1905 Movie Network Special Article The "Cold War" series announced the development status of new works after 8 years, "Cold War 1994" and "Cold War 1995" were officially approved, and both films were written by Liang Lemin, the director of the previous work. Wu Yanzu, Wu Kangren, and Liu Junqian joined in the starring, and the specific roles have not yet been released.
"Cold War 1994" tells the story of 1994, a rich kidnapping case in Hong Kong set off an undercurrent from all walks of life. Li Wenbin risked his life and traveled to all walks of life to expose the truth.
"Cold War 1995" focuses on the kidnapping case, MI6, who controls the security of the Far East, comes to Hong Kong to deal with the aftermath and take the opportunity to eradicate dissidents. At the same time that Li Wenbin discovered the MI6 conspiracy for Bao Ruolan, Pan Zhiang did not hesitate to kill his relatives in order to fight for property, and Li Wenbin was bound to calm down all the chaos.
"Cold War" and "Cold War 2" were the box office champions in Hong Kong, China in 2012 and 2016 respectively, and the latter set a new box office record in the history of Chinese films in Hong Kong at that time. The cumulative box office of the two films in China is close to 1 billion, which is applauded and acclaimed.
"Cold War 3" has been highly anticipated, but the preparation news is far away, and it was not until the announcement of the project information of "Cold War 1994" and "Cold War 1995" that fans waited for a new dawn. If calculated according to time, the two parts of the project belong to the prequel story.
Chinese films have long entered the era of series development, and in the process of series development, it is not uncommon to shoot prequels without sequels. In addition to "Cold War 1994" and "Cold War 1995", "Outwitting Tiger Mountain Prequel" directed by Tsui Hark and Chen Sicheng's Tang Detective series prequel "Tang Detective 1900" have also entered the preparatory stage.
Why are all the blockbuster series of movies filming prequels? Zhuyu is in front, using "prequels" as "sequels", is it a poor skill or extreme innovation? How should the "prequel" look back on the excitement, and how should it carry expectations?
Complement the structure or "resurrect" the characters?
Why did the blockbuster series of movies make a prequel
Although they are both based on the same IP, the development logic of sequels and prequels is not completely consistent. As the name suggests, the sequel expands on a new story based on the ending of the previous game. But the prequel is to outline the bits and pieces before the original work.
The benefit of creating the previous game is not only to expand the original story world, but also to provide the audience with more background information about the characters and plot, such as "Infernal Affairs 2". If necessary, you can "resurrect" the dead characters, retaining the core and selling point of the movie, such as "The Wandering Earth 2".
"Infernal Affairs 2", as a prequel to "Infernal Affairs", depicts the story of Chen Yongren and Liu Jianming when they were young.
Mak Siu-fai, one of the directors and screenwriters, shared that the prequel was filmed in the hope of reflecting the complete structure of the series. The second part is not about the plot and the question of thinking about the bridge, but about the transformation of the characters, "What were they like ten years ago? ”
"The original characters will definitely be involved, and the fate of these characters will already be known to the audience, so many things will be affected. For example, if you want to describe a dangerous experience of "Chen Yongren" when he was young, he still can't write it after thinking about it for a long time, because no matter how dangerous the description is, it can't be effective, and everyone knows that this character will definitely not die at that time. Mak Siu-fai said that it is not easy to create a prequel. Later, it was Lau Wai-keung who integrated Hong Kong historical factors to improve the development of the story.
Liu Weiqiang said frankly that "Infernal Affairs 2" intends to pay tribute to "The Godfather", at that time, Hong Kong films were in a difficult moment, and the main creator did not simply consider the sequel from a commercial point of view, but hoped to fight for the prosperity and dignity of Chinese films with all those who love Chinese films.
Based on the moving of the plot timeline, "Infernal Affairs 2" no longer features Tony Leung and Andy Lau as the protagonists, and the roles of Chen Yongren and Liu Jianming enabled the new generation of Hong Kong actors at that time.
Recalling the story of the protagonist's youth, switching to a new actor is also a common creative method used in prequels. In the "Di Renjie" series, "Di Renjie's Divine Dragon King" and "Di Renjie's Four Heavenly Kings" are the prequels of "Di Renjie's Heavenly Empire", focusing on Di Renjie's experience in his youth, and the role candidates have also been changed from Andy Lau to Zhao Youting.
is also a prequel, Guo Fan's creation of "The Wandering Earth 2" is out of consideration for continuing to use the protagonist. In the first part, Liu Peiqiang, played by Wu Jing, sacrificed heroically to protect the earth. The story line of "The Wandering Earth 2" returns to before the "solar crisis" hits, and mankind will face the dual challenges of apocalyptic disasters and the survival of life. Guo Fan's particularly direct reason for filming the prequel was, "I hope Wu Jing can come back." ”
In Guo Fan's view, Wu Jing's return is like a needle in the sea. His presence makes "The Wandering Earth 2" more touching in terms of feelings. In addition, the creation of a prequel can tell in more detail the changes in society and environment before the "wandering" of the earth, what technologies human beings have adopted to deal with disasters, and can also more clearly portray the life experience and growth process of the characters in the previous work, which plays a positive role in the audience's understanding of the story.
"When I was filming "Embroidered Spring Knife", I had the idea of making a prequel, because most of the characters died in the first part, and I wanted these characters to be 'resurrected' again, and it was more logical to do a prequel story. ”
Lu Yang had the idea of filming the prequel to "Embroidered Spring Knife" early, and also thought about the dead characters in the first part of "resurrection". However, producer Ning Hao suggested that he continue to expand the narrative space, so he reversed his original plan and set the background of "Embroidered Spring Knife 2" in the seventh year of the Ming Dynasty's apocalypse, retaining the protagonist Shen Lian (played by Zhang Zhen), and promoting the launch of new characters such as Hokusai (played by Yang Mi), Lu Wenzhao (played by Zhang Yi), and Pei Lun (Lei Jiayin).
Based on the ending of the original work, the series of films focuses on the prequel, further deepens the audience's understanding of the story and characters through plot setting and character building, and provides solid support for the spiritual concept in the original film, showing the unique charm of the series of films, while also exploring the possibility of prequel creation on the road of film creation.
Stabilize word-of-mouth and maintain earnings
Prequel film creation business
"Infernal Affairs 2", "Di Renjie's Divine Dragon King", "The Wandering Earth 2" and "Embroidered Spring Knife 2" have maintained a relatively stable level compared with the original works. From the perspective of box office, "The Wandering Earth 2" broke through the 4 billion mark, "Di Renjie's Divine Dragon King" (600 million) and "Embroidered Spring Knife 2" (265 million) doubled compared with the previous work, and "Infernal Affairs 2", which invested 40 million, reported about 25 million, although it was not as good as the first part, but the film recovered its costs through overseas copyrights and discs earlier than before the release, and the box office was almost pure profit, and the film company also made a lot of money.
"In the past, when I made a movie, I made the first episode to see how the income was, then the second episode, and then the third episode. When we were shooting one, we thought of two and three, and then two and three were filmed together, which can be said to have established a new way of making films. ”
Liu Weiqiang reviewed the creation of the "Infernal Affairs" series and said that the filming of the trilogy was out of passion and inspiration, not entirely based on commercial considerations, for "Infernal Affairs 2", this is a low-budget movie, and the biggest coffee is Zeng Zhiwei, although Wu Zhenyu is an actor, he will not feel that he is an actor who carries the box office. At that time, the goal was to make a "blockbuster" at a low cost, and it was an unexpected surprise to have such a box office.
Including but not limited to box office and copyright revenue, market performance has always been an important factor affecting the creation of series films. The vast majority of franchises are developed based on the success of the original.
Starting from the creative dimension, the "prequel" as the "sequel" should carry the audience's expectations for the growth of the characters and the deep digging of the essence of the original work. From the perspective of economic benefits, whether a series of films creates a "prequel" or a "sequel", it is more important to meet the income expectations of investors. How to balance the needs of the audience and the capital, and how to create a hit work on the basis of the original work has become a topic for creators.
The four films in the "Ip Man" series have accumulated a box office of more than 2.2 billion, and the fourth story falls on the ending of the ultimate battle of Ip Man's life, which has temporarily drawn an end to the series. However, Donnie Yen's appearance at the Cannes International Film Festival with "Ip Man 5" last year has shown people the new possibilities of the IP development. After Ip Man's life journey comes to an end, how will the story continue? Whether "Ip Man 5" will appear in the form of a prequel has aroused curiosity.
What is certain is that the development of Chinese film prequels has not stopped.
From 2015 to 2021, the cumulative box office of the three films in the "Detective Chinatown" series is close to 8.8 billion, and the IP has also become a well-known national hit. Chen Sicheng revealed in an interview earlier that he was creating a prequel to the "Tang Detective" series of films, "Tang Detective 1900", for which he built a scene of San Francisco's Chinatown in 1900 in Shandong, "Tang Detective 1900" can be regarded as a new genre attempt. ”
Following the box office of 883 million in 2014 "Outwitting Tiger Mountain", Tsui Hark has been trying to put the creation of "Outwitting Tiger Mountain Prequel" on the agenda. The film was established as early as 2022, telling the story of the winter of 1946, a People's Liberation Army team led by Shao Jianbo of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army went deep into the Linhai Snow Field to carry out the task of suppressing bandits. At the 2023 Youth Film Week (Zhejiang), Jiang Defu, CEO of Bona Film Group, revealed that the project will be launched soon.
Creating a successful prequel to a film is no easy feat, and it is only by studying the original that we can create a prequel that is both faithful to the original and charismatic. Chinese films are blooming, and the series is full of vitality. Looking to the future, we look forward to the continuous innovation of Chinese film prequels to bring more excitement to the audience.