Ice Fantasy (or Huàn Chéng, or 幻城) is a 2016 series loosely based on the novel City of Fantasy by Guo Jingming. It has a sequel, Ice Fantasy: Destiny, which I haven't watched yet.
I didn't recognise any of the actors, so I won't bother listing them.
The series has sixty-two episodes and dozens of subplots, so attempting to explain them all would be a headache to write and to read. Instead I'll give a basic summary of the main characters, then move on to what I liked or didn't like.
First and foremost, the series is about two brothers. Ka Suo and Ying Kong Shi are both princes of the Ice Tribe, but Ka Suo is the heir to the throne while Ying Kong Shi is the son of a concubine. In spite of this, they're good friends... at first.
Ka Suo
Shi
Trouble starts when Ice Tribe's old enemy, the Fire Tribe, goes to war against the Ice King. Ka Suo and Shi are forced to flee to the mortal realm, and go on a quest to find a magical object that could save the tribe. Along the way they solve the problems of several other tribes, earning the tribe leaders' loyalty, and the whole lot of them return to defeat the Fire King.
The Fire King. Don't let the tiara fool you; he's pretty dangerous.
After the Fire Tribe are sent crawling back to their volcanic lair, Ka Suo's father decides to abdicate and give his throne to either Ka Suo or Shi. And that's when things really go wrong. Shi's mother Lian Ji is determined that her son must be King.
Lian Ji
Ka Suo, meanwhile, has lost his immortal powers and fallen in love with a mortal. It ends... pretty badly. Before long Shi and Ka Suo are at each other's throats, and their friendship is broken apparently beyond repair. Added to this mess is the mysterious black smoke following them around, the Fire Tribe plotting to attack again, and increasing evidence that Shi is not the Ice King's son at all...
But enough about the plot. Now I'll talk about the characters.
Shi is without doubt my favourite character. Not just because he's pretty (I hope I'm not that shallow!) but because he's lonely, unhappy, and doesn't even want to be king. I feel so sorry for him 😢 He reminds me a lot of Loki. They both start out good friends with their brothers, they both have ice powers, they're both manipulative yet tragic anti-villains, and they both discover unpleasant truths about their parentage.
My second-favourite character is definitely Xing Jiu.
Xing Jiu
He's the leader of the Dream Weavers, a tribe that -- guess what -- creates and interprets dreams. At first it looks like he's a villain, but once that's cleared up he turns out to be a pretty decent guy. His interactions with his little sister are adorable, and when she (SPOILER!) turns evil and dies... 😭
Li Luo and Yan Da are tied for being third-favourite.
Li Luo is the mortal woman Ka Suo falls in love with. She's brave, determined, and generally awesome. I was so angry when she apparently died. But luckily it didn't last 😃 Unluckily, the circumstances used to bring her back are... pretty contrived. And require all the characters becoming morons 😒
Yan Da is the daughter of the Fire King. At the start she's a villainous bitch. But slowly she becomes more likeable over the course of the series, while still remaining morally ambiguous at best. I really wish she would stop moping over Shi, though. She should have learnt by now that he doesn't love her and is only manipulating her like he does everyone else.
But enough about characters I like. Now I'd better move on to what I thought of the series' plots.
The Lord of the Rings this is not. To put it bluntly, it's incredibly contrived and silly in parts. The special effects vary between "quite good" and "laughably bad". Normally I hate bizarre plots and episodes in series, but I can enjoy this series while laughing at it. Maybe it's just because I like the fantasy genre.
Instead of one plot it has a series of arcs. Some of these arcs are very good. Others are incredibly dull. It starts out fairly good. Then it deteriorates. The last two arcs are especially bad. So bad I fast-forwarded most of them, in fact. Why did the creators think it was a good idea to turn all the characters into blind idiots? 😠
Then in the last few episodes they started killing off characters like it's the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. (Silmarillion fans will get that reference.) And they ended the series with the deaths of two of my favourite characters. (I won't say which ones.) Grr 😠
Watch this series if you want something that's silly but quite enjoyable -- but don't bother watching the last two arcs.
Is it available online?: Yes, on Viki with English subtitles.
Rating: Starts out 6/10, ends up 2/10.
Li Luo and Yan Da are tied for being third-favourite.
Li Luo
Li Luo is the mortal woman Ka Suo falls in love with. She's brave, determined, and generally awesome. I was so angry when she apparently died. But luckily it didn't last 😃 Unluckily, the circumstances used to bring her back are... pretty contrived. And require all the characters becoming morons 😒
Yan Da
Yan Da is the daughter of the Fire King. At the start she's a villainous bitch. But slowly she becomes more likeable over the course of the series, while still remaining morally ambiguous at best. I really wish she would stop moping over Shi, though. She should have learnt by now that he doesn't love her and is only manipulating her like he does everyone else.
But enough about characters I like. Now I'd better move on to what I thought of the series' plots.
The Lord of the Rings this is not. To put it bluntly, it's incredibly contrived and silly in parts. The special effects vary between "quite good" and "laughably bad". Normally I hate bizarre plots and episodes in series, but I can enjoy this series while laughing at it. Maybe it's just because I like the fantasy genre.
Instead of one plot it has a series of arcs. Some of these arcs are very good. Others are incredibly dull. It starts out fairly good. Then it deteriorates. The last two arcs are especially bad. So bad I fast-forwarded most of them, in fact. Why did the creators think it was a good idea to turn all the characters into blind idiots? 😠
Then in the last few episodes they started killing off characters like it's the Battle of Unnumbered Tears. (Silmarillion fans will get that reference.) And they ended the series with the deaths of two of my favourite characters. (I won't say which ones.) Grr 😠
Watch this series if you want something that's silly but quite enjoyable -- but don't bother watching the last two arcs.
Is it available online?: Yes, on Viki with English subtitles.
Rating: Starts out 6/10, ends up 2/10.
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