Another novel-to-drama adaptation. The novel, Ice Fantasy, is written by Guo Jing Ming. The name was so familiar to me so I googled him and it turned out he’s not a new face at all. Lol. He’s the small-framed screenwriter and director of the Tiny Times franchise, who’s also accompanied Yang Mi on various red carpets. Apparently, Kris Wu’s name was attached to this project two years ago and now the production company, Shanghai Youhug Media (Prince of Lan Ling, Divorce Lawyers, and Lady and the Liar), has confirmed the leads in William Feng and Victoria Song. Funny enough, the two are currently filming My Best Friend’s Wedding, a movie with Shu Qi, which I wrote about in batch 15 of Cnews. I’m happy to have William back to the small screen but Victoria’s name didn’t stir the same excitement in me. But I’ll remain positive since the story is quite appealing.
Thanks to Kris Wu’s adoring fans at Fiery Dragon Breath, I read five chapters of Ice Fantasy in one sitting.
Briefly, the story is about the Empire of Snow (Ice Tribe) and the battle between the two brothers for the throne. I didn’t get to the “battle” part yet. The first five chapters introduce us to the characters, their temperaments, and the story. After a fatal war with the Fire Tribe, only older Bro, Ka Suo, and younger brother, Ying Kong Shi, survive among the siblings. To hide the last blood of the Ice Tribe, the brothers are sent to the mortal realm for 30 years. There, Ka Suo continues to practice his power on a smaller scale. As an illusionist, he is able to create ice sculptures out of water and sell them to make a living.
The day they return to their kingdom, Ka Suo meets the first woman he loves – Li Luo, she’s a top sorceress of her generation. He asks for her hand in marriage but his royal father refuses to bless him because as future King of the Snow Tribe, his queen has to be a pure blood, and only mermaids of the Sea Palace are qualified to marry into the Royal Family. Without a leaving a trace behind, the top sorceress disappears, believed to have been buried under the ice bed deep in the Empire of Snow.
But what Royal father doesn’t know is…his older son does not want to become King. His younger brother, whose innocent smile bears an wickedness that can’t be described, desires the throne instead. In their world, power is measured through the length of their silver/white hair, and little bro repeatedly announces that he’s the better candidate for King because his power/hair has surpassed that of his older brother’s. When the astrologers try to read into Shi’s future, all of them have died, with the exception of one (Xing Jiu).
Soon, Ka Suo meets a mermaid princess who has fallen in love with him during the years he was exiled to the mortal realm. He can become King if they marry but Shi voices his attraction to her as well and soon after, she’s found dead in her original form. Legends say that mermaids transform back to their fish form if they were humiliated in any way.
(This is the part where I find younger brother Shi to be a quite the psychopath. Anyone who opposes him dies.)
When Ka Suo confronts and confirms every evil deed that his brother has done, he stabs him, ending Shi’s life. What we learn a little later is the deep brotherly bond between the two. Shi wants to become King because he wants to give Ka Suo the freedom he has always coveted. Older Brother wants to live in seclusion, he wants the freedom to love and live and Shi wants nothing more than to fulfill that dream. He kills, he rapes, he destroys every living thing blocking his path to free his brother.
There’s also the story of past life where Ka Suo was a prisoner chained to a rock for performing a taboo magic. He spent his days alone, with the company of a snow bird hanging on his shoulder. He told the bird that in his next life, he wanted to be Prince of the Snow Empire, believing that with great power, he could grant himself freedom. Once the snow bird knew of his wish, it ascended into the air and continuously smashed its body against the rock, letting its bright red blood stain the chains and eventually breaking them and freeing the prisoner. What a tragic story.
My opinion: I think this is the case where the drama adaptation might bring this book to life. It’s a creative story that can be built upon in motion because the writing of the original novel lacks depth and is written in a very juvenile way (understandable since he wrote the novel when he was younger). It’s straightforward action without giving time to the consequences of actions and leaving me feeling emotional hollow because the pace never stops to breathe, never allowing its characters to linger in the moments.
In charge of editing the source material for the drama script is Shen Zi Ning (Hidden Intention, Schemes of a Beauty, Beauty Without Tears). Directing the fantasy piece is Ju Jue Liang (Patriot Yue Fei, The Stand-In). Hollywood art director, Dan Hennah (The Hobbit), will also lend help as the art director of Ice Fantasy.
Source: 01
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
LOL I only know of Guo Jingming cuz he’s a notorious plagiarist… (-_-);
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
I don’t read enough Chinese novels to know who plagiarizes who but that’s not a good thing to be associated with for sure. Did people not see the drama between Yumama and Tong Hua? Lol.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Guo Jingming and Tang 7 (author of Huaxuyin and Three Lives series) are notorious plagiarists, but unfortunately plagiarism doesn’t affect their sales because mainland doesn’t take plagiarism all that seriously. This is why Guo Jingming and Tang 7’s novels are so badly written, because they just copy bits and pieces from here and there and slap them together with shoddy writing and then pass it off as their own work.
The drama between Yumama and Tong Hua and Yumama and Chiung Yao are also notorious. Chiung Yao has some clout in the industry and big name stars like Zhao Wei and Ruby Lin also showed their support for Chiung Yao and the court ruled in Chiung Yao’s favor, which was why one of the Gong sequels was pulled off air.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
The word plagiarism is like Yumama’s middle name, it’s crazy how he can just go about in editing more scripts at this point~~
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
OMG. He’s Guo Jing Ming? Like you, I didn’t put a name to a face at all! Who knew he was behind the pretty but not lacking substance Tiny Times franchise! So he’s a young adult writer… lol…no wonder his novels are driven by hormones. I heard this novel is quite popular but the story could use some serious editing. AGREED.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Yea, when I hear of novels, I automatically think the writers are old but it’s quite the contrary.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
I love William Feng. He was AMAZING in LLW. 🙂
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Lol. I was on a different camp in LLW. ;D
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Was it the Zhou camp by any chance? Coz if it was, I was there too. :))) Too bad our ship was not to be … 😀
Now seriously, I actually like William Feng. Good looking, competent actor, usually stays away from risky career choices but delivers when necessary. Which, however, makes him kind of bland …
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Isn’t bland good? He is a good old actor walking away from limelight unless necessary.
I assume that you all are in different camp because of that witch and LLW’s dumbness in the middle? I would have changed camp if it was other actor instead FSF. XD
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Oh yes nell123, it was the Zhou Camp! Lol. The last scene of him turning his back on his officials after learning that she died… 🙁
Mini, yes that witch and LLW tried my patience! XD But she really didn’t deserve her ending though, that was brutal.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
MINI, I was referring to his acting choices, not his personality. While it’s true that I haven’t seen all of his work, from what I have seen his characters never left a lasting impression. Now, this could be considered good because there was never a “OMG, that was sooo annoying/cringe worthy/etc.” moment but there also weren’t any amazing moments. And I agree with you, if it was someone less likeable, I wouldn’t watch LLW either.
I was in the Zhou camp because Daniel’s expressive eyes burned a hole in my soul from the moment he first appeared on screen. :))) His chemistry with our Heavenly Maiden was also spot on. While it’s true that I wanted to skewer the Witch and her royal husband with my bobby pins and let them die slowly from blood loss (yes, I have seriously thought about painful ways to kill them) they weren’t the reason I didn’t ship the OTP.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
The scriptwriter and various entertainment weibos confirmed that the plot will be changed. The original novel is more about the two brothers, but they said for more general audience satisfaction, they’ll twist the plot around male and female lead. I read they’ll start filming in September, so it will be back-to-back filming for these two. I read the interview of production company representative and she said they’ll spend a lot of money on special effects. Since they also brought Oscar winning art director on their team, I am actually really excited for this drama.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Yep. I read the same thing. I understand that they need to edit the love story because it’s seriously lacking in the novel. No connection. But I’m quite disappointed that they would change the focus away from the brothers, since it’s quite a tragic bromance. I’m curious to see who they cast as the younger brother. He’s crazy and should give the actor some challenge! I saw people mentioning Ma Tian Yu and that could work.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Kris Wu was rumored for the movie version which Guo Jingming will direct. Not the drama.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
rumor? that kid is rumored in everything huh? what kind of power his agency be having! lols
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Well, he is pretty sought after by producers right now from what I’ve heard and Guo Jingming did mention that he wants to invite Kris for Ice Fantasy (the movie) and that he has no connection with the drama version.
Kris also mentioned it on Weibo when he and Guo Jingming were joking around so there’s some merit to the rumor. (And Kris is currently filming Guo Jingming’s new movie, LORD, along with Fan Bingbing, Yang Mi, William Chan, Aarif Lee, Amber Kuo and others and he recorded a song and MV for the Tiny Times OST so it’s not entirely impossible for them to collaborate again).
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
I like Victoria and hope that her acting improves. She finished filming with Peter Ho recently for Beautiful Secret as well. She’s starting to focus her Chinese activities more now, she should have done that earlier. She definitely has quite a huge following in China. She’s natural beauty and if her acting improves, it will be an eye-candy to watch indeed. I like Feng Shao Feng.
Guo JingMing is really getting his name out there ever since Tiny Times franchise hits. He does have quite a few plagiarism controversies. I wasn’t expecting much when I started watching Tiny Times but the directing is quite pretty and it’s full of fluff for young people romance and a mix of college and work for mostly high society. So no wonder younger audiences enjoy it.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Well she needs to be involved in more acting projects and film more then. Looks like she is starting to do so.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
I like feng shao feng….but victoria…rrrrrr..
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Because she is a female? lol fan girls… they are cancer… rrrrrrrrrr…
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Can you, the OP, write about something without showing your inner “fan girlness” in your post?
Apparently you were a kpop FAN GIRL before. Looks like you still remain so subconsciously. It’s annoying. Wherever you go to read something, you always witness either an author being “I hate that bitch, why is she being close to my oppa?” kind of female hormone or some teenage/early-20 fan girls commenting same thing.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Aww man, why did I wake up to this on a Sunday morning. I usually don’t reply to negative comments, but this one is full-on false accusations.
Can I ask what is so “Fangirlness” in my post? When did I ever imply “I hate that bitch, why is she being close to my oppa?”?
My kpop days were over the moment DBSK split. That was more than five years ago, so I’m not sure why you’re handing out that title. Moreover, there are crazy fangirls and sane fangirls, same thing goes for the fanboys. Stop lumping us together and calling us “cancer”. That was rude.
Oh you were/are a sone (SNSD fan) and Taeyeon fan girl. Well that explains everything. Scones, they say. meh
How “classy” of you to add this statement. Was it necessary? Do you feel good shaming SNSD fans? This blog is run by many people – some are indeed SNSD fans, some are not. I, for one, am not. If you were trying to provoke a fan war, you won’t get one, we know better. Why are you even reading this blog if it’s “annoying” to you? If you can’t carry a conversation respectfully, the exit is at the top-right corner of the screen. No thanks for your rudeness.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Oh you were/are a sone (SNSD fan) and Taeyeon fan girl. Well that explains everything. Scones, they say. meh
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
LOL!!! crazy fangirl alert everyone!!
my 1st question: where in the post did the OP say she HATE victoria? are you new here? it’s her acting we have been saying that needs to be improved.
2nd: feng shao feng is not even korean, so why OPPA? who calls him that in here? only YOU SO FAR.
this is a blog of opinions, they will be different than that of “mighty” yours. everyone is a fangirl or fanboy of something/someone, don’t judge us all in one statement. BECAUSE YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY A VICTORIA’S FANGIRL TOO.
jeez. you’re so butthurt right now, it’s amusing. move on.
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
1. Where did I say she hates Victoria? I REPEAT. Where did I say she hates Victoria?
2. I have that saggy thing between my legs so I don’t really think I am a fangirl.
3. Who are you? lol Another fan girl?
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Why are you getting so defensive so quickly? Calm down, hon LOL
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Oh well, there’s always a crazy one popping up out of nowhere *sigh*
29 thoughts on “Drama adaptation of Ice Fantasy confirms William Feng and Victoria Song as leads”
Why get defensive? Was it even necessary to respond to my comments in that manner? Unless you take my comment too seriously, and care about my opinion very much? LOL Fangirls…XD