MOVIE
Could it be ‘Squid Game 2’ too? ‘Solo War 2’ and ‘Sweet Home 2’, the curse of successive sequels
Reporter Choi Ji-ye of Ten Asia objectively and keenly points out events that have occurred throughout the entertainment industry. We carefully analyze the ‘glitch’ you missed from a reporter’s perspective.
Sequels that were released on the back of the reputation of the previous film are suffering from harsh criticism one after another. Recent works with these characteristics most prominent include the Netflix original movie 'Solo Battle 2' (directed by Baek) and the Netflix OTT series 'Sweet Home 2' (directed by Eung-bok Lee).
First, 'Dokjeon 2' is recording a shocking rating of 2 points on the portal site Naver amidst harsh criticism that it greatly damaged the workability and worldview of the previous work, 'Dokjeon' (director Lee Hae-young). The audience pointed out the fact that Seo Young-rak (Ryu Jun-yeol) of 'Solo Battle' was confined in a clichéd narrative, the identity of Teacher Lee, who stimulated everyone's curiosity, was filled out in a vain and poor manner, and the breakdown of the connectivity of Jin Ha-rim's (late Kim Joo-hyuk) character, etc. 2' is being criticized. In addition, it is difficult to mention all the points pointed out as problems, such as the mismatch of Big Knife's (Han Hyo-joo) character and the downgraded role of Won-ho (Cho Jin-woong).
The same goes for ‘Sweet Home 2’. Compared to Season 1 of 'Sweet Home', which was well-received in many ways, Season 2 is heavily criticized for the narrative itself due to the introduction of many characters and the lack of plausibility. In addition, some say that the main characters of Season 1 received only a very small amount of screen time and that the characters themselves were volatilized. The general opinion is that it has become cluttered with too many leading actors. There are many who say they are not satisfied with the quality of directing and CG. The monster that appears looks unnatural, and the frame appears broken, which reduces the quality of the film. Some say that only the exposure scenes between lead actors Song Kang and Lee Jin-wook are memorable.
In fact, this phenomenon is common. The movie ‘Train to Busan’ (directed by Yeon Sang-ho) is a representative example. Director Yeon, who had a huge hit with 'Train to Busan', attracting 11.57 million viewers, released the sequel animations 'Seoul Station' and 'Peninsula', but 'Seoul Station' received only 140,000 viewers with a 5-point rating. 'Peninsula' is rated 7 points and attracts 381 viewers, but it falls short of the strong points of 'Train to Busan'.
In addition, the movies ‘National Representative’ and ‘My Sassy Girl’ also failed to catch up with their predecessors in their sequels. In the case of the 'Crime City' series, Season 1 attracted 6.88 million viewers, so although the objective performance figures are low, it is evaluated as the best in terms of completeness and quality of work. In the case of Season 2 and Season 3, it has been chosen by many audiences and is showing unabated popularity, reaching the top 10 million movies, but the consensus in the industry is that the content and structure have become less complete and have become stale.
In particular, looking at foreign cases, there is an analysis that the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) suffered a serious slump due to producing too many sequels. The MCU continued to branch out thanks to the popularity of the previous work, but because the sequels often failed to surpass the previous work, audiences lost interest.
As the saying goes, ‘There is no younger brother like an older brother,’ it is not easy for a sequel to surpass the original. There is even a term called ‘sophomore jinx’ to refer to this phenomenon. In fact, it is inherently difficult for a sequel to surpass the previous work, because basically, a sequel is produced under the condition of ‘the success of the previous work.’ The sequel has the fate of having to endure high expectations compared to the previous film, which created a huge sensation and was well-received. In addition, capital will come in due to expectations, and there is a high possibility that multiple craftsmen or additional interference will be involved. Moreover, because the story must be developed within the conditions established by the previous film, the narrative is also limited.
However, there is also a younger brother whose 'cheongchuleoram' surpasses his older brother. 'Hansan: Appearance of the Dragon', the sequel to director Kim Han-min's film 'Roaring Currents', received applause for its quality and quality of work, which were much better than the previous work. Sources say that Director Kim was able to produce a much better result by accepting the criticisms of 'Roaring Currents' and incorporating them into 'Hansan: Appearance of the Dragon'. In addition, the tvN drama ‘Reply’ series is a representative example of increasing perfection and box office success. 'Reply 1994' was better than 'Reply 1997', and 'Reply 1988' received a lot of love from viewers, showing the highest viewer ratings and completeness.
Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr
