Hunter2022

THE FINAL FIGURES (in millions of USD):

Scare Out $0.11 (daily) $199.16 (cumulative)
Blades of the Guardians $0.06 (daily) $211.38 (cumulative)

WHERE IT STANDS:

Top 50 movies in China
#50 Pegasus (2019) Box Office $255.8 million USD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(film)

FAILED TO PLACE AMONG TOP 50 IN CHINA!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_China

FAILED TO DEFEAT NOBODY IN CUMULATIVE
Nobody (2025) Box Office $215.3 million USD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_(2025_film)

(P.S: In the past, ie. last year, I provided the source when I quoted the daily box office figures, but the company made their website inaccessible outside China. Now this year, I'm smarter, I don't provide the source, and the company don't know about it, so they unbanned their website outside of China...)

I am simply amazed. Almost 2 weeks later still no subs on this video (part 8):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV4wf-CBHhY

All the previous episodes 1-7 DO have ENG subs, but nah, not this last episode.

This is the one thing I hate about C-ent companies. They're very sloppy when it comes to actually delivering contents onto streaming platforms.

Of course this is the case of BiliBili neglecting to upload ENG sub to this last episode for almost 2 weeks. But then there's also Tencent...

I lost count how many Tencent dramas/donghua episodes broke down through their streaming software because the video was corrupt. It's almost like the workers at Tencent just upload the videos and never bothered to sit down and check whether the video was uploaded correctly or had any errors in them.

(Almost like most of their workforce is tech illiterate. You don't even need to sit down and watch each episode entirely to check for errors. You only need to get the hash value of the video file, which takes like seconds and compare it to the original hashes to spot video corruption errors)

Yeah the only thing that saved Guo Jingming's other works like Ice Fantasy in the past was the nice score/songs/soundtrack.

Rating is out on Douban: 5.3/10 with heavy skew towards lower scores

https://movie.douban.com/subject/36640236/

The last time I watched a Guo Jingming drama was Ice Fantasy. I have to admit, his Legend of Ravaging Dynasties movies were good, but they were forced to be high quality under Tencent's directions.

Ice Fantasy was shiet. They kept tying the ends of capes to strings and pulled on the strings to make the cape flap, it looked like shiet and so awkward on camera. Not to mention, people's faces looked like shiet, either digitally blanched or they wore too much makeup. The script was shiet all over the places with crappy ending. The only thing that saved Ice Fantasy was the score/soundtrack, it was sorta good.

I have collected 24 episodes of Veil of Shadows in 4K 60fps so far and plan to binge watch it soon. I have low expectations after watching the shietfest called Ice Fantasy. But we live in modern times where visual effects have improved, so at least even Guo Jingming dramas can now visually look good. I look forward to the script/story being shiet though...

Mostly negative (<3 stars) reviews on Douban front page for this drama. I never seen so many negative reviews on Page 1!!

You guys need to check out Shrouded Hamlet by iQiyi if you think Sword of Coming S2 donghua is good (the quality of the animation I mean):

https://movie.douban.com/subject/38411029/

It's a mini CGI movie of only 20 minutes long, but it makes shows like SoC S2 look like poo in comparison (talking strictly about the quality of the animation and visuals).

I simply think CloudArt studio destroyed an otherwise very good IP. Actually I haven't been very impressed with most studios contracted by Tencent to animate the IPs they hold. Tencent churns out donghua series like fast food. It's inevitable they will pick a bad contract animation studio for half of their IPs.

Answer from Deepseek:

"Based on publicly available information, the upcoming movie Shrouding the Heavens: The Imperial Path is likely a re-adaptation or a condensed retelling of the original novel’s arc rather than a strictly alternate timeline sequel or spin-off."

I guess alternate timeline was not the right word. Anyways most donghua movies are not meant to be part of the main series, but more like extra stuff you could watch. And if you don't watch it, it doesn't really affect your enjoyment nor understanding of the main series.

but this Donghua is not even magical at all. If you look closer, everything was put together like they just want to do the bare minimum to honor their contract to Tencent to animate their IP/screenplay and not something they poured their hearts into.

Look at the cheesy way they populate the environment with grass blades and could tell right away their work is something like fast food instead of real food...

You mean CGI. The only AI the donghua ever used was to capture the actors motions without those white dots all over their bodies. Everything else was "hand-made/drawn" or physically acted out in real life (but captured into a virtual world by AI cameras).

No, just like the Renegade Immortal movie, it's a spinoff set in an alternate/parallel universe. Remember the kid bro of one of the bad guys? In the series he just got beat up badly by Ye Fan. But in THIS movie Ye Fan actually kills that kid, so it's definitely set in an alternate parallel universe.

Anyways, life is too funny... Soon as Tencent releases SHROUDING the Heavens movie (made by team "Mortal's Journey" aka Original Force studio), iQiyi also releases an animated feature called SHROUDED Hamlet: https://movie.douban.com/subject/38411029/

Lastly, the one thing I like, it sort of ties in with the previous live action movie called Shrouding The Heavens - The Forbidden Zone. The MC of that live action movie is actually the "Void Emperor" (Xu Kong) of the just released 3D CGI movie by team "Mortal's Journey".

Another angle to it is, Tom Cruise is actually a midget actor, but the director will try everything possible to make him seem like a tall man on camera via tricks and gimmicks.

Sword of Coming S2 donghua has the opposite problem, the camera man will try everything possible to make giant sword fairy seem the same height as Chen Pingan... D'oh! It's supposed to be a fantastical world, and a gigantic sword spirit is actually a novelty and should be exhibited/celebrated, not something you'd try to suppress with camera tricks!

OMG, wow ClouddArt animation studio sux. In Ep 12 or 13 of Sword of Coming S2, the sword spirit fairy is much taller and bigger than Chen Pingan, even though her overall figure is actually typical skinny supermodel beauty.

CloudArt simply fails to capture the size difference, ie . Her humongousness on camera. That's how you tell apart the good studios from the second/third rates. For a first rate studio, such scenes as sword fairy standing next to Chen Pingan would have you go, "holy cow she's humongous!"

But nah, if I didn't look closer, I would have thought they were both similar physical heights thnx to bad camera angles, artistic direction etc of CloudArt!

WORD OF ADVICE: DON'T WATCH THE DONGHUA ON A WEEKLY BASIS, UNLESS YOU WANNA SUPPORT BILIBILI!!

Just a friendly suggestion, unless you're looking to support BiliBili with a subscription, you shouldn't be watching such high quality donghua on a weekly basis. It breaks the flow.

Even then, you could just subscribe/keep your subscription active and not watch till the end of the season.

I binged EP1-76, took a break, then 77-124, took another break then 125-176. For me it was the best experience!

So many things become disjointed and confusing when you forgot what happened last week, 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago. Best to keep it all together during binging.

Like I alluded to a few posts below how the OST is mostly borrowed from another work (Renegade Immortal donghua).

I really look forward to the soundtrack/music of S2.

I would be disappointed if it didn't tried to emulate Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES game from the 1990's) sounds.

If you 've watched the donghua, you will know S1 took place on land continent, but S2 will take place on "mini" islands in the ocean. The perfect musical theme for this kind of drama is the kind of music you hear in DKC2 involving water/island exploration and pirates!!

(This tune from Renegade Immortal, which Immortal Ascension S2 will inevitably "borrow" from, with its heavy drums sounds like Lockjaw's Saga from DKC2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEhit8JQHWE)

Go watch the donghua. There are many ppl who prefer the donghua version becoz it's done by the same studio that worked on parts of Nezha 2 (theatrical movie that made 2+ billions USD).

Personally for me 2, the live action is maybe 5-7/10 while I would rate the donghua 12/10!!

Shrouding the Heavens - The Imperial Path (full movie) is now up on YT. There are just too many sources no way Tencent can combat this kind of piracy and take them all down. New ones will just spring up...

I think for a very very long time, this will be the only movie team "Mortal's Journey" will ever produce, although obviously it's a different IP -- Shrouding the Heavens.

I've seen Perfect World, Swallowed Star, Renegade Immortal spin-off movies, None can match team "Mortal's Journey" (aka Original Force Studio) kind of visual quality and camera works.

BTW, I wish the pirate community would re-release the live action Shrouding the Heavens -- The Forbidden Zone movie in 4K. It's up on YT, but very bad quality. That movie was so funny but in a cool way.

btw, they finished airing the 8-episodes BTS special for the donghua as promised. Pretty sure the next EP 177 (or was it 178 as EP 176 had 2 "parts") of the Mortal's Journey donghua will be released soon...

Can watch all 8 episodes of the BTS with ENG subs here:

https://kisskh.at/discussions/35477-a-record-of-a-mortal-s-journey-to-immortality/148302-a-mortal-s-journey-behind-the-scenes-8-part-mini-series-airs-feb-14-2026

speaking of the Donghua...

"WE"RE TOO FRIGGIN' BUSY MAKING THE SHROUDING THE HEAVENS MOVIE, WE NO LONGER HAVE THE TIME TO RELEASE A WEEKLY EPISODE OF MORTAL'S JOURNEY"

May explain why the contract animation studio had been "missing in action" for 8+ weeks.

But hey, this is the same contract studio that made parts of Nezha 2 (grossed 2+ billions USD at the box office). So seeing the Shrouding the Heavens movie just released a few days ago by this same studio, it was worth it to get a pause on Mortal's Journey weekly donghua episode.

Is anyone watching the newly airing Veil of Shadows (I'm gonna collect all episodes in 4K then binge watch them later)?

https://kisskh.at/761731-the-resurrection-painted-skin

From the same production company Youku. Plenty of ppl have complained about the cheap/budget-looking SFX in Immortal Ascension.

I've only previewed a few seconds of action, but it seems like Veil of Shadows is over-the-top (in the best way) in visual effects! The kind of effort you'd wish they had put into Immortal Ascension S1 instead! Maybe Youku trying to make up for not putting enough $$$ into the VFX department for Immortal Ascension S1?

Actually i take it back, ending song may have been sung by a different singer, but he sounds so much like Liu Huan.