In Columbus, Indiana, Jin Lee arrives from South Korea to watch over his estranged father who, while visiting the town to give a lecture about architecture, has fallen into a coma and is now in a local hospital.

[5] Kogonada was inspired by director Yasujirō Ozu, particularly his 1951 film Early Summer, incorporating elements of his style and shot selection into Columbus.

He notes the similar use of negative space in Columbus, explaining that "architecture is the structuring of emptiness", which he compares to that of human emotion.

[8] He describes the buildings there as having "an extraordinary premise for drama" and that the architecture of which forms the common ground between Jin and Casey when they are first introduced.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Wonderfully acted and artfully composed, Columbus balances the clean lines of architecture against the messiness of love, with tenderly moving results.

"[22] In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, Boyd van Hoeij called the film a "quietly masterful feature debut" for Kogonada and wrote, "One of the film's chief pleasures is how it keeps the conversation between the various characters flowing while gently avoiding falling into any of the possible romantic-entanglement traps that viewers used to more conventional romantic works might be expecting.

The fact it is accessible for people without any prior knowledge of either Modernism or architecture in general is another plus, though the film's clearly too thoughtful and quietly masterful to ever qualify as a real crowd-pleaser.

"[23] Kate Erbland from IndieWire stated that Cho and Richardson were "perfect" for their roles and went onto to write "The pair have prodigious chemistry, but the real pleasure of Columbus is watching that bond deepen, and the comfort that Casey and Jin ultimately find in each other.

Club said: "Cho, in a too-rare leading role, delivers the kind of sensitive performance that's always banged at the lid of his franchise work.

"[23] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Cho's performance contained "whip-smart charisma [that] has long warranted more leading roles like this one.

"[26] Katie Walsh from The Providence Journal declared that Cho's performance was "fantastic" and described it as "subtle, specific and quietly stirring.

Brian Formo of Collider wrote "Richardson puts the story on her shoulders and elevates the film into a beguiling, thin air.

[29] Berkshire said of Richardson's performance "relative newcomer proving her ability of holding the screen with maximum soulfulness in a minimalist drama.

"[31] Sheila O’Malley noted: "What Kogonada has done with Columbus (along with cinematographer Elisha Christian) is to blend the background into the foreground and vice versa, so that you see things through the eyes of the two architecture-obsessed main characters.