story is a mess. Not only they didn't explain what happened at the end of season 1 it looks like a whole different show. And also what the hell was the thing with Hye Yong's dad I still don't get it and it is not the only one. Jojo looks pathetic and I just can't sympathize with her at all. I really pity her friend at the school. And the last thing WTF was the whole Brian Choi thing and what actually happened to Dok Gu?! These are the main things that really angered me and there is more.

I wrote this review because although this drama is not the best it has its highlights and I honestly quite enjoyed watching it!
I just feel that with what they had they could have done a real masterpiece... This all is just my opinion!!!


(I'm not English speaku master so if you find some mistakes I'm sorry)

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Interesting idea that is buried by the deliverance

Honestly I started this drama because it was recomended to me and I didn't expect a lot but still they did the concept so dirty…
Just to begin with my overall rating: easily a better 7,5-8 for me (I still can't really decide) - but it depends on what you are looking for in this show. If you fancy a simple supernatural comedy with a bit of romance, this show will be for you. For the rest who are looking for something more dark and thrilling with sophisticated lore that makes sense, this show will leave you really disappointed in my personal opinion.

SPOILERS!
But first I would lik eto focus on the positive side of this mess. The production is really on point - the drama has nice locations, the characters look interesting and the camera sometimes does really incredible job. Just from the visual perespective - the drama is a really good looking piece. For the story I would say that the core or the idea behind the show is really interesting. We have superheroes fighting against religious x scientist organization, which i think is a really brave premise for a kdrama. I personaly love these kind of “normal citizens against evil companies” plots, so I was really excited as the drama progressed and introduced the layers of this fictional universe. To mention the acting I would highlight the never disappointing Kim Hae Sook, who stood out with her performance and also Choi Dae Hoon who made some scenes really emotionaly impactfull. To addition I would say that some elements in the story were really fun and creative - for example the creative ways of using Dae Hoons superpovers, which seem a bit useless but he really made them work, interesting scenes, for example the scene when the two police officers came to the church facility or when DaeHoon was stuck with the possesed believers in the last episode I think. I really had fun with those little highlights in the story but that is about it for me. And honestly many of the positives go hand in hand with the negatives.

So to start with the elephant in the room: the two protagonists and their romance story. I am SO OVER everybody blindly praising Cha Eunwoo and Pakr Eunbins acting. With Cha Eunwoo I think he played only ONE character his whole career (i haven't seen all of his work but a big part). He only plays the kind of shy guy who underneath the trauma dump is slowly developing romantic feeling towards the female lead- which is usually shown through his faint smile and awkward hugs. He brings almost nothing to this character and I refuse to blame the writers, because this guy has so much traumatic experience and we see nothing reminiscent of sadness on his face in the entire show. Even during his emotional scenes his delivery falls sooo flat it hurts. (I'm sorry I had to let this out after such a long time - had problem with him since Gangnam Beauty)
But I was surprised that he wasn't the character I would find the most problematic. Because there is Park Eunbin. And to be fair I don't “prefer” her as an actress but I liked some of her work so I had hope with this one. But oh my what the hell is this disney adorkable mess doing in a show about ilegal child experiments? I have overall problem with this type of character, because many times it feels sooo forced and stupid in a not funny way. And this was a textbook example!! She basically lives as the comedy punching bag throughout the whole show and as fellow revievers pointed out is unnecessarily stupid. She literally has the telleportation ability and is practicaly immortal, but characters treat it as a by the way ability. Everybody is constantly scared for her life - like what the hell. But that is the less frustrating part. The humor of this show heavily relies on her and her joking personality - which feels so unnatural and forced. And I think this is a actor and writer problem, because I have seen this character work a couple of times - for example Kim Bok Joo, she was soo extra but still felt like a real person who is not menat to be only ridiculed. And that is because during the emotional scenes the characters show emotions - they convince you of the gavity of the situation. You may not agree with my example but I would still say that Chaeni is a badly written and poorly executed character.
And to combine the shitshow - the romantic chemistry is absent in this show. I am so dumbfounded about this even day after i finished this show. The story is basicaly relying on the romance between the two leads even though it tries to hide it. There is nothing else that is steadily progressing as the romance plot in my opinion. Which is understandable, we are wathching a kdrama afterall but due to this fact it sould be an easy job to make it feel real, shouldn't it? Well I guess not, because I feel nothing and I mean NOTHING between these two. And that is also falt on both sides beacuse the very few emotionaly heavy scenes are basicaly what we have seen only a few thousand times - holding hand beside bed, kissing to surprise somebody.

So Imagine my disappointment when it came to the story. At this point I was really looking past the characters and more focused on the actual evil plans that were slowly executed. But to my surprise the writers treated the plot of this story as something that is kind of weird and wrong but not thaaat bad. Like really the story is about sicientists who probably abducted many children just to do many let's say unethical experiments on them. And in addition are hiding behing a huge cultish religion, who si providing money to their experiment through fooling a big portion of the city. But these main leads approach it as if basicaly nothing much was happening. At the begining it was very exciting with the unknown substance, alegedly weird animal, paranoid resident, etc. But that gets thrown out of the window as soon as the trio gains those “quirky superpowers”. NONE of them seems to grasp the weight of the situation. Like this is Save me level of despicable but no one is properly doing anything (aside from grandma sometimes). Meanwhile they are trying to get better with their new skillset, which is sometimes funny sometimes really not.
As for the villains they also just don't feel really dangerous and well written to me, like almost everything in this show. As I watched I understood that the evil main scientis is someone who I should really want to kill with my bare hands. But I didn't feel that, he was just kind of there and then died. He just had no character - we don't see him that much to develop a proper hatred for him I think. Also the role of the evil is split between the Wunderkinder (of course it is in german), which made the situation worse. Like there are too many characters for a 8 episode show. Noobody gets enough screentime to develope and for us to care about them. But about that later. I would just like to add to this segment that I see many references in this show - like many. You know the evil corporation which experiments on children and which later proceeds to contaminate the whole city …exactly something out of Resident evil, then the scene with the chainsaw … oddly similiar to The Shining, the bulllet sceene … which is kind of like something that happened in Matrix maybe. And I believe you could find more. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it is wrong to reference or use concepts that have been used before. The problem is that all these things that I listed are kind of serious and treat the plot as something important - which this show refuses to do. I am mostly angry if I compare it to Resident Evil - if you know a little about it you know how “deeply unsettling” the universe is. And for show about a similiar thing refusing to at least do something with it does a bit offend me.

Of course there are many inconsistencies, but just to name a few - the show doesn't explain how the main trio acquired their powers, Juri is going back and forth with believing the Father for no exact reason (obviously he doesnt care about them), Eunwoo's character blows up the whole facility to save his friend but proceeds to provide his new friend for the same torture, etc.

I strongly believe that this show would benefit if it had been longer. Just how were they expecting to introduce the whole concept of the show with all of its exposition and then conclude the plan of the evil side in 8 EPISODES. This is a minimum 12 episodes kind of plot in my humble opinion. To be a devils advocate for a minute - I was really hoping to see more dissterss for the main protagonists, more action form the granny team, like they don't even fully explain why was the grandmother involved.

So to conclude my silent outcry, I don't know if i really want to recomennd this show. It is a really fun watch and you probably won't get bored throughout it but it could be so much more. Because the moment you start thinking about the character's choices the story starts to erode.

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