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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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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This review may contain spoilers
I LOVE this show. It is one of my absolute favorite.
This is one of my most favorite Asian dramas out there that i have seen, and I have mostly watched Korean and Japanese drama series.This series of Ice Fantasy is nothing you could ever expect, and so much more than you can imagine.
Parts of the visual effects are more obviously fake, and it takes a little while to adjust to the vibe that it gives .... but after a few episodes, you start to understand, to see it and feel it, in a way that makes sense and feels right. Aside from that. The stories of ancient Ice and Fire tribes, civiliations of Deities, Spirits, Fairies, Mermaids, Dreamweavers/Casters.
This is a magical world that I wish that i could be apart of, though i most likely could not handle the way that LiLuo does.....She is a strong and brave mortal, abandoned at birth and raised by gods.....Quite privileged, if you ask me. And she becomes strong and knowledgeable enough to defend other gods in the spirit real.
KaSuo, an Ice prince and god, and his sudden encounter with LiLuo, being entirely magical straight out of a fairytale.....although the struggles their love would face to overcome, the unbearable hurt, death, loss......they have to find their ways back to each other in seemingly impossible circumstances.
Lets not forget of course, Ying Kong Shi's relationship with Yan Da....I love that it turns out they are not related. Yan Da has such passion for Shi, wanting to heal and pamper him. But he doesn't care...his heart has no room for love...However. Maybe it will. ❤️
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