Completed
ooshiafangirl
5 people found this review helpful
Dec 22, 2019
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 5.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
I should have taken the hint with the title…too gruesome for me to enjoy any romantic scenarios. Mostly the disgusting themes in the show are suggested, rather than shown in graphic detail, since this is a Chinese drama after all! But honestly, who can get in the mood for romance when horrors like skin being removed and carved, limbs removed, legs smashed and broken, tortures of all kinds constantly going on. Yick. If you have the stomach for it, the positives are that the show doesn’t suffer the mid show drag, the story line is snappy, and the she Villain is actually quite entertaining and memorable. The cinematography and style drew me in right away. It almost has a classic Hollywood film noir detective feel. Beautiful and well-acted in general. The romantic chemistry between leads is lacking, and feels more brotherly/sisterly, while the chemistry between leading lady and secondary love interest is both powerful and mesmerizing. Fight scenes are well crafted and elegant. However, If I fell down a well and had nothing to do, I still might not re watch Bloody Romance, simply based on the torture themes.

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Ongoing 30/36
Pam Pam
10 people found this review helpful
Sep 2, 2018
30 of 36 episodes seen
Ongoing 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 10
It's a beauty, dark, emotional, fascinating and hight pace in every episode. The way screenplay, costume, every single small detail of the environment is 10+. The acting strikes direct to ones heart just by the way actor/actresses are looking at each other, so natural. This is by far the best Drama i have ever seen, makes all the upcoming cast in ashes in love and dilraba fade in the background.

The story is so interesting and makes me want to read the novel but at 4 chapters I rather choose the drama, Novel was too much S/M and raw for me. However it was totally different from The drama,.

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Completed
JMUR
5 people found this review helpful
Apr 7, 2020
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 4.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 5.5
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 3.5
This review may contain spoilers

Last 2 episodes can be imagined instead of watching the show

It was good until the last 2 episodes in terms of story.... Nice martial arts and ideas and this is what that made me to watch till the end.

Bad Parts:
1. Overall the whole story's strength lost it in the last 2 episodes for me.
Changan can't understand that he is responsible for all the people's lives as the king... However he can totally understand his gf wan mei's wanting to become the leader who is responsible for the people's lives. What a shame in the author's writing..
if this is a true novel, its a shame of such a man.... his years of hardworking ... for a revenge of his family's massacre...
For a man changan. who lost a kingdom and people, he is not worth for anything .. its very foolish of him to leave his peoples lives where he grew up and go after his gf when he is needed the most.
A gf who has no idea on what kind of sacrifice this man has made shows how immature is this tough heroine is...

2. There are many opportunities for the heroine and hero to move away... but the heroine is sticking to the wrong way of life because she thinks she can save people... A lion in the middle of sheep and working as a shadow of a Sheep cannot be better than a Sheep. Its a boring attitude personified for the female lead and the author is not helping women by showing such heroines unfortunately.
If she is so capable, as the story indicates and with the help of Changan the King, they could have moved all the team to another ABC city and created their own Secret Service team and helped the people in reality... Let go the useless city leader and her servant.

3. All the actors have acted well but its quite unbearable to watch the ladies being called Beauties in this show.. Perhaps the Director/Crew needs more financial help..

So, if there are higher reviews, then most of these reviews on story being at 8 or above are given by kids who perhaps expect such loser men and women as Couples. A man who can't bear the responsibility of a leader and running behind a woman will not get anything after a few years of romance... its so boring with such men and the women who expect such a man..... I liked Changan's character except for the last 2 where they made him miserable. And same with Wan Mei - in the last 2 episodes she does not understand how to be the right woman of a man... all she can do is ask her man to make some noodles after he traveled 4 days to help her without sleep... He did not get it .... as to where to draw the line between infatuation vs True love and this heroine becomes an immature high school girl immediately by this aspect alone...
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Other than last 2 episodes, its a brilliant tv show with some extreme tortures modes making one wonder the crude humanity

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Completed
Steel Crown
5 people found this review helpful
Apr 12, 2021
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

A Dark Story that Doesn’t Deliver on Its Promise

Bloody Romance is a fascinating amalgamation of an extremely dark setting and a main character that remains alive by more and more contrived reasons as the story progresses.

Story: This drama has a really strong start with a hidden female assassin village. Its surprisingly realistic concept gives it a chilliness and darkness that is absent from mainstream C-dramas. Most of the characters are mad, twisted by revenge or ambition, or lost in their own world. It’s quite interesting to see how they act, scheme, and fight for their obsessions, even if the script is not always the best. However, after the first ten or so episodes, it becomes clear that the female lead can do no wrong. Her hands have to be forever clean. This takes away the driving force from the story because it becomes clear how each event will end. It’s always the same. Despite that, there’s still a few strong scenes in the middle of the drama, but after that… the story fizzles away. The side characters sometimes attempt to breathe some life into it, but they never succeed. The ending, while dramatic, doesn’t make up for the bad second half. It felt undeserved and even somewhat random.

Romance: If all you want is two characters who are extremely loyal to each other to the point of obsession, then this story will work perfectly fine. But if you want characters with a working brain and some personal agency, then the main characters in Bloody Romance will frustrate you to death. The female lead is just present to experience the story. She either does nothing or obsesses over her love. And when she does make some decisions, it feels more like plot dictating her to do that than anything she would choose for herself. As for the two male leads… One of them is extremely indecisive and causes lots of damage as well as thousands of deaths of uninvolved people while the other falls for the female lead because she’s the female lead. His IQ drops by half the moment she’s involved, and that’s before he even starts to like her. It’s painful to watch how his plans become laughable the moment they involve the female lead.

Overall, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this drama at all. It had fascinating and chilling ideas, but sadly didn’t deliver on most of them because they needed to keep the female lead as white and pure as the day she was born. By the end, I skipped all scenes with her and her chosen guy. If both of them were exchanged for characters with interesting personalities and agency, this drama might have become one of my favorites. Now, however, it’s nothing more than wasted potential.

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Completed
HelenMK
4 people found this review helpful
Oct 19, 2020
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 1
Overall 1.0
Story 1.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 1.0

Was this a horror series?

It is written that someone who enjoys inflicting pain on others is called sadist.
That’s how I would call this writer. Could not sleep at night after that horror ending. I wish there was more written about the ending somewhere on internet so to know, whether to watching it.
If this was a true story, I would not say anything.
But who would write this type of story? My conclusion is, that only person, who enjoys watching other hurt...That’s what the writer actually wanted; to hurt the audience...These type of series should by band.
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Completed
D3adInside
4 people found this review helpful
Nov 11, 2018
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.5
Story 4.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

Mixed Feelings - It depends on whether this gets a second season or not

This review spoils the ending. You have been warned
Disclaimer: If this gets a second season I may have to change my rating to an overall 8.
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As other reviewers already mentioned the scenery, the OST and the cast are amazing.
BUT...
I don't know whether its my high expectations when I first saw the dramas description before it aired or if its something different but the story has left me a little disappointed. The rather long "side" scenes (without ML and or FL) right between interessting main scenes also left a bad taste after some time.

And seriously whats with the ending? Sure it's fine to kill of the ML but are you seriously trying to leave a way for a second season here? Not showing a corpse and that weird hinting with the apricot tree at the end???

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Completed
Aqua Lamb
3 people found this review helpful
Feb 28, 2022
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 3.0

Underrated little gem

Sooo I just finished Bloody Romance and I liked it! It's definitely up there as one of the most underrated cdramas. This drama is about women assassins along with a love interest of the FL. It is also about an FL that has developed from weak to badass.

Acting/Cast: 9.5/10 The acting was really good, everyone delivered their lines naturally. Even the evil laughs sounded natural lol. One little complaint I have, though, is the ML's character. His character doesn't have much to it. He's pretty reserved and doesn't say much. However, the MCs still have really good chemistry! Honestly, all of them have really good chemistry.

I especially loved Li Yi Tong's acting(She's the FL). It was great and I could feel every emotion she portrayed. She totally won me over

Plot/Story: 8.5/10 It was pretty good. Compared to popular dramas like Ashes of Love or Joy of Life, the plot isn't really deep and doesn't have much angst. However, that's is one of the reasons why I liked it. It doesn't drag--at all (unlike Joy of Life and Ashes of Love). Pretty fast-paced and simple compared to them. Also, it only has 36 episodes, so it's pretty short.

The plot itself its pretty good and there are little plot holes here and there, but its not bad. I really enjoyed it.

Of course, one of the main reasons I started this drama was because it's about assassins. I would recommend this to people(like me)who like mysteries, spies, assassins, murder, and stuff like that.

There is a bit of gore and implications that sound disgusting to some people, so if that's something you absolutely cannot stand, probably don't watch it. E.g. Pulling out fingernails as torture, flaying(cutting of skin) as torture. They don't show those, obviously, but they do imply and talk about it. If you can't stomach it, then I don't recommend you to watch it. They do show blood though.

The gore stuff is about the same as Sparrow cdrama. (If you haven't watched it yet, go watch it! It's about spies lol)

The ending: I will say, I kinda spoiled it for myself and knew the ending before watching it, but nonetheless I feel like it was still pretty satisfying. I know, some people didn't like the ending, but I thought it was pretty satisfying and I liked the implication.

As for the development of the characters:

***very minor spoilers but I'm still gonna spoiler tag it anyway***

I know a lot of people also dropped this or didn't like it because of the FL. That's because the synopsis was misleading and people thought she was gonna turn into a cold, evil, badass girl. She isn't cold or mean, but strong and badass by the end. I fell in love with her calmness and composedness when facing enemies and I love that for her!! It's her inside and outside that are really strong.

OST/Soundtrack: 100/10 OH MY GOSH THE SOUNDTRACK IS SO GOOD AND IT EVOKES YOUR EMOTIONS SO MUCH THROUGHOUT THE DRAMA!! I especially love 一生等你 (Waiting for You) sung by Tia Ray. The male version of the song, sung by the ML, is also really good.

Production and Others: I love the costumes. All of them are so cool and especially the ones that the 2nd ML wore. It really fits with the bamboos and green in the background. Looks really good on him too! Production, the sets are incredible and the sceneries are beautiful. CGI actually isn't all that bad, in fact, it's pretty good compared to some cdramas in 2021 lol

Rewatch Value: I normal don't like to rewatch dramas, and this is not an exception.

Overall: I would give 9.5 and I do recommend it to you. I'm a bit hesitant though since it has gore and some gross stuff. Personally, I thought it was fine but other than that, it's pretty good! Great acting, great production, awesome OST, and great story! I loved it.

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Completed
Drama Addict
3 people found this review helpful
Oct 18, 2019
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
The story has a great start but a lousy finish. The story starts with a great deal of mystery and suspense. But the twists in the story and ending were rather poorly developed. As the Chinese saying goes: head of a tiger but tail of a snake.

The scheming good-looking prince was a key attraction to the drama but it ends there. As usual, there is a love triangle but the chemistry between the lead actress and her assistant was quite poor.

How the girl was lured to becoming an assassin and who was behind the assassin cult were interesting. But how her lover turned out to be yet another prince and how he conducted the affairs of a battle were a little lame - almost a case of a lose-lose situation.

If the story was better developed, it could have been a great drama.

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Completed
Becky
5 people found this review helpful
May 21, 2021
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 5
Overall 9.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
This review may contain spoilers

A dark fairytale called Bloody Romance

Bloody Romance is one of the most beautiful wuxia fantasy dramas, and the most controversial. It is a drama which I have enjoyed a lot, but would hesitate to recommend to others. Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen is my favorite fairytale and Judy Budnitz's The Flying Leap is one of my favorite short stories collection. So, if you like these 2 stories/books, you would like Bloody Romance too...

This is a dark, gothic dynastic drama set in an imaginary world, post Wu Zetian-era. The story revolves around our main female protagonist who was sold by her father to a brothel, where they would cut her arm to drain out buckets of blood... It was a belief in those times that drinking virgin's blood can maintain youth and for longevity. SO HERE, let's pause a minute. Human consumption of incompatible blood type would cause blood poisoning. What does this tell us about the drama? That the story is not logical... In order to enjoy this drama, you need to close an eye to logic--

Bloody Romance is essentially a fairytale about a poor and broken female who got into an assassins group and had to kill in order to survive. However, she had a deep sense of morality and justice, instead of killing her targets, she used her smarts and heart to complete her assassination tasks. While her world was full of cruelty and sexual harassment, she kept her innocence and continued shining bright like a candle in the wind (cue Elton John's song). In her fight to survive and not lose her mind, she had the time to fall in love with a man and attracted the attention of another man.... Forget about the poor logic in the script, watch this drama for the beautiful cinematography, the dialogues and mini stories, and ooooh the excellent acting by Li Yitong (Wan Mei) and Wang Dao (Gongzi). The supporting cast performed very well in their roles too, except for Show Qu (Chang An) who is the ML. His inability to emote with his eyes, made his portrayal of Chang An quite flat.

AND THE OST ♥ the music keeps to the heavy and whimsical mood of the drama. I like that both leads sang a song each, and it sounds like music director did not autotune their voices. Especially Li Yitong's song, sounds very raw, which add a sincerity to the drama. All 3 main leads and most of the supporting cast spoke their own lines, not dubbed by voice actors. This makes the watch experience more heartfelt and sincere, easy on the ears too.

The plot revolves around the 3 main leads, the assassins group, political intrigues, and unrequited romances and family relations that were torn apart due to the dark circumstances. The director's vision reminds me of Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, etc Tim Burton's movies. This is a drama worth your time to try out, personally I feel it is better than the more popular cdramas, such as Eternal Love and The Untamed.

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Completed
Crazy about Asian dramas
3 people found this review helpful
Jul 5, 2020
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 6.5
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers

I really don't like the story

Starting of drama is good ,the chemistry between her and prince is also good . As story progress , till end I didn't get she was going to be with whom. Prince character was also good ,I thought at the end she go with him but for her his character turn to be an evil noone got nothing .Not satisfied with the story .I think there should be 2nd season. For me it is an incomplete story.
Atleast they should complete one love story . But I want her more with prince .
I think story would be good if they add some romantic scene.
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Completed
Jatu101
3 people found this review helpful
Dec 11, 2020
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 7.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

I dont want a sequal, I just want one more episode to warp up this misuderstanding.

The drama is a beautiful pain.

The CGI, costume and the casts are beautiful. The torture was too much for health but it was needed to paint a picture of how the characters have to go through such hardship in order to be freed to love each other.

I both hate and love Chang An's character as he left a huge scar for the fans of the drama. He is such a gentle and yet so stubborn that nobody can bend his will.

I love how the plot turned from a girl who is in love to a girl who wants nothing to do with love as the betrayal and the pain of losing the people that you care so much are more potent than her own physical pain.

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Completed
Asuna Cecil
4 people found this review helpful
Jul 15, 2019
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 8.0
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers
So this is my second chinese historical drama after TMOPB, and i kinda liked it. But i loved the acting of chang an, gong zi, wan mei, liu guniang, yue ying, xing feng (spelling might be wrong). Specially chang an and gong zi. I hate the character and acting of cha luo, i min she did good job to look cruel but sometimes her expressions are too overacting.
One thing i hate is Ending!!!! It was sad but after reading peoples comment that chang an is alive its relief, so its neither sad nor happy happy ending.
But but but after watching this drama my eyes definitely need some good light because this drama is so dark unlike TMOPB. That drama has vibrancy, lights and soothing scenes.

I just hate the fact that we international user don't get proper subs to understand the drama,most of the time either its fan sub or no sub at all. And in fan sub there is so much error and sometimes they doesn't even translates what they are saying and what's written so its difficult to understand the story and plot fully. Like in this drama we don't know what is written on the fan wan mei holding but people says it's a hint and metaphore kinda thing which reveals that he is alive.
Apart from this most of the time characters have some witchcraft and spit blood, because why not after all it's "Blood-y" Romance.

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Bloody Romance (2018) poster

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  • Score: 7.9 (scored by 4,481 users)
  • Ranked: #2995
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