The Thieves 2: Who Stole This Sequel?

Movie franchises have been around for decades. Going back to at least as far back as Star Wars in 1977 if a film is successful enough, a sequel will be green lit and an entire cinematic universe may be in the pipeline. In addition to the Star Wars Universe, some of the most popular franchises include Jurassic Park/Jurassic World, Harry Potter, Toy Story and the hugely lucrative and influential Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But this practice isn’t quite as common here in Korea. Smash hit movies such as The Host (괴물), The Thieves (도둑들) and Veteran (베테랑) have all been rumored to have sequels in the works but none have resulted and at this point it would likely require a reboot in order to make any of them into a series of films. It seems that failing to produce follow-ups to these very successful pictures were missed opportunities for all involved and there’s no reason to think these proposed sequels wouldn’t have cleaned up at the box office.

The downside of releasing sequels, however, is that they may disappoint fans and critics. A rare example of a Korean box office success getting a sequel is Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (신과함께: 죄와 벌) from 2017. Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days (신과함께-인과 연) came out a year later but this time to mixed reviews. Further Along with the Gods movies are being planned but the law of diminishing returns could harm them.

Vocabulary:

✓ sequel: a film or story that directly follows previous one with most of the same characters in the same setting (see also: prequel)

✓ green light: something that is permitted to occur

✓ in the pipeline: a project that is in its planning stages

✓ lucrative: something which is highly profitable; a guaranteed money maker

✓ reboot: a series that is restarted, ignoring previous films

✓ clean up: to make a great deal of money, often very quickly

✓ the law of diminishing returns: a state of being increasingly unsuccessful

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think movie sequels aren't very common in Korea?
2. If they were planning to make sequels to The Host, The Thieves and Veteran, which would you be most interested in seeing? Which do you think might be a bit of a disappointment? Why?
3. Can you think of any other Korean movies that could have had a decent sequel, prequel and/or cinematic universe? Why do you think so?
4. Sequels are often not as good as their predecessors. Why do you think that is? Can you think of an example of a sequel that was better than the original movie?