City of the Sun (2025)

A Dark, Addictive, Masterpiece-Level Chinese BL

REVIEW UPDATED

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this series might actually surpass Revenged Love as my number one BL of the year.

I love dark, toxic, and manipulative stories. It’s fictional, so I know it’s not real, but it’s thrilling, intense, and way more addictive than the typical “green flag” BL. This series nails it.

If you’re not watching, you’re seriously missing out. Once you start, you won’t be able to stop.

To My Shore is a perfect 10 for me. From the first episode, it grabs you with its atmosphere, intensity, and emotional tension. Yun Qi as Fan Xiao is only twenty-three but carries the screen like a seasoned star. He’s dark, manipulative, a total red flag, and he even hurt himself just to make his lover fall for him. Bold, magnetic, and completely sure of what he wants, he’s terrible in the best way, and that makes the show impossible to resist.

Yi Ran Hao as YouShuLang brings the perfect balance. Their chemistry is dangerous, intimate, and impossible to look away from. YouShuLang’s heartbreak hits you like a punch to the chest and stays with you long after the episode ends. The interrogation scene was breathtaking, full of tension, fear, and chaos, and Fan Xiao’s twisted love felt painfully real.

What makes To My Shore unforgettable isn’t just the plot but the way it makes you feel. The direction is sleek, the pacing tight, and every scene pulls you deeper into their twisted connection. Every moment hits like a masterpiece

And finally, can we give a round of applause to all the actors, the production team, the crew, the staff, and the directors. They literally had to fly from China to Thailand to film this just to avoid censorship from the Chinese government.
I’ve been to Thailand twice and I’m going again in a couple of weeks, and let me tell you, Thailand is extremely hot, even during the cool/dry season. These actors were filming in full suits, in a foreign country, without knowing the Thai language, and still delivered such an incredible performance.

Chinese BL in 2025 is not just entertaining. It is setting a new standard. And To My Shore is absolutely one of its crown jewels.

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A great adaptation of an extraordinary story

I've read the novel several times and have rewatched the series several times, this is how obssessed I am with Fan Xiao, You Shulang and their story.

This is the BL of 2025 for me, no competition. We had two interesting, real, complicated, multilayered main characters who actually got to shine in their own story without any side plots and distractions, great chemistry, good production, tight script, and, as far as I'm concerned, a very good balance between angst and sweet moments, although I still wish they'd adapted the entire main story until chapter 106. My favourite episodes are, after rewatching, everything between 5 and 8, and episodes 10 and 14 for the angst.

Here's my take (aside from being a novel reader) about why I was rooting for You Shulang and Fan Xiao to end up together:

1. You Shulang's character. I think he might be one of my favourite fictional characers, like, ever. He's smart, strong, competent, resilient, has strong principles and fights, despite having had a hard life and being surrounded by people who are basically using him. I never stopped being impressed by him. He's also the only one capable to manage and deal with someone like Fan Xiao and bring him to a point where he wants to change by himself. He accepted Fan Xiao back at the end at his own terms and did not forgive him easily despite never forgetting him.
2. Fan Xiao understood that loving You Shulang means having to let him go, even if it took him a while. It was a slow and painful process, but considering Fan Xiao's upbringing and beliefs, it made sense that he needed time to get it.
3. They were, aside from what happened, a great, compatible, well-matching couple and had that special connection from the beginning nothing could break, not even Fan Xiao's toxicity and madness. I think this gets overlooked sometimes, obviously because of the way Fan Xiao reacted after Shulang left him, but throughout the series, whenever they were shown together during their happy times, they were harmonious in ways I've rarely seen.
4. Last but not least, You Shulang loved the crazy psycho despite everything, because he saw something in him no one else did. It's true that his love didn't save Fan Xiao, but it was the beginning of Fan Xiao to want to save himself and become a better person. Of course, Fan Xiao will always remain obssessive, possessive and manilupative, it's his character, but at least he's doing a conscious effort to be better and Shulang is not blind to his faults.

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