# Bloody Romance (媚者无疆)
**Bloody Romance** (媚者无疆) is a 2018 Chinese wuxia (Chinese martial-arts hero genre with knight-errant code) romance web drama produced by Youku, adapted from Ban Ming Ban Mei's (半明半寐) novel of the same name, in which a young woman sold into a brothel survives by joining a city of female assassins and falls in love with the man assigned to train her[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance). It ran for 36 episodes on Youku beginning July 24, 2018, directed by [Yi Jun](https://www.edgepedia.org/yi-jun) with Zhang Wei as producer and Xu Jizhou as supervising director[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance) • [2](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original run | 36 episodes on Youku, from July 24, 2018; filming ran from September 2017 to January 7, 2018 at Hengdian World Studios[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance) |
| Source | Novel of the same title by Ban Ming Ban Mei, who also wrote the screenplay after roughly three years of revision[2](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/) • [3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html) |
| Main cast | Li Yitong as Wan Mei, Qu Chuxiao as Chang An (Xie Huan), Wang Duo as Gong Zi, with Puff Kuo and Jill Hsu (Cha Luo) in supporting roles[2](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/) |
| Setting | The turbulent years between the fall of the Tang dynasty and the Five Dynasties period; the assassin organization Gui Hua City (姽婳城)[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance) • [4](https://hamivideo.hinet.net/product/307420.do?cs=2) |
| Performance | About 2.15 billion views and a Douban score of 7.3 by mid-September 2018; Weibo topic reads above 780 million[5](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0913/c1012-30291653.html) |
| Overseas release | Distributed to 13 countries including Japan, Thailand, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, and the United States, across six regions[5](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0913/c1012-30291653.html) |
| Later rating | Douban 7.0/10 from 76,515 raters as of September 13, 2025[6](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AA%9A%E8%80%85%E6%97%A0%E7%96%86/22120657) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
The story is set in the interregnum after the collapse of the [Tang dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/tang-dynasty), when warlord [Zhu Wen](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhu-wen) has replaced the Tang with his own Liang state and the Jin prince [Li Keyong](https://www.edgepedia.org/li-keyong) refuses to recognize the new regime, keeping the old Tianyou era name[4](https://hamivideo.hinet.net/product/307420.do?cs=2). In this chaos a secret assassination organization moves among the military, the government, and the jianghu, killing officials who squander wealth and treat human life as worthless; legend holds the killers are women who all carry a red paper umbrella[4](https://hamivideo.hinet.net/product/307420.do?cs=2).
The heroine, born Su Qixue, is sold into a brothel by her own father and escapes, then reaches Gui Hua City, where she takes the new name Wan Mei[2](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/). To live in the city she must kill on assignment, and failure means death[2](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/). Each assassin works with a "shadow" who serves as servant and teacher; Wan Mei's shadow is Chang An, and the two build trust and then love as she trains[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance). The city's leader Cha Luo turns against Wan Mei, while Gong Zi, the hidden owner of Gui Hua City, takes an interest in her, and the leads are drawn into escalating betrayals and power struggles[1](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance). The red umbrella that accompanies the heroine through her missions, described by the novelist Ma Boyong as combining allure and bloodlust, became the drama's central aesthetic symbol[7](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2339638.html).
## Adapting an erotic novel
The source novel carried restricted-level content, including violence and sexual seduction, that broadcast rules did not allow on screen[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html) • [8](https://www.sohu.com/a/251924618_141588). Producer Zhang Wei said the team kept a constant "red line" and upgraded the material by replacing the explicit elements with wuxia sentiment and detailed female court intrigue, while keeping the story's core as an assassin's growth narrative[8](https://www.sohu.com/a/251924618_141588).
The adaptation was unusual in that the novelist herself wrote the screenplay. Ban Ming Ban Mei spent about three years revising her own work and participated in all script and copywriting, deleting and rewriting repeatedly[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html) • [8](https://www.sohu.com/a/251924618_141588). Supervising director Xu Jizhou said the author retold her story in another form while keeping the trust and loyalty at its heart[9](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2362210.html). Reviewers noted that after stripping the unsuitable content the drama preserved the original's story logic, the leads' mutual dependence, and its cold, eerie tone, and the hashtag "Bloody Romance is a faithful adaptation" (媚者无疆神还原) trended on Weibo[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html) • [9](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2362210.html). The series structured its plot as missions of roughly three episodes each[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html).
## Production
The drama was a mid-budget production rather than a large-scale one, and its trade press coverage framed it as an example of a smaller show succeeding against heavily promoted summer competitors[9](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2362210.html). The crew combined young staff with established department heads: Xu Jizhou, director of *Psychological Crime: City Light*, supervised; Zhang Wei, a Beijing Film Academy management graduate who had worked on *L.O.R.D.*, produced; Guo Yong, action director on *Journey to the West: The Monkey King 2*, handled martial arts; and Di Kun, art director of the film version of *Love O2O*, designed the sets[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html).
Visually the show departed from the muted "Morandi color" palette then fashionable in Chinese dramas, using high-saturation color to match the story's seductive and cruel elements, and commissioned a pure CG game team to insert ink-wash style [Chinese comics](https://www.edgepedia.org/manhua) between scenes[5](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0913/c1012-30291653.html). It was one of the few web dramas to use a telescopic crane rig, which produced the camera movements behind the graveyard sequence[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html). Production followed a fixed industrial workflow; Zhang Wei said the concept art issued in September 2017 matched the finished show exactly, with almost no delays or out-of-sequence work[3](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html).
## Reception and distribution
Viewing and ratings rose through the run. At the members' finale on August 28, 2018, total views were approaching 1.7 billion, the drama had led Youku's web drama rankings for a month, and it held a Douban score of 7.4, a Weibo score of 9.7, and a Maoyan score of 8.3, all at or near the top of dramas airing in the same window[10](https://k.sina.cn/article_2404810373_8f567e8500100gept.html). By the non-member finale on September 11, views had passed 2.1 billion, averaging over 50 million per episode, with Douban at 7.3 and Weibo topic reads at 770 million[11](https://k.sina.cn/article_5195917556_135b368f400100gqd6.html?from=ent&subch=nauto). A People's Daily Online entertainment report dated September 13, 2018 put views at 2.15 billion, Douban at 7.3, and Weibo topic reads above 780 million[5](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0913/c1012-30291653.html).
Overseas, the drama announced release across Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and the Middle East, airing in 13 countries including Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mauritius, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Turkey, Mexico, and the United States[5](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0913/c1012-30291653.html). It later became available on international platforms including Viki, AsianCrush, and Prime Video[2](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/).
The Douban score settled lower over time: 7.0/10 from 76,515 raters as of September 13, 2025[6](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AA%9A%E8%80%85%E6%97%A0%E7%96%86/22120657). A *Beijing Youth Daily* review quoted in the same entry criticized the drama as a Cinderella-style "Mary Sue" story run on game-like survival rules, in which the characters offer no resistance to hierarchy or fate[6](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AA%9A%E8%80%85%E6%97%A0%E7%96%86/22120657). The same entry records a contrasting professional view crediting the show's mature crew, careful production, and young cast, and its portrayal of a woman seeking freedom and love in desperate circumstances while presenting classical Chinese aesthetics[6](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AA%9A%E8%80%85%E6%97%A0%E7%96%86/22120657).
## Place in the genre
Chinese film-industry commentary groups *Bloody Romance* with *[Listening Snow Tower](https://www.edgepedia.org/listening-snow-tower)* as part of a wave of wuxia dramas adapted from novels with a female gender perspective, while arguing that such productions leaned heavily on the popular "big female lead" concept and showed too much romantic entanglement at the expense of the wuxia worldview and knight-errant ethics[12](https://www.cflac.org.cn/new_ys/wlwy/hd/202101/t20210128_526086.html). Among international viewers the drama has retained a following as a dark, stylized entry of the 2018 season, frequently recommended for its cinematography and soundtrack[13](https://www.soompi.com/article/1236727wpp/female-assassins-forbidden-romance-high-stakes-3-reasons-watch-bloody-romance).
## References
1. [Bloody Romance, DramaWiki](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Bloody_Romance)
2. [Bloody Romance (2018), CPOP HOME](https://www.cpophome.com/bloody-romance-li-yitong-qu-chuxiao/)
3. [《媚者无疆》的创新性试验, 界面新闻 JMedia](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2429333.html)
4. [媚者無疆, HamiVideo](https://hamivideo.hinet.net/product/307420.do?cs=2)
5. [《媚者无疆》收官 带来极致风格化类型片, 人民网](https://ent.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0913/c1012-30291653.html)
6. [媚者无疆（2018年李一桐、屈楚萧主演的古装爱情剧）, 百度百科](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E5%AA%9A%E8%80%85%E6%97%A0%E7%96%86/22120657)
7. [《媚者无疆》《镇魂》等连获原著粉买单，这些IP剧做对了什么？, 界面新闻 JMedia](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2339638.html)
8. [专访制片人张伟：《媚者无疆》，暑期档小成本黑马的养成, 搜狐](https://www.sohu.com/a/251924618_141588)
9. [《媚者无疆》奇袭暑期档，优酷超级剧集的进击攻略, 界面新闻 JMedia](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2362210.html)
10. [《媚者无疆》会员收官众网友脑洞大开, 新浪新闻](https://k.sina.cn/article_2404810373_8f567e8500100gept.html)
11. [马歌《媚者无疆》圆满收官, 新浪新闻](https://k.sina.cn/article_5195917556_135b368f400100gqd6.html?from=ent&subch=nauto)
12. [为国为民精神的荧屏表达——当下武侠剧的创新与困境, 中国文艺网](https://www.cflac.org.cn/new_ys/wlwy/hd/202101/t20210128_526086.html)
13. [Female Assassins, Forbidden Romances, And High Stakes: 3 Reasons To Watch "Bloody Romance", Soompi](https://www.soompi.com/article/1236727wpp/female-assassins-forbidden-romance-high-stakes-3-reasons-watch-bloody-romance)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › Chinese wuxia and martial-arts serials*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license