Jin: Yeah, I hear this town is quite the Mecca.
Columbus is a 2017 drama film written, directed, and edited by Kogonada in his feature directorial debut and starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson. The film was completely filmed and is set in the town of Columbus, Indiana, a town known for its Modern architecture and unique public art.
Jin Lee (Cho) is a Korean-born man visiting the titular town after hearing that his estranged father Jae Yong Lee, a renowned architect who'd stopped by the city to deliver a lecture, has been hospitalized after falling into a coma. While awaiting news of his father's status, he strikes up an Odd Friendship with Casey (Richardson), a Columbus native and architecture enthusiast caring for her mother who's a recovering addict, and the two spend the next several days getting to know each other and their innermost struggles.
The movie is most noteworthy for its gorgeous cinematography that emphasizes the unique architecture of Columbus, Indiana, presenting the city as if it were its own character in the film. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.
This film provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Casey's and Gabriel's relationship. On one hand, it's obvious that Gabriel is attracted to Casey, but on the other hand, she rebuffs his more explicit attempts at flirting with her by laughing them off and continues to hang out with him in and out of work, heavily implying she only sees him as a friend.
- Amicable Exes: Jin and Eleanor are exes but greet each other warmly, with Eleanor even serving as Jin's father's caretaker. They even nearly hook up toward the end, but Eleanor stops him.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The only thing preventing the movie from being rated PG is its four or five uses of Precision F-Strike.
- Bilingual Bonus: With the exception of the opening scene, none of the Korean spoken by Jin is subtitled.
- Bittersweet Ending: Casey's mother has relapsed, and she and Jin eventually go their separate ways. However, Casey learns to follow her dreams after all, and she departs the city on good terms with both her mother and Jin. Meanwhile, Jin decides to stay in Columbus to care for his comatose father rather than stay estranged from him.
- Casting Gag: At one point, Jin enters a toy store called Duncan's. Rory Culkin, Gabriel's actor, is the younger brother of Macaulay Culkin, whose role as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York has him protecting a toy store called Duncan's Toy Chest from burglars.
- Cathartic Crying: After spending the entire movie holding back tears or hiding them behind a Stepford Smiler, Casey breaks down in Eleanor's car just before leaving Columbus with her.
- Celibate Hero: Casey has zero romantic interest in either Jin or Gabriel.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Casey appears to love smoking as much as she loves architecture. Though she says she wants to break the habit toward the end of the movie.
- Establishing Character Moment: Casey's very first scene has her checking out the First Christian Church building, reciting facts about the building to herself while nervously smoking a cigarette, cluing the audience in to her intelligence and hidden inner turmoil.
- Female Gaze: The audience gets a shot of John Cho taking a shower, bare backside facing the camera.
- Foil: Casey is a recent high school graduate who loves architecture, is close with her mother, and aspires to do greater things with her life yet feels restricted to the city of Columbus by that very love. Jin is a middle-aged Korean man who isn't too impressed by architecture (at first), resents his father, and is also restricted to Columbus but wishes to leave in order to spite his father. Naturally, both of them change over time.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Jin is about two decades older than Casey (though the gap doesn't look too obvious considering John Cho's youthful appearance), and the movie is about their blossoming friendship.
- Odd Friendship: Casey and Jin are the unlikeliest people you'd expect to become friends, but they find common ground and start bringing out the best in each other.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The film ends with Casey driving out of Columbus in an identical shot to earlier in the movie of the Robert N. Stewart Bridge.
- Scenery Porn: Oh yes. This film goes out of its way to show exactly why Columbus, Indiana, is considered a Mecca for architecture enthusiasts, with loads of beautiful shots of famous buildings and public art around the city, almost always receiving more emphasis than the people in the shot.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Architecture professor Jae Yong Lee, Jin's father, is only onscreen for the opening two minutes before collapsing into a coma, which sets off the entire rest of the plot.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Casey says a more expletive variant of this upon witnessing her mother's friend lie about her mother showing up to work.
