This review may contain spoilers
Ok where to start with this one...Firstly I must say that I have NOT seen many chinese dramas!The plot of this drama is somewhat average. Although there is some amazing aspects of the plots, the plot tends to repeat it's self on several occasions. The only difference being that it is a different time and place. I have to admit that the whole idea of the Fire vs Ice Tribe is cliché, however, with the addition of several other tribes it adds a little extra excitement. This drama definitely has the RPG or Anime vibe, so if you are a fan of video games you may enjoy this a lot.
As for the actors, I believe they all acted quite well (The main characters anyway). I will admit that I didn't enjoy the male lead, Ka Suo, as much as I had hoped. However, in saying that I believe that the actor did a great job at portraying that character. My favourite character of the series is actually Yan Da. The actress was amazing and for once I actually enjoyed watching a female lead. (Not saying the female actresses are bad)
One thing I do want to point out is that the costume design in this drama is amazing and visually pleasing. Although there are some minor makeup issues like unmatched foundation or visible black hair under white wigs....The actual costumes and characters of this drama are beautiful. The sets in which they act on are also amazing and it is clear that a lot of thought went into the character and set design. The music of this drama is by far one of my favourite sound tracks of any drama, so If you are a music love then definitely listen to the OST!
There are two main problems that I had with this drama. Firstly, the CGI components of the drama can be a little off putting to begin with. I personally will admit to dropping this drama 2 times before finally watching it, so if you can get through the first 4 or 5 episodes, you'll be good to go. My other problem is that the plot was repetitive due to the fact that one of the main characters seemed to lack emotional development (Which I will not name cause...SPOILERS)
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My sense of duty motivated me.
I ended up watching Ice Fantasy with a sense of duty that I put on myself and told myself that I should watch the production. Because it's from 2016, because it's on Netflix, because it was popular then.At the beginning, I even watched with interest and curiosity what would happen next. Over time, I started to laugh at the poor special effects and uncoordinated movements of the actors. Anyway, I noticed later that some actors had nothing to do with their hands and stood in such forced, rigid positions. The outfits and interior design alternately delighted and rejected me as kitschy. When it comes to characterization of actors, too close shots of the face show skin imperfections and stretched skin under glue used, for example, to stick wigs. It cheered me up again. Prince Ka Suo was either unconscious or crying, which made me think of another prince still crying, namely Crown Prince Xiao Ding Quan, ( Royal Nirvana), but while Luo Jin created such a dramatic, indecisive and internally conflicted character, Shao Feng in his role was made of wood. Numerous side threads blurred the action and lost the whole drama of the situation. Over time, flashbacks began to multiply, which artificially lengthened the time. It got to the point where I got impatient that the heroes couldn't die because they were preoccupied with remembering moments from the past. Yan Da's death was spectacular to me because I thought when it would finally be over. In any case, massive flashbacks in Chinese dramas kill the plot. Summa summarum, this production turned out to be a bit archaic in its form and I finally got to the end with fast rewinding. The series tries to convey certain moral values, such as a sense of dignity, patriotism, steadfastness in pursuing a goal, faithfulness to ideals and love. It condemns the soulless pursuit of power, the lack of compassion for others, etc. etc. However, it blurs in the generally poor production, accumulation of threads and problematic acting message. I'll say it. Not all at once. On the other hand, while very unrealistic, the relationship between Ka Suo and Ying Kong Shi was intriguing. So full of sacrifice, so ubiquitous, so tragic. But that was a really interesting thread. And the musik. Musik was ok for me.
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*UPDATE*
Found out on here that there's a sequel! SO EXCITED!
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This review may contain spoilers
The idea was there, but......
¡¡Disclaimer!!This review is based on my personal opinion/experience while watching, you're free to agree/disagree with it. This is a very lengthy review so if you're not into reading that go ahead and skip it.
So I watched this series around 4 years ago, and I was super excited because of the hype around it, but sadly the show didn't live up to that hype, and now after rewatching it (because I like to torture myself like that lol) I can see why exactly this series was a serious let down, mind you I was a an early teen, so that should say something. «Ice fantasy», as the name would imply, is about a fantasy world where the rulers wield ice powers. It's a very cliche idea with the ice and fire tribes being at war, and because I like fantasy, I decided to give it a go. At first I was very intrigued by the costume designs and the the characters, but my excitement started decreasing gradually as I watched further, and by episode 32 I started skipping around 30 minutes of each episode, and when episode 39 hit I was close to dropping this whole thing from how frustrating it turned out to be, but regardless, I pushed through and finished it only to be hit with the disappointment of the century. There's a second season for those who are interested and let me tell ya, it gets worse there so I really don't recommend watching it unless you're only watching for the cast, which in that case, I also advice against it, the first season isn't great but it's far better than the second. I wanted to review this because it was one of my very first Chinese fantasy-based dramas, and my initial ratings back then were really different because of how disappointed I was, but because of the special place it holds in my heart, I rated it a bit higher than it deserves.
Anyway, without any further ado, let's proceed with this review (it's gonna be really really long, you've been warned lol)
Plot/story:
The story is a very cliche story, but despite that, it's not a horrible one. Like don't get me wrong, it's quite bad compared to other shows, but it's still watchable here and there, sometimes even good, but my main issue was the hype around it back then. The plot in itself isn't bad, but the execution was sub-par. The first 20 episodes or so (the mostly good ones) were about the war between the two tribes of ice and fire and how the last two princes of the ice kingdom had to collect items called the ice crystals(?) or something from the tribe leaders of their kingdom's allies to save their kingdom while dealing with the fire princess (and sometimes her brother) who is aiming to get the same artifacts. The second quarter is about the competition between the two ice brothers for the throne (which wasn't a competition really, more of a brother's sacrifice so his brother can gain his freedom cuz his older brother is spineless and careless and isn't really able to shoulder such responsibility tbh) with the slight interference of some side characters here and there and an unnecessary addition of the LIs of the two(?) brothers (honestly it's mostly the older dude but we can include the fire princess.....ig). The third quarter is about the adventures of the current ice king as he tries to revive some characters, but of course, some characters die on the road and they can't be revived again because, reasons apparently. And finally the last quarter is nothing but a very unnecessary love triangle and a fire princess struggling with her identity as she starts questioning her father's (and her tribe's) morals and ways. Of course, another war between the fire and ice tribes begins, and you can probably guess how it ends.
I really tried to emit the major events from this review so you won't be really spoiled if you decide to watch anyways, but honestly, it's really not worth watching after episode 32 or so, and even that is a stretch, unless you like Victoria, Tian Yu, William, and the rest of the cast (which are really good) of course, but the plot is really not worth it. It feels like the script was changed mid production or something, because almost all the good elements of the show started to disappear after around episode 20. Some plot points were left unanswered, other major plot points were completely illogical and made absolutely zero sense and some turns of events had me banging my head against the wall. The storyline still has some redeeming qualities tho, like the relationship (somewhat of a bromance if I may say so myself) between the two siblings (honestly, they should've been lovers instead, not in an incest way ofc, because -spoiler- they're not even slightly related, and they had more chemistry than them with the other characters separately. Don't get me wrong, the chemistry between Victoria and William's characters is good, but in comparison to that of his and Tian Yu's character? The latter takes the cake).
Acting/cast:
I'll be honest here, the acting was the only thing keeping me from wanting to throw my phone away every five minutes. But the characters in themselves are written horribly, especially that of Ka Sou, Lan Shang (hers in the first half) and Li Lou (hers in the second), those three were done so dirty you can't even fathom how sad I am for them, how did they even agree to such script? Also, the characters kept preaching about how Ka Sou is the most powerful person when in reality it's actually Ying Kong Shi, and if you're doubtful about this specific statement just watch them from episode 15 to 39, my guy Shi is the only one with somewhat of a logical thinking and the strengths and aspects of his abilities is revealed in these episodes. Compare his powers and mindset to Ka Sou's and you'll see what I mean.
Prince/king Ka Sou:
Why is he the main character exactly? This guy barely has any good qualities. He cares about his friends and people, he doesn't discriminate (most of the time), he loves his family, and he's loyal, but that's about it, and if you look closely, those are the basics of human decency. For a guy who is supposedly so powerful and righteous, his character strikes me as the most useless in this series. He literally just cries at almost everything.
(¡¡Big spoiler!!)
He also loses his immortal powers in the most disappointing way ever and so early on in the show, and he only regains them back because his younger brother is a way better character than he is.
(¡¡End of spoiler!!)
His thinking is very one dimensional too. he also really doesn't know how and when to set boundaries. Take for example the relationship between him and Lan Shang. He didn't tell her he doesn't like her, cuz god forbid he saves her the heartache and obsession, he just tells her he isn't right for her and all that bs that doesn't necessarily mean a rejection, and he proceeds to be surprised when she insists on pursuing him anyway. He also lets his emotions get the best of him so his role as king of ice is very concerning. And we can't forget his slight attraction to Lan Shang in the last quarter of the show because she started reminding him of his wife Li Lou. So again I ask, why is he the main character? My question remains unanswered. Despite the dislike I have for Ka Sou's character, William Feng did a great job acting wise if we take into consideration how lame his character really is, but I must say, his crying isn't convincing in some scenes lol.
Prince/king Ying Kong Shi/Li Tian Ji:
My precious baby bean, what did they do to you in this series? I liked the complexity of his character especially when Ma Tian Yu took the lead from the other young actor. But despite my liking towards him, his character suffered from a very frustrating transition by the forth quarter. I loved his loyalty and love towards his brother and how smart and agile he is. and I really loved him as the ice king. Him as the sword fairy spirit was ok, but him as Tian Ji was absolutely dreadful. Also, his relationship with the fire princess Yan Da left a bitter taste in my mouth especially considering he's supposedly a teenager and she's a grown woman. Like they legit had him attend to her while she bathed, let her touch him in a very concerning way and actually think it's ok to make her a legit LI in the second season?
Boi- (┛ಠ_ಠ)┛彡┻━┻
Ik technically nothing actually happens between them, but the portrayal of their relationship sucks and the fact that it started off with him when he was barely out of puberty for lack of better wording makes my head spin. But on a more positive note, Ma Tian Yu did a fantastic job and his smiles literally made me DiE.
Li Lou/queen Li Jing:
My girl Victoria did amazing portraying both personas. Although I hated the latter, her as Li Lou was a breath of fresh air in terms of characteristics when it comes to a FL. She was strong, cute, had common sense and was down to earth. She knew she couldn't marry Ka Sou because of the difference in statues (and classifications if you will), she was a mortal with more common sense than the entire immortal race combined. She was also one of Ka Sou's biggest supporters and she didn't lose faith in him despite him losing all his powers. HOWEVER, Li Jing was an absolutely disastrous persona. This girl was very distrustful and was literally a headache for Ka Sou with him trying to please her or save her every five seconds.
(¡¡Another major spoiler!! Lol)
I get that she doesn't remember anything about him or her feelings for him because it's not actually Li Lou's soul in her body but Lan Shang's and that Li Lou's soul was in the other's body, but like, why is she so...UGH. I wanted to scream every time I saw her. She also gets jealous really easily even tho she's the one who pushes him away every time he tries to get closer to her, like, pick a lane lady!
(¡¡End of spoiler!!)
Princess Yan Da:
I really love Zhang Meng, but her character in the first quarter and the second one gave me a headache. Yan Da is a lonely good girl at heart, she was raised in a very cruel tribe, but her father preferred her to her brothers because she was his only daughter ig, so she was a bit of a spoiled brat. Her character was honestly the only one with legit character development, she went from being a ruthless princess with zero common sense to being a good nobel princess, and just when I really started to like her she suffers the most tragic ending. Out of all the characters tho, her costumes and Shi's Costumes (not Tian Ji) were my faves, especially her make up.
The other characters were divided into two categories for me, very likeable and an absolute pain in the butt. I won't go too much into them because I'll spoil even more of the show if I keep talking, but these two categories pretty much cover them perfectly lol. The actors did great with this bad script, it's really sad to see them play some of the most annoying characters tbh. I wanna add that the fighting scenes were bad too, like laughably bad. And the rule of immortals having their souls in their neck or something doesn't apply to everyone apparently.
Music:
The soundtrack was actually very likeable ngl, but it did have some really annoying tracks thrown here and there. The OSTs were really good, especially Li Lou's and Ying Kong Shi's, of course that's personal taste, you might not like them as much as I did.
Production:
Ok, so the rating for this section is divided into two parts:
1) Props and costumes (3.5/5): the wig placement was really bad in some scenes. The outfits and costumes were very detailed and looked really nice, but some of them looked very odd. The weapons weren't great, some of them made me bust a lung too lol.
2) editing/lighting/camera angles (2.9/5): those were a serious issue sometimes, especially the lighting and camera angles, the cgi and effects were kinda funny too but it was still watchable.
Overall the series wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't that good either, it had it's moments here and there and it did make me laugh at some scenes so, can't fault them for that lol, I guess my main issue was how high my expectations were so I suggest you keep yours slightly on the law when it comes to watching it. Would I rewatch it -willingly- again? Nope. Would I rewatch some scenes of it sometimes? Probably, but apart from that, this series is a one time watch. I honestly wouldn't recommend it because some people will find it really draggy and very weird, but if you're free and you need something to pass time, give it a try, who knows, you might like it. And finally sorry to put you through this rollercoaster ride, ik it's a long ass review bit if you read till here props to you, you're a legend lol.
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An interesting story line
At first it seemed like a computer game (and there are games in the story), but I warmed up to the plot and cast later on.The handsome Ka Suo is a prince going through some difficult times, but he's not alone, he's surrounded by friends. Pity they all seem to be terminated by the end of the story - perhaps they'll revive in the sequel? Prince Shi, Ka Suo's younger brother, is an interesting character prone to mischief yet still likable. The Eagle King's lost love is sad, but he's an appealing character, the Chief Healer is lovable, the Fire Princess has a certain quality that the rest of her tribe is lacking, the Mermaid Princess can be annoying, but don't hold it against her.
Loved many of the costumes and many of the wigs and headdresses especially Grandma's.
What I positively hated was the silly evil laughter, but characters in other stories use it so it must be typical of the bad guys.
Most of the beautiful sets are computer generated which is not uncommon for this type of fantasy production and allows for greater flexibility.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to magic anything you need just as they do? And they do it so well ; )
Look forward to the sequel.
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This review may contain spoilers
When this started out I though Wow this is going to be great.It started to get tiring about episode 26. And It began to be painful that the Lead couple could not build a relationship without so many people trying to destroy them.
Prince Ka Suo was terrific. One of the coolest things he has was his sprit Lion and he loses that almost right away. would have loved to see him worked into the continuing story.
The costumes were so so. I get it the white hair of snow nation was very hard to pull off, but you can see the glue and that was kind of sad because the cast in this is great.
I have not seen the spin off to modern era yet so I am hoping that addresses some of the poor ending in this.
For the quality actors, the idea of the story I think this just got lost with maybe too many side stories. I am not sure.
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This review may contain spoilers
I hated this TV show. Although there were some meaningful messages sprinkled in between, this was a poorly planned TV show. There are plenty of loop holes (like LI Luo and the curse), and progressed at a weird speed. In addition, why did the curse between Li Luo and Lan Shang go away out of nowhere? Things that didn't make sense were happening, and i'm guessing it was just to prolong the show.
I had continued watching as I believed the show would get better due to other reviews. I wanted to see more of the brother's relationship. However, all I got was random deaths of characters. The ending was confusing, and I am going to save myself some time from watching the sequel.
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cool
Hundred of years after the war between the Fire Tribe and the Ice Tribe, the second prince of the Fire Tribe is mysteriously killed during his visit to the Ice Tribe for prince Ka Suo's coming-of-age ceremony and the Fire King Huo Yi uses this as an excuse to start a second war between the two tribes.With their family captured, the two Ice Princes Ka Suo and Ying Kong Shi escape to the mortal world and seek help from realm guardian Li Luo, in order to obtain the Six Tribes' Ice Crystals that will save the Ice Tribe.
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This review may contain spoilers
To be honest if had seen only 60/62 episodes I would give this drama 9/10. But I watched whole drama so the rating is as you can see.I have never thought I would be able to watch 62 episodes drama (even 20 episodes are too much to me) but I did it and I do not regret it at all. And I would not mind if this drama had 120 episodes... I would watch it anyway <3
At first, I would recommend this drama only in case you love fantasy. If you are not sure, then give it a try, but please have a patience and do not judge this drama on its first episodes, since later the storyline will get much better (here the first part of the storyline is like the beginning of Game of Thrones ... just introduction to the fantasy world). Also some parts of the story reminds Game of Thrones, so if you like GoT, you might like this too ;).
So what I liked here
- Strong female characters (usually I do not like female characters in Asian dramas but not here) you will fall in love with them. And 3/5 of my most favourite female characters are from this drama (It is true, that I did not watch enough dramas to say this, but I am saying this also after that I saw a lot of western series and films)
- Great male characters (the only one I did not like is Ka Suo)
- Romance (to be honest I am not really into romantic scenes ... yes, I am weird, but here I loved them <3 ) and bromance :)
- It had literally everything (love, fight, war...)
- Great costumes and sceneries
- Music (I downloaded whole OST album) - especially here a great job had been done
- It is fantasy! (and I love fantasy)
But it had some bad points
- Some parts of the story have been too fast (in some episodes it would be better to divide 1 episode into 3 episodes) - the storyline will be more clear
- Sometimes it was a visual crap (but if is not that bad) - I did not mind this one :D
- Some dialogues have been too naive and childish (this one made me angry a lot of times)... Later I realised, that the book was written by a 19 yo person, but even though, the dialogues in the drama could be written much better. (this was the reason why I wanted to give 9,5/10 overall rating... another 0,5 points was because of 1 character :( ... But it is a spoiler, so I will not say anything :)
- The main male character was boring af :(
- The ending!!!! ... I was about to flipping tables and I was screaming on my laptop and I wanted to kill the writer (but that is also the way how to end the drama)
Even though this drama had horrible ending, I still love this drama and there are more positives than negatives :) I am not really into rewatching dramas, but I would love to rewatch some episodes.
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Besides the long drawn out drama, I really enjoyed the set of this movie (all the backdrop stuff) and the costumes. I believe I read online that the costume maker for Lord of the Rings worked on here, so there are very familiar hair pieces and ears.
It's a great fantasy drama, but as mentioned too long.
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It should have been literally a ten episode show
My rating has nothing to do with the older type cgi but rather the editing and the show content itself.If we subtract all the time wasted showing THE SAME slow mo flashbacks and all the pointless episodes where there’s no advancement in the story this would be 20 episodes or less. At first the flashbacks are cute. Then ten episodes in and you’ve seen the same ones 30 times it gets a bit old. Then more episodes in and you just literally see the same one over and over again…
Then there’s the episodes where they’re puzzled at why *a very obvious reason* this and that. Then spend another ten episodes still figuring it out the same obvious reason it gets a bit old.
The format reminds me of those old school power ranger shows or any one them… where there’s one issue after another leading to yet another side question that takes a dozen of episodes to complete. After a piece of the main plot moves one step toward Then oh no we are now missing this! Time to go team.
KA SUO is just a piece of work lol. Sry but just how.. I can’t even least in ice fantasy destiny he does something other than pout
Don’t get me wrong. I did like this drama but spent most of the time skipping scenes and just reading recaps. It does start out at a good pace then somewhere it just goes backwards almost.
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