Ice Fantasy

When the second prince of the fire tribe, Xin Jue (Jiang Chao), was mysteriously killed during his visit to the Ice Tribe for Ka Suo's coming-of-age ceremony, the Fire King Huo Yi (Hu Bing) uses this as an excuse to start a second war between the Fire Tribe and Ice Tribe. With their parents captured and older siblings killed, the two remaining Ice Princes Ka Suo (Feng Shaofeng) and Ying Kong Shi (Ma Tianyu) escape to the mortal world and seek help from realm guardian Li Luo (Victoria Song) to help obtain ice crystals from six tribes in order to restore the Ice Wall, so that the Ice Tribe can be saved.

After the Fire Tribe was defeated with the Deicide Sword, Ka Suo reluctantly battles his brother for the throne, but he wants nothing more than the freedom to be with his lover Li Luo. Ying Kong Shi does everything in his power to take the throne away from Ka Suo, to ensure that Ka Suo has his freedom, while Yan Da (Zhang Meng), the Fire Princess, is willing to give up everything for Shi. Then, Ka Suo's loved ones all die off one by one under the conspiracies of Yuan Ji (Yan Yikuan) and Lian Ji (Kim Hee-sun), and he is determined to find the legendary "veiled lotus". A war between the Ice and Fire Tribe commences again, with Li Tian Jin joining the Fire Tribe to get his revenge on Ka Suo.

Guo Jingming's novel City of Fantasy sold over 1.5 million copies and ranked second in the bestseller's list.^[38] Since City of Fantasy's release in 2003, there have been plenty of early attempts to produce a movie adaption. However, the attempts failed as many felt that the novel's fictional universe was too complicated and massive to condense into a movie.^[39] The idea of a possible drama adaption of City of Fantasy had been formed since November 2014.

During Ice Fantasy's drama press conference held in August 2015, Hong Kong screenwriter Shen Zhining stated that the plot of the drama would have more stories, conflicts and background information compared to its book counterpart. The history of the tribes and their world's creation had been incorporated into the plot. The Fire Tribe's role in the story would also be expanded.^[40][41] On June 10, 2015, the creation of the script and preparations for filming were finished.^[42]

Academy Award-winning set designer Dan Hennah, who designed the sets for Lord of the Rings, was enlisted to design the sets for the production, which were inspired by the buildings, landscapes and other aspects of ancient China as well as western cultures.^[39][42] One particular set, called the "Endless Sea", was reported have an area size of 7,000 square meters, built using 500 tons of artificial snow.^[43] It had also been reported that about 300 million yuan was invested for the drama's production, with 2 million yuan to create the main palace alone.^[43] Furthermore, more than 100 craftsmen were enlisted to make 6,000 props, with many used in large-scale battle scenes.^[44] Around 70 to 80 percent of post-production was centered around the special effects and CGI.^[45] Youhug stated: "This should be an unprecedented investment in a domestic drama, we also hope to achieve good visual effect as much as possible."^[43]

Guo Jingming acts as the artistic and visual director for the production. Other notable players in production include Dong Cheng Guang as art director, A Ju for make-up guidance, Zhong Jiani as costume and prop designer, and Ma Yucheng as choreographer.^[46] The international visual effects company Pixomondo was also enlisted.^[47][48] Additionally, Boston Symphony Orchestra were also engaged to play the instrumental of the drama's background music.^[49] Shi Xiao Xi, the designer of the production's posters, is also a fan of the novel.^[50]

Casting

It was announced that Feng Shaofeng, Victoria Song, Ma Tianyu, and Zhang Meng would play the main characters, Ka Suo, Li Luo, Ying Kong Shi, and Yan Da. Supporting characters were later revealed through character posters that were posted on the drama's official Weibo account.^[46]

This is Feng Shaofeng and Victoria Song's second collaboration, after the Chinese remake of My Best Friend's Wedding.^[51]

The series received low ratings on Douban where it was criticized for its special effects, acting and storyline.^[58] However, it was a commercial success and has over 16 billion views online.^[59]

The drama was released on July 24, 2016 on Hunan Satellite Television Diamond independent broadcast theater,^[64] with 62 episodes.^[65] Its distribution rights were also bought by Viki globally and jointly by the 7 Chinese video-sharing websites: Tencent, iQiyi, Youku, LeTV, Mango TV, Astro (company), Sohu and PPTV.^[66]

• Philippines Airing in GMA 7 Last 2018 oversion
• Ice Fantasy also available in india his Hindi dubbed version on MX Player
• Thailand airing on Channel 7 with Thai dubbed from March 13 to August 15, 2017 at 9:30 a.m.
• Malaysia airing on Astro Quan Jia HD from October 12 to January 26 Monday to Thursday at 9:30pm

Produced by Youhug Media and Tencent Penguin Pictures, the modern sequel series of Ice Fantasy premiered on March 8 on Tencent Video. The series was directed by Zhou Linjao, and written by Shen Zhining and ran for 16 episodes. Primary cast members Feng Shaofeng, Ma Tianyu, Zhang Meng and Madina Memet starred as new versions of their characters, while Zhang Yuqi replaced Victoria Song, who made occasional appearances via stock footage and two surprise cameos. Supporting cast members Xu Ke (Xing Jiu) and Cheng Peipei (Feng Tian) reprised their supporting roles, while Chen Xinyu, Huang Deyi, and Lu Zizhen returned in new roles.^[67]