Private Project

Sun Rises from The East Pole

No one knows why an ordinary girl like Yueyan Zhu would disappear just before her big wedding, while her husband is Zixuan Huang, such a popular young celebrity that all girls dying to marry to.

Instead of helping Zixuan with finding his wife, his agent team hypes up this incident for bringing Zixuan onto the headline. Zixuan was so angry about these titbit about his personal life. All he ever wants to be is a decent musician that people take seriously with, but not this type of entertainer his mother designed him to be for money.

As Yueyan and Zixuan has legally registered their marriage long before the wedding, ignoring Zixuan’s mother— Mrs. Huang’s disapproval, Mrs. Huang hires Lawyer Chow to legally divorce them for the protection of their family wealth. But without Zixuan’s approval, they cannot even sue Yueyan for divorce. Lawyer Chow can only start with investigation on Zixuan and Yueyan’s relationship.

Yueyan was Zixuan’s choreographer. Not like anyone else, Yueyan didn’t show any intention of using Zixuan, so she was the only person that Zixuan trust for true love.

Zixuan wants to prove the true love between him and Yueyan so he let Lawyer Chow help with finding her. They discover that Yueyan is dancing in a nightclub in the East Pole Island for money to pay for her best friend Leju's medical cost who just had a bad accident. The romantic dispute between the three and the rumors leads to the divorce.
Ever since Yueyan signed the divorcing paper, Zixuan starts to learn how to love others, it starts with understanding.

Yueyan tries to commit suicide with Leju, but saved by Lawyer Chow. In this worst case each of them learned something important to themselves, Zixuan writes a song with Leju's poem, they in the end get married together under the sunrise of the East Pole.

  • Phoenix Dong
    Director
  • Phoenix Dong
    Writer
  • Phoenix Dong
    Producer
  • Momo Chang
    Key Cast
    "Yueyan Zhu"
  • Leon Wei
    Key Cast
    "Leju Zhang"
  • Crody
    Key Cast
    "Zixuan Huang"
  • Sun Pan
    Key Cast
    "Lawyer Chou"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    东极日出
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Romance, Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 33 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 12, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    3,000,000 CNY
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Jaipur International Film Festival
    Jaipur, Rajasthan
    India
    January 21, 2020
    India premiere
    Best Director Award (Golden Camel) / Closing Film
Director Biography - Phoenix Dong

Phoenix Dong is a multiple artist involving in writing, directing, design, music writing, singing and painting.

Graduated from Bournemouth Arts University Film Production BA(Hons) course in 2013.

Made the animation short 'The Wedding', won China Image Film Festival in London 2009.

Art directed 'Huafeihua Wufeiwu' TV drama series in 2012.

Production designed 'Take me to the front', selected and nominated in Nashville, Athens, East End, Encounters, Rain Dance and New York shorts festival in 2014.

Art directed ‘Ban Bu Tian Ya' TV drama series in 2013.

Wrote and released the original music album “Why Not” in Taiwan in 2016

Painting “No Border” selected and exhibited in “Witness 100” 2018

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This story is adapted from a true divorcing case Lawyer Chow handled, Lawyer Chow is a true person in reality. As the script writer, director, and a 29-year-old single mother, I feel the urgent need of telling this story.

China is facing a magnificent marriage rate dropping these years, specially in developed cities, while divorcing rate is in a big raise. So what is the problem with marriage? The discussion is carried out through this film.

It’s forbidden to fall in love from elementary schools till high school in China, so only after you entering university, you don’t have to feel guilty with love. This ill educational system causes the ill state of society. Most Chinese lost the natural gift of loving someone, as there’s not inspiration about how to love but only the theory on “wrong to love”, true love is never a good goal for life in our culture. Zixuan Huang is such a young adult, want to trust and love someone through the human nature, but misguided by others’ opinion.

On the other hand, the society always has their way to criticize the freedom of love. So issue like Yueyan Zhu and Leju Zhang can only gain bad reputation among society, no one would bless such nature love. People try to judge and define relationship between man and woman, pure love is never taken seriously. Marriage is a business deal that family wealths and social status is the first thing to consider about.

China is facing big problem if we still do not take love seriously, the outcome is producing more and more ill people like Mrs. Huang, cold blood business men and women, do not trust, do not love, only desire wealths. She was probably not born like this, almost every woman wants to get true love, but if this need is never satisfied, then it goes to the opposite. Such as myself, I trusted many men for true love, but discovered very said truth.

I want to tell this story, just to raise my opinion on how I expect the society to change, about love.