Delving into the story: hidden mysteries beneath the breathtaking scenery

Produced by Ciwen Media and Yingmei Media and directed by Cai Junfeng, the period fantasy film “Qilin’s Illusory Town” will premiere on iQIYI on January 21, 2021. The story follows Zhou Kun and Li Jiaoran—two sworn-in betrothed partners who are nonetheless ill‑matched—and their unlikely partnership as they join forces to hunt down demons and solve a fantastical mystery.

“Qilin Phantom Town” transcends reality in its visual conception, crafting a dreamlike, enigmatic, and utterly mysterious fantasy world. By blending illusion, suspense, and romance, the film adopts a multifaceted approach to production, swiftly elevating its sense of freshness and ingeniously expanding its creative scope. It strikes a careful balance between narrative depth, suspenseful intrigue, audience appeal, and market demand.

A world of formations, both dreamlike and illusory.

“Qilin Phantom Town” is lovingly crafted by the Zhu brothers, and its genre falls squarely within the realm of suspenseful fantasy. The series’ color grading is anchored in a gray‑blue palette, evoking the texture of film to heighten its suspenseful, tense atmosphere. Depending on the scene, the colorists make repeated adjustments to accentuate the dazzling visual effects.

This film makes extensive use of sound effects, crafting distinctive sonic designs for its fantastical settings, martial arts techniques, and monstrous beasts. Sound offers numerous advantages to the cinematic experience, as auditory landscapes can infinitely expand the boundless possibilities of visual imagery.

For example, the qilin—a mythical creature unique to China—features a sound design that blends and processes the vocalizations of various animals, crafting an imagined auditory identity for the creature and adding significant flair to the film.

By creatively reimagining sound, it has reshaped the traditional perception of cinema, elevating sound to an equally vital component of film design. Sound design in cinema is an artistic process; it is both an inevitable extension of the visual image and a distinct artistic element in its own right.

In the trailer, the floating stone circles, intimate courtyard scenes, and the ethereal northern celestial realm appear and disappear, blurring the line between reality and illusion. In the end, all of these will seem to “veil” your eyes, leaving viewers unable to escape the spell of the visual spectacle. Whether it’s the sound design or the visuals, the film delivers with genuine care, offering audiences a fresh viewing experience across auditory, visual, and sensory dimensions—truly a labor of love.

The series blends the thrilling, larger-than-life rivalries and passions of the martial world with tender, heartfelt romances. Tune in on January 21st on iQIYI and Qiyi TV. We at the editorial team look forward to seeing “Qilin Fantasy Town” deliver a feast for the eyes.