This two hours long movie started with showing the rivalries between South Korea and North Korea. At the beginning, the North Korean was working with the local Somalian to provide intel about South Korea's activity in the country. They were even going at length with armed robberies and the south korean was at the losing side. Things started smooth for the north korean until during the meeting with the minister of Somalia at a hotel, the riot broke out and they were stuck in the hotel.

As soon as the war break out, the north korean embassy was ambushed by the rebels, lead by the young rebel who was once working with them. Just as the North Koreans thought they would be spared, they didn't. Their embassy was looted and everything was taken from them. " Now, we have no more debts," said the young rebel to Tae Joon-ki (Koo Kyo-hwan),the North Korean intelligence officer and leave with the looted items.

This creates a turning situation for them that now, they are on survival and have to do whatever it takes to survive. The North Korean embassy Rim Young (Heo Joon-ho) decided that they could seek help from the Chinese embassy. As soon as they pack up, they arrived at the Chinese embassy only to find out that they were in the same situation. It was out of coincidence that they found themselves arriving at guarded South Korean embassy.

Their pride and the fear of Pyongyang didn't let them but since they were with children and women, Rim young had no other choice. The South Korean side was also conflicted whether to let them in because that would create serious political problem if they found out to be hosting North Koreans at the South Korean embassy. Eventually these two rivals set aside their political ideologies and differences. They join hands to survive the war torn country and find safe passage to escape from Mogadishu.

Surprisingly, in this movie the North Koreans were not always portrayed as cunning, sly, and also scary people. Sure, at first they were, as afterall, this is a South Korean made movie. Moreover, adding children in the movie especially from the north Korean side is a symbol of innocent voices during the war and that these children didn't learn about these differences. Not to mention, they were also the reason that compels Kang Dae-jin ( joo-in-sung) the South intelligent officer, to let them into the South Korean embassy. Even so, in the movie, one of the south Koreans was still skeptical by saying, " you know North Korean kids all get military training?". At the end of the movie when both parties were picked up by their fellow countrymen, the parents close their children's eyes while some of the children look into the South Korean side and the parents abruptly close their eyes.

When the group tried to reach the Italian embassy by car, they reminded me personally with movies of black hawk down and the video games with the same title. The bodies on the street, the gun fires, and the car speeding up crossing the bodies was quite suspenseful. They met with the government army but were mistaken as the rebels because one of the South Korean ambassadors didn't correctly put out the white flag. It's only the stick that came out from the car which made the army mistake them as a gun. Later they were involved in heavy gun fire and the film effects on this one are quite outstanding. The angle of the shoot from the beginning to the heightened suspense were extraordinary. As a result of that, Escape from Mogadishu also won several awards on cinematography in numerous South Korean Awards.This movie was also representing South Korea to be enlisted for best international feature film OSCAR but it did not get nominated or made the shortlist.

I have found this movie since around last year but only got the time to watch fully today. As someone who grew up playing Delta Force Black Hawk Down and watching the movie, this offers fresher perspective into Mogadishu. I thought this movie was about someone traveling to Mogadishu and caught up into some fucked up situation but as I watched it fully, it becomes a riveting political film. I also did not know that Mogadishu even had university and was once rather a pleasant country (sure it’s corrupt but the war hadn't started until the people grew tired of the military junta and discontentment to their government). All I ever introduced was the idea that it was a war torn country and that it can't be helped. Another interesting scene from the movie to me is when the diplomats escape during the prayes. This is just like in the Hollywood Black Hawk Down since during the prayer was the chance to do things because even the rebels prayed before they started their usual business. Most importantly, I didn't even know there were also other countries involved and from this movie, I learned that there were also stories from The South Korea and North Korea in Mogadishu. If you want to be mind-blown and challenge your idea about Mogadishu, this might be interesting to watch. I personally would recommend this movie.