Review: The Demon Hunter’s Romance (2025) 无忧渡
Summary: As a young girl, Duan Ban Xia ft Song Zu’Er was abducted and brought to a mysterious place. From then on, she had the ability to see strange things that terrified her family and was sent away to live in safety. As a young woman, she returns to her hometown only to realize that what she can see are actually demons. She meets a demon catcher, Jiu Xuan Ye ft Ren Jia Lun, who is adept and catching demons and realizing that he might be able to help her find her father who recently went missing at the hands of a demon, decides to find Jiu Xuan Ye in a neighboring city. Together, they become embroiled in several mysteries surrounding demons as they grow closer. But mysteries around their past and Xuan Ye’s true identity add to the challenges of this story.
Platform: iQiYi
Episodes: 36
Airing Date: April 12， 2025
Final Rating 7/10 – The surprise airing of this show was met with decent praise. The unique storylines of different demons or 妖 are the most intriguing part of the show. The friendship chemistry between Song Zu’Er and Ren Jia Lun work better than the romance but decent enough to move the story along.
Jiu Xuan Ye 久宣夜 Ren Jia Lun 任嘉伦
Demon catcher with an empathetic heart
Duan Ban Xia 段半夏 Song Zu Er 宋祖儿
Young woman with the ability to see demons
chu you huang 楚幽篁 xuan yan 宣言
Detective
si ma ling ying 司马令赢 fan shuai qi 范帅琦
Higher ranking detective to Chu You Huang
Overall Thoughts
This drama was filmed several years ago and Ren Jia Lun at the time had high hopes for this show. But then this drama went into limbo because the main female lead Song Zu Er was soft blacklisted by the government for issues with tax evasion. She’s been out of the public eye for some time and it was unclear whether her dramas would ever air. Hence, it was quite the welcome surprise that The Demon Hunter’s Romance DID drop.
The drama actually did alright. Douban ratings initially had it at 7.3 and it reached a peak of 9800 for iQiyi’s popularity index. This makes it one of the best performing dramas YTD. And this is all with very little marketing.
The drama’s strength really are it’s rather unique storylines with different demons. The main cast encounters different demons with different backstories and motivations but then these demons are entwined in the life stories of the main characters, Ban Xia and Xuan Ye. I liked that the romance of the main leads was relatively in the back seat for the first portion of the show so that the we can be better immersed in the show. Though this drama is once again on the topic of humans vs demons, it adds enough twist and nuance to be interesting.
What I Liked
- Unique demons: This drama is split into different storylines that feature different types of demons. Some are more nefarious than others and there’s certainly some hair raising or goosebump inducing storylines. But, these demons are a welcome twist to some of the usual “demon clan” stories we’ve been watching. There’s a mirror demon, a cat demon, a snake type demon to name a few. They use their skills in different ways that help or harm the populace. This drama shines because of them, moreso than the main cast. I highly enjoyed when the group entered into a painting, That brought about quite a few laughs.
- Nuanced view of demons: From the get go, the drama emphasizes that not all demons are bad. Some are absolutely harmless and just want to survive in the human realm. That is a welcome surprise from many dramas where demon = bad. Jiu Xuan Ye is very clear in knowing that even though he suffered at the hands of demons, he cannot have a singular and negative view of them. He only steps in when the demon has exhibited harmful behavior to humans. Otherwise, he just lets them be. This is a rather inclusive view that can be applied to our daily lives.
- Song Zu Er as female lead: I actually thought she did quite well as the female lead. She was at least relatively natural in the role. She enunciated well and was captivating enough on screen. This is important because her character of Ban Xia isn’t that interesting. Sent away at a young age, she didn’t learn many skills so she was often times useless in many of the scenes. To be honest, if anyone else played her, not Song Zu Er, I could see the main female lead being ridiculed.
- Supporting Characters: The smartest decision of this drama is to make the main couple not be the center of attention for the entirety of the drama. There were enough side characters throughout show, in addition to the various demon storylines, that helped balance out the cast and to help with world building. That added a lot more depth to the show beyond the conflict that Ban Xia was trying to solve.
What's Didn't Work
- Pacing: The individual story lines did drag on for a couple of them. I think 3-4 episodes per storyline would’ve worked better than the 6 or so episodes because often times the extra bloat was the romance lines between Ban Xia and Xuan Ye. While they worked modestly as a couple, it certainly slowed down the pace and I was more interested in the demons.
- Romance: There is a 10 year age gap between Ren Jia Lun and Song Zu Er. For other dramas, this age gap exists but perhaps because Song Zu Er looks younger, I couldn’t really ship this romance. I definitely liked the 2 on screen together but they worked better as friends solving mysteries than romantic partners. I felt like the ending was actually quite satisfactory and although there is a melancholy feeling, I was not nearly as emotional as some other drama endings.
- Ren Jia Lun’s real voice: I’ve critiqued this in the past and while his enunciation has improved, it still pales in comparison to how his co-stars sound. Literally the rest of the main cast (Song Zu’Er, Xuan Yan and Fan Shuai Qi) all use their own voice for this show and they all sound much clearer when speaking. I know it’s challenging to change how one speaks but it does sound like he has cotton mouth when he speaks. Ren Jia Lun has opted to use voice dubs in other recent dramas so maybe he will stick to that in the future.