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.
I love the idea of a modern-day girl returning to ancient china, surviving on her wits…but I don’t think it was scripted as well as in “The Eternal Love I and II”. Zhong Dan Ni is a confident and charming actress who plays the lead character of Ye JiaYao with the perfect amount of spunk and wit. Even more charming was her costar, newcomer Bie Thassapak, in the male lead of Xia Chun Yu. His smile is infectious, and plays this sword wielding martial arts expert as a transparent and sincere nice guy, without a lot of complications. The cooking aspect of this show did not disappoint. I found the scenes fascinating when recipes and techniques were depicted for these creative and fascinating dishes that JiaYao comes up with (mostly in the second half of the series). The romantic chemistry is good between the two stars. The lead female costumes are hideous…. under the premise that she makes her own clothes (seriously?? Suddenly she can sew faster than a speeding bullet in ancient china, with no modern materials or tools?) and her attire is sometimes showing more skin than I would dare to walk around in public, unless it was a night club. In ancient china it’s accepted. Oh, hell no! I found them to be very unattractive and unflattering as well. They did add to the quirkiness of JiaYao’s personality, I suppose it was to remind us that she is from the modern world. *semi spoiler* Strangely the writers got bored with their story line halfway through this series, and either killed off, or conveniently got rid of the entire cast except the mains. They relocated them, separated them, and started over. Huh???? It was absurdly abrupt. *end semi spoiler* The re-booted plot line and location were actually more appealing to me than the first half, however the romantic trajectory fell to pieces and was just about nonexistent until the last third of the show. Second half would be a good time to start skipping through episodes, as too much filler here, and not enough original things going on. It picks up in the last third. Be prepared for the ending of the story to not match the beginning premise exactly. Other stand outs: Chen You Wei as secondary love interest, and Zhang Yi Cong as Ding Qi, also a secondary love interest. To summarize: Leads chemistry: good. Hero’s superpower: Good Fighter, loyal, handsome, nice smile. Heroine’s superpower- Excellent cooking skills, business skills, innovative and spunky. Music: Ending theme song is a catchy and modern upbeat tune, along with cute cut out animations of the characters. It’s infectious.
