It has beautiful scenery, costumes and mis-en-scene. It was so colourful and pretty to watch!
It was also entertaining to see the different tribes (where the lived and what they wore). The sets were fantastic, I loved all of the clans palaces (so well thought-out and designed).
The characters were so loveable! I just wanted them to all be happy ugh. Their entwining story lines were fantastic and sometimes heart breaking. The scores throughout the show were very well written. I personally like Ka Suo and Li Luo's theme.
This show doesn't follow the expectations of the audience and is often quite unpredictable. This is a great quality because after each episode your always left wanting to know what happens next.
I couldn't praise this show enough. It had me hooked from the first episode, and by the last I was wanting more.
I recommend watching this series with an open mind, it can have "tacky" or "cheesy" moments, but if you look past that you'll find a great show with an awesome story.
I cannot wait until season 2!
Was this review helpful to you?
Positive:
First of all I have to say that I never go over 25 episodes per drama, cause I get bored, however I saw the whole 62 episodes. If you love fantasy story lines this drama is for you, cause it has all kinds of fantastic creatures. The music was awesome, how they recreate the costumes is awesome, the guy that created the lord of the rings environmental houses and all is here so everything to the last plate is pretty and the colors of the drama are awesome. I have to say I like the first 45 episodes of the drama a lot..later well...then we go to the negatives.
Many love stories
Many fight scenes! I love fight scenes.
All the cast is amazingly pretty/handsome (shallow I know but very nice to see lol)
Neutral: some people say the effects look very fake, but if you grew up in the eighties like me, u will be just fine, I personally don't care for the effects if the rest is good, so in this aspect I have no good or bad reviews.
Negatives:
How can I say tell you the negatives without spoiling the drama...let me think. I will just say that this:
Don't get too attached to any of the characters or to any love story line. If you are going to watch it just because you wanna see your ships sailing, this is not the drama for you. It has romance, yes , a lot, but again don't get attached to any of them or the "couples".
I think for me is a negative thing that the drama followed the original book so well,because I didn't like the end.
Overall: I have a love-hate feelings about this drama, I love what I said in the positives and my numeric rating is base only in the positives because overall I think is a good drama if you love fantasy, fight scenes, kingdoms, pretty costumes elf looking and very, very pretty characters. But my hate feelings come when what I expected didn't happen and because of the end, that's all I can say without spoiling anything.
Was this review helpful to you?
First things first. Should you or should you NOT watch this drama? Well, it depends. Are you ok with some pretty bad special effects and fake looking props? (Although there were moments they werent that bad) Can you handle a plot that is most of the times not realistic at all? (Ok, I get this is Fantasy, but still).
If not, this is NOT the drama for you.
If you want to watch it for the romance between the main leads, then I will still recommend it, as that was probably the ONLY reason I still watched this drama.
The romance between Ka Suo and Li Luo is pretty sweet and there are a lot of kiss scenes (and some hot ones too), but that is all mixed with a bunch of other ingredients that make the full story and it turns out to be kinda of a weird recipe. This is just my opinion. I believe that there are people out there who fully enjoyed this drama and watched all the episodes without skipping any parts. That was NOT the case for me. If there is one thing I did a lot was skipping. Skipping to what? Well, thats obvious. To the romantic scenes between the main leads.
If like me you are still going to watch this ONLY for the ROMANCE, then I recommend you to watch all the episodes while skipping the parts that you do not find interesting.
The romance starts in episode 3, if I remember correctly. And in almost all of the episodes till the end of episode 37 you will have plenty of romantic scenes. I personally skipped episodes 38-50 and only read the recaps so I wouldn’t completely miss everything that happened meanwhile, like new characters showing up and stuff like that. Why did I not even bother to watch all those episodes? Well, remember I was in this for the romance, and without spoiling it too much, lets say one of the main leads is going to pull a "sleeping beauty" through all of those episodes. If there is no interaction between the main leads in all those episodes and I was in this for the romance, why bother watching? Well, in episode 51 the "sleeping beauty" wakes up. I picked it up there and watched it till the end (since there were only 11 more episodes left anyway).
In the end of the day, if you like Fantasy a lot and can handle all the faults on this show (there were a lot in my opinion) watch everything. It will take a while, since it is 62 episodes but it will be worth. If like me, you only want to watch some sweet romantic scenes between the main leads and ignore all the bad acting and props, and pretty much everything else, then the key word is SKIP.
Was this review helpful to you?
Remember it is fantasy when you watch it, and enjoy!
Also, only annoying character, the mermaid princess. But over time you'll understand.
Was this review helpful to you?
The drama has gorgeous posters and interesting description, with overall wonderful themes to work with (family, the burden of royal duties, betrayal, brotherhood, forbidden love) but I guess the team of directors, writers and producers just weren't ready do right with something of this scale.
In hindsight, it would never become the chinese Game Of Thrones as everyone was expecting. Not that I like Game of Thrones that much (I dropped at the fourth season), but I really think that the hype was the worst thing that could have happened to this drama, because:
1) this is more similar to tolkien than george martin.
2) this is a drama for children/early teens
3) the huge budget spent was most for the CGI (and itsn't good)
4) it has too many episodes for the poor paced plot
Firstly, about the FANTASY aspect: it was difficult to believe in the world they were trying to portray when everything was so fake - from their pointed ears that at some camera angles you could see weren't even glued right (they were slipping!!), the scenery with bad paper-maché, the world that didn't follow its own rules except when it was convenient and the powers that didn't make sense. All in all, they could have worked on the worldbuilding more than the CGI (that failed horribly).
PLOTWISE, the story could have been great but it was just dull and childish. There were many moments when the silence was awkward, or the conversation was dumb, or the character's action almost made me cry (and not for good reasons). The events were poor paced and I had to reread the description over and over again to remember myself why I chose this drama. Their worst mistake was going for so many chapters and bad writers - I dropped at the 20th episode because the writers were still "lost" at that point!
The ACTING, well, as in every fantasy the characters are sterotyped but the director took it a little bit too far. Honestly tho, I can't fault them much because they were clearly following the director's orders, and the script they were given wasn't the best to work with. I think it's worth mentioning that the impression might have been bad because the editing was a whole new level of incompetent (I honestly thought that c-dramas had overcame this).
The OST was good!
All in all, I'm afraid I sound too disappointed but I suppose I wasn't really the audience they were aiming for (I'm 20yo). If you are younger than that, _NEW TO FANTASY_ in general or just don't care too much about... uh, pace... I hope it can be a good drama for you. The main actors, at least, are wonderful eye-candy! And it wasn't all bad, there were moments that really grab your attention.
Was this review helpful to you?
It's visually appealing, to include the male and female characters if that's your thing as well. The sceneries were breathtaking as well. Some negativity about being corny, childish and maybe costumes not good as some wanted but that's being too critical. It's a fantasy drama just ENJOY!
If your hesitant because of the 62 episodes. This is the fastest 62 episode drama I have watched.
HINT: long intros and exits that take up sooo much time. Just skip through those and the episodes felt less than 30 minutes....the episodes were ending quicker than I wanted and I couldn't wait to get to the next one! PURE FUN AND ENJOYMENT GUYS!
Was this review helpful to you?
One of my favourite dramas
I have begun watching Chinese dramas for about 9 months and this is one of my favourite dramas. I chose to watch this drama first because it's poster on Netflix is eye-catching. I was deeply impressed by the main character Ying Kong Shi performed by Ma Tian Yu. He is not only good-looking but also expresses the character's emotion very well. Other casts including supporting roles are also great and beautiful. I like the costumes and OST in this drama as well. The story line is attractive and some scenes are very touching which kept me re-watching. However, the ending is too sad and somehow unreasonable so that I rate the story for 9 point instead of 10 point. In my point of view, the ending can be more reasonable and happier.Was this review helpful to you?
I particularly love Ma Tianyu and his character. He was able to portray it very well.
Awesome OST.
The costumes were excellent as well as the locations.
I am looking forward for the sequel.
Was this review helpful to you?
anyway just dont understand why this one was so popular, it was just an ok drama
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Everything could have been better if the main character wasn't a stoic, cardboard cutout Mary Sue. It reminds me of a nameless protagonist in an interactive story that the viewer is suppose to place themselves into. Ka Suo wasn't impressive and made no sense to the story since nothing he obtained was earned by him through hard work and experience. He wasn't vocal much, which made his lack of expressions harder to interpret. And his presence felt like a paperweight in the supposedly crazy action scenes or emotional moments. Why does his love with Li Luo cause everyone to suffer like the people from the Trojan War? So many causalities for Helen and Paris and just like their love, Ka Suo and Li Luo's was all for nothing. Even Ying Kong Shi's story wasn't finished. It was pure sequel baiting and no real conclusion to the drama's main events other than the Fire Clan losing the war in the end. The only good thing that resulted from this was Ka Suo dying, but now I see there is another drama to continue this story and that disappointed me. 61 episodes and no real motivation to complete this arc before turning it over to a new drama. Maybe it can be a cultural difference but I don't understand how there can be a drama with the main character as the least memorable one. Everyone praised him, supported him and loved him but all I see is nepotism, entitlement and red herrings. Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
An Epic Journey to Save a Kingdom....
ICE FANTASY (Huànchéng) is a great epic fantasy C-drama.Although this story is filled with fantastical realms, characters and creatures, epic storylines, adventure and drama, gorgeous costumes and music, it also revolves around the deep love and loyalty that two brothers share. I find this fact to be very pivotal and moving. Ka Suo and Ying Kong Shi go on an adventure to save the Immortal and Mortal Realms and restore the Ice Tribe. I loved so many characters in this series. They all grow on you and gradually become more complex.
The only reason I'm rating it a little lower is mainly because of some occasional cheesiness (mostly because of the overacting of the Fire King) and because it wasn't the absolute best C-drama series I've watched in my lifetime. It was very good though. No regrets. This series was over all really good, the visuals, costumes and realms were really stunning. I really enjoyed this drama, and so many of the characters, such as Ka Suo, Ying Kong Shi, Li Luo, Yan Da etc. And, an added perk, this series features some really strong female heroines and villains as well. Love. Overall it was a great watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
Right off the bat. This is my first Cdrama. Reason why I watched it was because I would see and read the summary and it would draw my attention and then id see the 62 episodes and it would put me off.But I got sick and said hell ill watch it.
So here is my humble opinion.I came into the series not expecting much and it really got me involved.Lets break it down.The story line it enthrall you, you get to the point where you really feel drawn and curious, you want to know what will happened, yes it has its part where the drama drags a bit over 2 or 3 episodes but it didn't get me bored, yes it has scenes where you see lots of flash backs but its good cause it keeps you on track, you don't loose yourself wondering "wait when did that happened?" Best part it doesn't leave you incomplete all characters come in full circle with their stories.
Effects, yes it has lots but its a fantasy. There are some effects you'll go mmmm that looks bad, or that cape is twisting to weird or those wires where pulled to taunt for it to flow realistic, wow she/he was in water and didn't get wet, or nope she isn't riding a horse.But I think maybe its me.I do pick and grit a lot sometimes and hey I am sick so I was overly focused on it. Apart from that they have beautiful landscapes and really good costuming to the point I keep think Damn I should really get into a cosplay with one of these.
Yes episodes are 62 but trust me you wont notice it, you want to really see the whole thing and even a bit more. Acting well I can't judge I don't know Asian actor's but ill be honest I instantly loved various actor's/actresses for the sold each character quite good. You'll love most and some you'll hate , and a couple you'll find obnoxious but its all part of the plot.
The only thing I might add is girls/women keep a box of tissue/roll of papers cause you'll have water works in various episodes.Just enjoy the series this was pretty refreshing and good. Id definitely would rewatch it.
Hope this helps and sorry if its to long
Was this review helpful to you?
