TIFF 2025: The Sun Rises on Us All Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Historically, melodrama has been a quintessential genre of cinema. In its golden days, audiences can cite Douglas Sirk, and his influential films such as ‘All That Heaven Allows’ or ‘Imitations of Life’. His impact influenced European directors to explore the melodramatic filmmaking, such as Pedro Almodovar and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Since then, new voices continue to invoke this sub-genre to tackle such themes as violence, unanswered love, and loss. Meanwhile, new director Cai Shangjun presents his fourth feature, The Sun Rises on Us All, which recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival before joining this year’s festival as part of its centerpiece section.

Here, the Chinese director tells the story of Meiyun (Xin Zhilei), a young woman who owns a clothing store in a major Chinese city. She is the lover of Qifeng (William Feng), a married man with a daughter. However, the day she finds out that she is pregnant, she re-encounters Baoushu (Zhang Songwen), her ex-boyfriend, diagnosed with intestinal cancer after his release from prison. From there, Meiyun’s life becomes chaotic between her pregnancy, making up for Baoushu’s lost time, and her life as a mistress. Hence, Shangjun balances the events that emotionally affect the lead character, the constant guilt of abandoning her ex-lover while he was in jail, and being the lover of a married man. In this sense, the writing displays the dilemma nature of the genre, which positions the impossible love, the romantic trio, and the past as elements of the ongoing suffering of the lead.

The director invests in creating an antagonistic first encounter between Baoushu and Meiyun; he does not want to meet her because he has not forgiven her for abandoning him. Consequently, his first reaction is to avoid interacting with her at all costs, especially at the hospital, when they first meet. In a sense, the health facility serves as a narrative disposal to comprehend that relationship; Baoushu is there to battle death, while Meiyun is welcoming life through her pregnancy. This dichotomy is the most fascinating insight that the director incorporates into this melodramatic scheme. The anguish and pain that he reserves for her abandonment, while she is trying to make up for her acts.

Yet, this dramatic thread gets lost among a bloated film and fails to create an emotional development in its story. Even so, the Volpi Cup winner (the Venice Festival Award for Best Actress), Xin Zhilei, impresses for the dramatic range and corporeal transparency of Meiyun’s pain and regrets. Zhilei is the most efficient aspect of the film, delivering a dream performance for a melodramatic actor, which evokes the anguish, anger, and pain necessary to the story. Unfortunately, her co-stars do not have much to work with in terms of writing, as their characters lack layers to crack a more emotional thread.

Still, at times, particularly due to Xin Zhilei’s outstanding performance, The Sun Rises on Us All is an efficient melodrama, especially in its last moments. However, it lacks the kind of well-structured and developed writing needed to deliver more of an emotional impact.

still courtesy of TIFF

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.